Born in St. Marylebone, London.
Enlisted at Westminster on the 25th of February 1851.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Plumber.
Features: Fresh complexion. Brown eyes. Brown hair.
From Private to Corporal, 30th of December 1854.
Corporal to Sergeant, 22nd of September 1855.
Served at Eupatoria.
Re-engaged for a further 12 year period of service on the 22nd of August 1862.
Appointed to Troop Sgt. Major on the 11th of October 1865.
Promoted to Regtl. Sgt. Major on the 12th of August 1867.
Reverted to Troop Sgt. Major, "at his own request", on the 18th of June 1868.
Reverted to Sergeant, "at his own request", on the 23rd of April 1872.
Transferred to the Nottinghamshire Yeomanry on the 8th of March 1873.
Discharged from Aldershot on the 20th of June 1873, at "Own request, free to pension after 21 years service."
Served 22 years 125 days. In Turkey and the Crimea, 2 years. Canada, 2 years 11 months.
Conduct, "very good". If not promoted would have been in the possession of five Good Conduct badges.
Aged 44 years 4 months on discharge.
To live at Bramcote, near Nottingham.
Next of kin: Wife, Sarah Ann Colson. Is shown on the Regimental "Married roll" from the 3rd of March 1857.
Once entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Awarded a pension of 2/- per day.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with four clasps, Turkish War medal and the Long Service & Good Conduct medal.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 22nd of January 1870, with a Private's gratuity of £5. (claimed £10.)
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Died in London on the 20th of November 1895.
A supplementary roll (undated) signed by Major Henry Holden shows him as being issued with the Crimean medal (with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman) on the 7th of October 1855.
From the 1881 Census Returns William Colson was living 219 Hackney Road, in the Parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, a Clerk in a Builder's Office, aged 50 years and born in Charterhouse Square, EC1, with his wife, Sarah Ann Colson, aged 40, born in Liverpool. No children are shown.
[RM: A number of Crimean War veterans from the Army and Navy appeared in the procession for the Lord Mayor's Show that took place in London 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. An especially printed programme for this event lists all these men and Colson is shown travelling in the 17th carriage in the procession.]
[CP: The death of Sarah Ann Colson, aged 50, was registered in Shoreditch in the December quarter of 1890.]
The records of Guy's Hospital show that he was admitted there on the 8th of October 1895, being in Bed No. 4th of the St. Stephen's Ward under Dr. Perry. He died at 5 p.m. on the 20th of November from "Diabetes and Pneumonia", death being certified by Mr. Targett. No inquest was held and he was "Buried by friends." (i.e. Family.)
From an unknown, undated, newspaper report:
"A Balaclava survivor, William Colson by name, now in the St. Stephen's Ward of Guy's Hospital, describes the battle [...] 'It was a big crash - that was all, although we found afterwards that it had lasted almost half-an-hour. It was a case of cut and thrust the whole time. My horse was shot almost at the onset of the battle and I fell in a heap with about twenty or thirty other riders. I picked myself up and found another horse, mounted, and rode out of the engagement without receiving a scratch' [...] He thinks that Rorke's Drift (Zulu War of 1879) was the best thing that Britons have ever done in the way of fighting."
Extract from "The Broad Arrow" for the 30th of November 1895:
"11th Hussars - William Drake Colson, late of this regiment, who died in Guy's Hospital, London, on the 20th inst. aged 65, was one of the survivors of the Balaclava Charge. The deceased served in the Army for 24 years, and was in possession of the Crimean medal with four clasps, the Turkish medal and the medal for long service."
From the "Historical Records of the South Notts. Yeomanry" in which he was a Permanent Staff Instructor:
"In 1875 a detachment of the South Notts Yeomanry competed for the Lloyd-Lindsay prize. He was a Quartermaster Sgt. at the time and one of the competitors. The Regiment was placed third, with a total of £20 in prize money."
The following appeared in "The Times" for the 24th of July 1875:
"The smartest of all to the eye, both in neatness of uniform, which was simply that of a cavalry soldier in "undress", and the quality of both man and horse, was perhaps that of the South Notts., who took third prize."
[EJB: Colson's Long Service & Good Conduct medal is of some interest. It shows him with the rank of Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant. This came about in the General Order of the 13th of April 1869, when the regiment was re-organised into the short-lived squadron system. After a few years, the troop system was reverted to, but was changed again to the squadron system in March 1892 - this being the first one so noted.]