Born at North Driffield, near Selby, Yorkshire.
Enlisted at York on the 10th of February 1852.
Age: 19 years 6 months.
Height: 5' 10".
Trade: Farmer.
Features: Fresh complexion. Hazel eyes. Brown hair.
From Private to Corporal 1st of July 1858.
Corporal to Sergeant 28th of September 1862.
Appointed to Troop Sergeant Major on the 24th of June 1868.
Discharged from Colchester on the 30th of September 1873:
"By own request, after 21 years service."
Served 21 years 334 days. In Turkey and the Crimea, 2 years. Canada, 2 years 11 months.
Conduct: "very good". Had he not been promoted would now be in possession of five Good Conduct badges.
Never entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Awarded a pension of 2/- per day.
To live at Brinklow, near Worcester, but was living in Nottingham in 1875.
Aged 44 years 1 month on discharge.
Next of kin: Wife, Elizabeth Agnes Eccles. Is shown on the Regimental "married roll" from the 12th of April 1864.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with four clasps and the silver medal for long service and good conduct.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava Inkerman, and Sebastopol.
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.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 30th of November 1870, with a Private's gratuity of £5. (claimed £10.)
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.
Appointed a Yeoman of the Guard on the 5th of June 1882.
Marriage registered
William Eccles and Mary Ann Kelly, December Quarter 1879, Coventry.
Mary Ann Kelly was the widow of a Licensed Victualler, John Kelly, who had died in 1877. She had 4 children from her previous marriage.
There were at least 5 children from Mary Ann's first marriage: John, Walter, Agnes, Elizabeth and James. They had all been living at 16, East Gate, Coventry.
By 1881 William Eccles had taken over the licence at that address.
The 1881 Census Returns show him as living at 16, East Street, in the parish of St. Michael's, Coventry, a Licenced Victualler, aged 48, born at North Duffield Yorkshire, with his wife, Mary, aged 43, born at Coventry, four children of school age and a Domestic Servant.
1891 Census
Mary Ann, a Licensed Victualler aged 53, was still at the same address, with three of her children.
Death registered
Mary Ann Eccles, 63, June Quarter 1900, Coventry.
Died in the Coventry Pension District on the 23rd of June 1887.
Died at the "Cross Keys Inn", Earl Street, Coventry. In his will he left his personal estate of £543 to his widow, Mary Ann.
See copy of his obituary notice taken from the Coventry newspaper, "The Times", for the 29th of June 1887.
He was buried in the old part of the London Road Cemetery at Coventry. No headstone is said to exist. (See photograph of his grave-site, Grave No. 190. Square 14, in the 13th Hussar file.) He was aged 55 years at the time of his death and was buried on the 26th of June 1887.
There is evidence that a cross on a plinth was once there. The base of the plinth is now all that remains and once had lettering riveted to the stone, now all but disappeared. From the indentations however, a commemorative verse is apparent- "Farewell, dear friends, my life is past. May you and I unite at last. Mourn not for me nor sorrow make. But love my farewell, for my sake."
The following comes from the Cemetery records:
"The plot was purchased by William Eccles, of the Coventry Barracks, for the sum of £2/14/1d., and dug to a depth of nine feet. The following burials are recorded, the date being the actual interment date; 18th of June 1878. Agnes Eccles, aged 33, "The Barracks" and 26th of June 1887, William Eccles, aged 55, 'Earl Street'."
Registration of marriage, Mary Ann Eccles's death, and Census information for 1891 kindly provided by Chris Poole.