Birth & early life
Enlistment
Service, discharge & pension
Medals & commemorations
Death & burial
1266 Edward BURKE.
Born in the parish of St. Paul’s, Dublin.
Enlistment details
Enlisted at Dublin on the 3rd of July 1846.
Age: 19.
Height: 5’ 9”.
Trade: Tailor.
Dark complexion. Brown eyes. Dark hair:
“In cells,” for “absence,” 7-12 of August 1847.
Invalided to England on the 12th of March 1856.
Discharged from Norwich on the 8th of August 1865, a consequence of “Having been found unfit for further service. Has Cystitis. Was thrown from a horse - he having been a batman at the time. Suffers a great deal from a frequent desire to make water. Also has great pain in the urethra and is subject to great aggravation. He is not capable of earning a living as during these severe attacks he is obliged to give in and his health became impaired from his rest being disturbed. Constitution impaired by his severe disability. Aggravated by his intemperance.”
Served 19 years 31 days. In Turkey and the Crimea, 2 years.
Conduct, very good.” In possession of four G.C. badges.
Twenty-one times entered in the Regimental Defaulter’s book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Aged 38 years 1 month on discharge.
To live in Norwich.
Next of kin. (in 1854) Wife, Ann Bruce. Living at No. 2 Lower Windsor Street, Birmingham.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with three clasps and the T.M.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman, Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
Further information
The 1881 Census Returns show him as a “Patient in Infirmary” at the Oldham Union Workhouse, Oldham. He is listed as a Tailor aged 54, being a widower and born in Ireland.
A medal with four clasps was in the “Harridan” collection in July of 1917 and was sold at a Glendining’s auction on the 26th of September 1917, named to “E. Burke. 13th Light Dragoons.” and again on the 18/19 of April 1923.
Claimed a Crimean “Campaign Pension” on the 5th of September 1895.
Photographs & illustrations