Birth & early life
Born at Cheltenham.
Enlistment
Enlisted at Cheltenham on the 4th of August 1846.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 7”.
Trade: Valet.
Service, discharge & pension
Sent money home from the Crimea to his wife, Mary, then living at No. 50 Great Brook Street, Birmingham.
Sent to Scutari on the 3rd of October 1855 and invalided to England on the 13th of December 1855.
Discharged "by purchase", from Cahir, Ireland. on the 20th of August 1856 by a payment of £10.
Served 10 years 12 days.
Conduct and character: "good."
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Re-enlisted into the 18th Hussars on the 23rd of March 1858. Regimental No. 240.
Age: 29 years 11 months.
Height: 5' 8”.
Trade: Valet.
Features: Fresh complexion. Blue eyes. Brown hair.
Former service in the 13th Light Dragoons allowed to reckon towards pension, etc., - by War Office Authority, dated the 23rd of February 1859.
From Private to Corporal 1st of January 1861.
Corporal to Sergeant 17th of September 1866.
Confined, tried by a Regimental Court-martial and reduced to Private on the 25th of September 1875:
“Expressed his desire to continue his service after the expiration of his limited service engagement, in accordance with Paragraph 10th of the Army Enlistment Act of 1870. Signed by "Richard Knox, Colonel."
From Private to Corporal 12th of May 1875.
Discharged from Colchester on the 17th of May 1876:
“Free to pension, after 28 years service."
Served a total of 28 years 61 days.
Conduct: "very good," Aged 48 years 1 month on discharge.
Once entered in the Regimental Defaulter's Book. Once tried by Court-martial.
In Turkey and the Crimea, 8 months, (sic). India, 11 years 7 months.
Medals & commemorations
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
Awarded the L.S. & G.C. medal on the 24th of December 1870, with a gratuity of £5.
His group of medals were sold at a Glendining's auction on the 26th of January 1906, then said to be named to "Thomas Griffiths. 13th Light Dragoons." (type of naming not shown in the catalogue) the Lot realising the sum of £1/1/-, and again at Sotheby’s in 1938.
A four clasp Crimean medal, with engraved naming, appeared in a Baldwin's list for the month of December 1950. His L.S. & G.C medal only, named to "204 Thomas Griffiths. 18th Hussars." was known to be in an English collection in 1989.
His four clasp Crimean medal, with engraved naming to "Private Thomas Griffiths. 13th Lt. Dgs." and a Turkish Crimean medal (Sardinian type, and with a straight bar suspension) appeared in a Glendining's auction on the 18th of March 1997.
EJB: It is known that following the pair being bought by a medal dealer they were subsequently offered to the collector possessing his L.S..& G..C. medal, he having had the latter in his possession since it appeared on the market in 1989. The medal trio are now re-united.
His name is not on the list of members of the Balaclava Society in either 1877 or 1879 and he does not appear to have ever attended any of the functions arranged by, and for, the veterans.
Lived in Sherborne Street, Cheltenham, after his discharge from the Army in a house which in 1989 was still standing.
A man of this name is shown in the 1881 Census Return as living in Butt Road, Parish of St. Giles, Colchester, Essex, a Publican, aged 55, born at Cheltenham Gloucestershire, with his wife, Jane, aged 54, and born at Appleby, Westmoreland. A General Domestic Servant is also shown.
(He would appear to have been twice married, as his wife's name..Jane, was at this time not the same as his shown wife, Mary, to whom he sent money from the Crimea.)
He appeared before a Royal Hospital Chelsea Board for possible entry as an In-Pensioner on the 1st of March 1886, at the age of 58 years. He was then described as being "of a good character," a widower," with one son in the Army and had previously lived in the Bristol Pension District. Application "Cancelled," - no further comment.
Death & burial
Photographs & illustrations
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