Born in the parish of Bishop's Cleeve, near Gloucester.
Enlisted at Gloucester on the 15th of April 1846.
Age: 17 years 10 months.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Labourer.
Features: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Brown hair.
Discharged from Cahir on the 13th of November 1856, a consequence of the:
"Reduction of the Army and never likely to become efficient - Suffers from the effects of an accident which happened to him in the Crimea in September of 1855. His horse fell with him and so crushed his right foot as to burst the ligaments longitudinally on the inner side of the foot and also the bone of the foot seems to have been injured. He was for some months in hospital before the wound healed and he has never recovered the perfect use of his foot. He was watering his master's horse at the time, he being a batman. The watering place was very dangerous and accidents frequently occurred at it through horse's slipping on the stones. I consider that his ability to earn his own living will be considerably impaired."
Served 10 years 133 days.
Conduct, "very good". In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Aged 28 years on discharge.
Granted a pension of 6d. per day "conditional" to the 23rd of March 1865, and this was made "permanent" from the 24th of March 1865.
To live in Cheltenham, but living in Sheffield in 1875.
Next of kin (in 1854): Mrs. Cresswell (wife or mother, is not shown.) Living in Longford, Ireland.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
There is an entry in red ink on his documents made by the War Office, and dated the 20th of April 1907. "Awarded Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol." There is also an un-dated entry, "Replacement of medal, son's application," to Sir George White, but no confirmation if this was carried out.
Admitted as an In-Pensioner to Chelsea Royal Hospital on the 1st of February 1888. At the time of his entry into the Chelsea Royal Hospital as an In-Pensioner, he was aged 60 years, "his wife would be provided for by her friends", his character was "good", and he had been previously living in the Pontefract (Yorkshire) Pension District.
Granted a "Retiring Allowance" as a Pensioner Sgt. on the 2nd of September 1901.
Cresswell's name appears on a list of Balaclava survivors which appeared on a pamphlet by Nunnerley of the 17th. See 17th Lancers file.
[Editor's note: It would appear that Cresswell married three times. In 1861 he was married to Anne Creswell, born Ireland, but she was dead by the time he married Martha Wrigley at Sheffield in the March quarter of 1867. She died aged 55 in Sheffield in June 1880. He then married Ann Betson at Sheffield in the December quarter of 1880, and this is his wife shown in the 1881 census.
In 1861 he is shown as a Police Constable living at 31 School Lane, Sheffield, married to Anne, born Ireland aged 29. Two children John aged 10, born Edinburgh and Ellen aged 8 born Hounslow are also shown.
By 1871 he was at 15 Nursery Lane, a Goods Porter, married to Martha aged 46, born Yorks.
The 1881 Census Returns show a man of this name as living at No 10 /12 Apple Street, in Brightside Brierlow, Yorkshire, with his wife, Ann. He was then aged 52, a Porter, born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and his wife as being 53 years of age, born in Aston, West Yorkshire.
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. An especially printed programme for this event lists all these men and Josiah Cresswell of the 13th is shown travelling in the 17th carriage in the procession. From this it would appear that Cresswell was accepted as a survivor of the Charge by his contemporaries, sharing the carriage as he did with 1195 Edward Hunt, 1433 William Colson and 1406 James Lamb.]The 1891 census shows him present in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a widower, aged about 62. That census for 1901 is the same at Chelsea.
Extract from "The Golden Penny" of the 29th September 1900:
"Following a visit to the Hospital by a representative of the magazine and in which he described the life led there by the pensioners, interviewed a number of them and took photographs of several... One of the two Light Brigade survivors in the Hospital at the moment is Sgt. Josiah Creswell, late of the 13th Light Dragoons (now 13th Hussars) who was discharged in 1857 [sic]. I could not take a picture of him as he was unable to leave his bed in the infirmary"
Died at Chelsea Royal Hospital on the 19th of September 1909, aged 81 years, and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery on the 22nd of September. No headstone was erected.
EJB: The Royal Chelsea Hospital Ground in Brookwood Cemetery covers roughly two acres. There is a large memorial bearing the words - on one side - "The original Burial Ground at Chelsea Hospital having been closed in 1854, a plot in the Brompton Cemetery was used between 1855 and 1893 when this Cemetery was acquired. "For though the British soldier has entered many countries as a conqueror, there are few that he has not quitted as a friend." This monument is erected in their honour by the Lords Commissioners and Governors of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. - and on the other - The ashes of In-Pensioners are interred here. Their names are in the "Book of Remembrance." No individual names are recorded on this and only a relatively few modern stones are in one corner of the plot, as well as a few individual stones to high-ranking officers of the Hospital who are interred on the border strips. (See photographs of the area and of the memorial itself, in the 4th Hussar file.)