Enlisted at Hounslow on the 7th of October 1851.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: None shown.
Sent sick to Scutari on the 16th of September 1854 and to rejoin the regiment on the 14th of December.
Kimble was sent to Scutari when the regiment was disembarking in the Crimea. From the date shown, he would not have landed. The muster rolls of the Scutari Depot (which also record men in Hospital or aboard a Hospital Ship) show him as joining the Depot on the 11th of September, and "To Hospital". Was aboard a Hospital Ship for October-November and sent back to the regiment on the 14th of December 1854.
There is no mention of his returning to the regiment for the battles of the Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman. The muster roll for May through to September of 1855 shows him as being "On Command" at Scutari and embarking on the 9th of September 1855 for Eupatoria aboard the "Medway", and returning to Scutari aboard the "Jason" in November.
Transferred to the 7th Hussars on the 1st of September 1857.
Served in the field in Oude, East Indies, from the 4th of February - 14th of May 1858, including the Siege of Lucknow, 2nd-16th of March 1858. Regtl. No. 149.
Returned to England from India on the 5th of March 1865.
Granted "free discharge" from Maidstone on the 29th of September 1865.
Next of kin (in 1854): Mrs. Kimble, living at Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey.
From his service, he was most probably granted the "right of registry for a deferred pension of 4d. per day upon reaching the age of 50 years."
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
Lummis and Wynn state, "no clasps," but he is to be found on the Sebastopol clasp roll.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Lucknow.
A "T. Kimble" shown as being a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877.
A "J. Kimbel" shown in the 1879 revised list.
1871 Census
Thomas Kimble, 39, Coachman, Old Windsor, Berks.
Uxbridge Road, Kingston.
Marriage registered
Thomas Kimble and Henrietta Agnes Bennett, June Quarter 1872, Holborn.
1881 Census
Pond Cottages, Barlavington, Sussex.
Thomas Kimble, Coachman, aged 49, born in Old Windsor, Berkshire. Henrietta Kimble, wife, aged 50, born in London City Road, Middlesex.
No other family members are shown.
There were two large houses in Barlavington in 1881 occupied by people who might have employed a Coachman. One was Charles Willock Dawes, a Gentleman, who lived in Burton Hill with five servants, none of these being shown as a Groom. But a Groom (Domestic) lived in Burton Hill Lodge, with his nine children.
The other, perhaps a more likely candidate, was Richard Temple Godman, a Colonel in the Army, who lived at Burton House with his wife, Eliza, 6 children, and a retinue of no fewer than 16 household servants of various categories, three of these being grooms. A Coachman (Domestic) lived in the Bailiff's House, as did a Farm Bailiff. Pond Cottage must have been a number of cottages as families besides Kimble lived in them.
It is of note that Richard Godman had a particular connection with the Crimea. He became a Cornet in the 5th Dragoon Guards in 1851, and rode (as a Lieutenant) in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade. His letters home to his family, published in 1977 as "The Fields of War" (edited by Philip Warner), are some of the most vividly descriptive existing of life and conditions in the Crimea of the day. The second son of the thirteen children of Joseph and Caroline Godman, he was born at Hatch End, Hascomb, Surrey, in 1832. He had married Eliza de Crespigny in 1871 at the age of 39, she being only 21, and there were later four sons and two daughters in the family. He became a Major General in 1885, and died in 1912.
According to the 1891 Census Returns, he was not living at Pond Cottages at this time, nor at Spring Grove House at Heston, where he died. (The main house was uninhabited at this time, although the adjoining cottages were occupied by domestic staff presumably employed there.)
1891 Census
Thomas Kimble is shown aged 57, a Coachman (Domestic Servant) living at Latchman House, Stables, Ham and Hatch parish, Kingston, with his wife Henrietta, aged 58, born in City, London. [RM]
There is some difficulty determining Thomas Kimble's date of death. EJB wrote as follows:
Died on the 19th of February 1895.
He died on the 19th of February 1895 from "Pneumonia (3 days)", at Spring Grove House, Heston. He was described as being a "Domestic Servant", aged 59. A George Biggs was shown as being present at, and the informant of, his death. The local newspaper, "The Middlesex Chronicle", has been checked, but no reference can be found to either his death or funeral.
The house where he died was situated within the parish of Heston. The house was rebuilt for Andrew Pears, owner of Pears' Soap, which was then made at Isleworth in a purpose-built factory (from 1862).
In his will Thomas Kimble was described as a "House Porter", of Spring Grove House, Heston. He left his estate of £277 to his widow, Ellen. (From the difference in his wife's name from that recorded in 1881, he may have been married twice.)
However, Chris Poole has discovered in Census data not available to EJB that a Thomas Kimble and a Henrietta Kimble, both with the right ages, were still living in the area well into the next century:1901 Census
1, New Road, Ham, London.
Thomas Kimble, 66, Jobbing Gardener.
Henrietta, 68.
A Boarder is also shown.
Death registered
Henrietta Agnes Kimble, 73, September Quarter 1903, Kingston.
Death registered
Thomas Kimble, 78, March Quarter 1913, Kingston.
This version has the advantage over the EJB account in that Thomas Kimble's wife's name is Henrietta throughout. Further research may clarify the question.
Registrations of deaths, and Census information for 1871 and 1901, kindly provided by Chris Poole.