Born at Aston, Warwickshire.
Enlisted at Westminster on the 21st of December 1850.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Miner.
Features: Fair complexion. Hazel eyes. Brown hair.
Absent from the 15th of October 1851, shown as a deserter from the 16th of December 1851, and rejoined the regiment on the 13th of March 1852. Tried by a District Court-martial on the 29th of March for "desertion and losing his necessaries " and sentenced to 120 days imprisonment, with hard labour, and to be marked with the letter "D". Was released on the 26th of July 1852.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Culloden" on the 10th of May 1854.
Seriously wounded in action at Balaclava, and his horse was shot under him. In the official casualty list he was wrongly named as "Joseph Douglas".
Sent to Scutari from the hospital at Balaclava aboard the "Australia" and was at Scutari from the 23rd of November 1854. He was later invalided to England on the 11th of January 1855.
At Fort Pitt, Chatham, Invalid Depot [? from the 11th of March 1855 until the 30th of June], when he was sent "on furlo, pending discharge", to Coventry.
Seen by Queen Victoria in the Mess Room at Brompton Barracks on the 3rd of March 1855.
Was finally discharged from the Chatham Invalid Depot on the 16th of October 1855 as "Disabled from wound of right elbow from gun-shot fracture."
Served 4 years, to count.
Conduct and character: "Indifferent." Not in possession of any Good Conduct badges.
Was granted a pension of 8d. per day.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol.
Life after discharge
Joseph Doughton moved around a lot after his discharge, living in Bury, the Isle of Man (1/5/1857), Cambridge (1/7/59), and lastly in the No. 2 London Pension District.
Wrote his "Memoirs," entitled "Narrative of Joseph Doughton, late of Her Majesty's 13th Light Dragoons, one of the heroes wounded at Balaclava in the Gallant Cavalry Charge." These were published in Birmingham in 1856. (See copy in the "Memoirs" file.)
Died (according to the Pension Books) in the No 2 London Pension District on the 20th of March 1865. In the St. Catherine's House Registers, however, a man named as "Joseph George Doughton" is shown as dying in the Linton District of Cambridgeshire during the January-March quarter of 1865. It could be that these were one and the same man, especially as he is known to have lived in Cambridgeshire at one period and could have died while on a visit there.
The death certificate of Joseph George Doughton shows that he died on the 20th of March 1865 at Sawston, Cambridgeshire. He was 33 years of age, and a publican, the cause of death being "Bright's Disease of the Kidneys." A Susan Hack (who had to make her mark) was present at the death and the informant. (See copy of this in the "Certificates" file.)
An engraved naming medal, with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, was sold at a Glendining's auction on the 27th of June 1901 and on the 20th of November 1908, now with a Turkish Crimean medal (from the "William Doddy" (Decd.) collection), as Lot 319. At this sale it was shown as being named to "J. Doughton. 13th Light Dragoons." and realised the sum of £3/13/0. It was sold again at Sotheby's on the 13th of July 1927.
In 1983 the then vicar of St. Mary's at Sawston published a Surname Index (which he had compiled over a twenty-five year period) of all those whose living in the village whose names appeared in the parish records for one reason or another. That of Doughton appeared for the first time following the baptism of Caroline Fanny, who was baptised on the 28th of July 1861, the daughter of Joseph George and Caroline Doughton. This was followed by the baptism of a son, Walter, on the 19th of June 1864, and the burial of Joseph George Doughton, on the 28th of March 1865. The next entry is that of John Charles, son of Caroline Doughton, Publican, on the 17th of July 1867 [sic]. A local Directory for 1869 shows her as being the licensee of "The Greyhound' public house, probably the one her husband held (although there were three others in the village) but no details for the period are available.
The next available Directory, that for 1871, shows a change of tenant. Whether the family remained in the village for any length of time after this is not clear, although the last entry of all shows the marriage of Caroline Fanny to William Gurton Greenwood, a schoolmaster of Newington, on the 31st of July 1886. In the same survey the vicar had recorded the name details on all the identifiable gravestones in the churchyard (and their location on a plan) but nothing is shown for that of Joseph Doughton. There were a number of stones which were too worn to be readable and his could have been one of these, if indeed one was ever erected.