Birth & early life
Enlistment
Service, discharge & pension
Medals & commemorations
Death & burial
1516 John BROOKS.
Born in Ratcliff, London (formerly a parish in the Borough of Stepney, but now in Limehouse) on the 28th of February 1823, his real name being John Withers.
Enlisted into the 3rd Light Dragoons at London on the 24th of June 1842.
Age: 19 years 3 months..
Height: 5’ 6”.
Trade: Labourer.
Sallow complexion. Hazel eyes. Dk. brown hair.
Embarked for India on the 16th of June 1843. Shown as “proceeding to join” in the January-February musters and “in Hospital” for April 1844, so he must have joined the regiment some time in March.
Transferred to the 13th Light Dragoons on the 1st of July 1853.
Wounded in action at Balaclava, his horse being blown to pieces by a shell.
Sent to Scutari on the 26th of October and rejoined the regiment on the 14th of December 1854.
From Private to Corporal 21st of July 1855.
At Scutari General Hospital again from the 26th of July and invalided to England on the 21of August 1855.
Discharged from Cahir on the 6th of November 1856, at “Own request after 14 years service, and being eligible for a deferred pension of 4d. per day upon reaching the age of 50 years”.
Served 14 years 5 months. In Turkey and the Crimea, 2 years. India, 9 years 11 months..
Conduct and character, “have been very good.” In possession of two G.C. badges.
Entitled to the Sutlej medal with clasps for Ferozeshuhur, Moodkee and Sobraon. Was wounded at Ferozeshuhur on the 21st of December 1845.
His documents show;- Entitled to the Sutlej for Moodkee medal with clasps for Ferozeshuhur and Sobraon, Crimean medal with clasps for A,B, and S. and the Turkish medal. Written in pencil is - Says he also has the Punjab medal with clasps for Chilianwala and Goojerat.
No trace on the Punjab medal roll but he is shown on the muster rolls as being with the Regiment during the period of the Punjab campaign (September 1848-February 1849) but at the Landour Depot in March of 1849.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.:
“Deferred pension” granted from the 24th of March 1873. He was then living at No. 36 Effra Parade, Water Lane, Brixton, London. (His documents state;- Man attended and identified. Small book and Discharge Certificate returned to man. 3/3/73.)
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Attended the Annual Dinners in 1890-92-95-97-1906 and 1908.
He appears in a photograph taken especially for the fifty-second anniversary of the Charge. (See copy in the 13th Hussar file.) In this he is wearing four medals, one of which could be that for the Punjab, of which no record can be found.
Died on the 2nd of March 1911. (Reported death.)
Further information
The 1881 Census Returns show him as John Withers, a Foreman to a Coal Merchant, aged 57, born in Stepney, London, with hs eife, Emma, aged 43, born in Lambeth, Surrey, and six children, three boys and threee girls, the eldest son at 21 a Baker , born at Islington, Middlesex and the others of school age down to the youngest at two born in Lambeth.
Editor’s note: A number of Crimean War veterans from the Army and Navy appeared in the procession for the Lord Mayor’s Show that took place on the 9th of November 1890. These survivors travelled in open topped carriages, which contained four people each, accompanied by the bands of the Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, and the 2nd Life Guards and pipes of the 1st Royal Warwickshire regiment. Eleven such carriages carried men of the Light Brigade under the banners of “Survivors of the Charge at Balaklava” and “Battle of Balaklava Heroes”, notably included at their head, Trumpeters Landfried 17th Lancers and Perkins 11th Hussars. A specially printed programme for this event lists all these men and Brooks is shown as travelling in the 18th carriage in the procession.
In 1895, a Canon Radford, a clergyman from South London, wrote to the “Daily Telegraph” appealing for financial aid for Brooks, who was then a member of his congregation. “Until a short time ago he had employment with a firm of coal merchants, but being now in his seventy-fourth year, unable to work, he has to support a sick wife and himself on a sum of nine shillings per week, being the utmost that could be obtained from all sources of funds and pensions. The response was a good one, and 500 guineas were subscribed. Part of this was used to buy an annuity, which, with the pension he received from Greenwich Hospital (sic) kept him in comfort until his end”. (See copy of the letter which was written to the newspaper and the news-item regarding the success of the fund raised in answer to the appeal made in the letter, in the 13th Hussar file.)
Obituary notice in the “Daily Telegraph” of the 3rd of March 1911.
(See also copy of his obituary taken from an unknown newspaper in the 13th Hussar file.)
His gravestone in the South Metropolitan Cemetery at South Norwood, London, bears the inscription: “In loving memory of Emma, the beloved wife of John Withers, who died June 21st 1897, aged 57 years. “Thy soul at Rest.” Also of John Withers. (John Brooks of the Light Brigade.) Sutlej, Punjab, and the Crimea. Born Feb. 28th 1823 - Died Feb. 28th 1911. “In Christ.” (See photograph of this stone in the 13th Hussar file.)
(In a copy of the Balaclava Commemoration Society Rules that once belonged to 1529 John Keen was found an entry by his name;- Private John Brooks, Married, January 1898, aged 74 years.
Extract from the “United Services Gazette” for the 11th of March 1911.:
“The death has occurred recently at No. 20 Palace Road, Norwood, of John Withers, aged 86 years, who was thought locally to have been the last survivor of the battles of Moodkee and Sobraon. John Withers was born on the 28th of February 1823, and enlisted at Westminster, London, on the 23rd of June 1842 under the name of John Brooks, into the 3rd Light Dragoons and was present with his regiment at the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur and Sobraon, Ramnugger, Suldapore, Chilianwala and Goojerat. In 1854 he exchanged into the 13th Light Dragoons for service in Turkey and the Crimea. He was present at the Alma, and was very severely wounded in the famous charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. He was the recipient of four medals, Sutlej, with clasps for Moodkee, Ferozeshuhur and Sobraon, Punjab, clasps for Chilianwala and Goojerat, Crimean, Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, and also the Turkish Crimean medal. It was always a great delight for him to tell of the Charge of the Light Brigade, how his charger was shot under him and he himself being wounded in the head, and carried off the field by a surgeon and a farrier... “
In 1992 it was learnt that his Punjab medal with clasps for Chilianwala and Goojerat and named to “John Brooks. 3rd Light Dragoons” was in the Regtl. Museum of the Royal Hussars (formed from the amalgamation of the 3rd and 7th Hussars) at Warwick. A copy of this record was sent to the Museum Curator but no acknowledgement was received.
Photographs & illustrations