Born at Bramhope, near Otley, Yorkshire.
Enlisted at Leeds on the 20th of December 1835.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 6".
Trade: Servant.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Grey eyes. Brown hair.
Wounded in action at Balaclava and sent to Scutari (no date shown) before being invalided to England on the 16th of December 1854.
Discharged from Chatham Invalid Depot on the 2nd of October 1855, as "Unfit for further service. - Right forearm partially disabled after gun-shot wound of upper third at Balaclava."
Served 21 years 287 days.
Conduct and character "good."
Was awarded a pension of 1/- per day.
Living in Coventry after discharge and was still there in 1875.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava. Sebastopol and the Turkish medal.
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
In the later years of his life he was employed as a Horse-keeper at Coventry.
[Eds: Joseph Rhodes is shown on the 1881 Census returns as married, aged 72, a "Groom (8)" living at "Chapel St 1 C 2 Ho", Coventry Holy Trinity, Warwick. He is erroneously shown as "Rohdes", obviously a transcription error by the enumerator. His wife Selina is shown in a separate household as "mother in law" at 24 Wellington Street, the home of Jabez Clements. She is shown as aged 53, a "sick nurse SM", born Kenilworth, Warwick.]
Died 4th of January 1884.
His death certificate shows that he died at No 2 Chapel Yard, Chapel Street, in the parish of Holy Trinity, Coventry, a "Groom, Army Pensioner", on the 4th of January 1884, aged 70 years, from "Valvular disease of the heart". Jabez Frederick Clements, son-in-law, of No, 24 Lower Wellington Street, Coventry, was present at his death. (See copy of the death certificate in the 13th Light Dragoons "Certificates" file.)
Rhodes was buried in an un-marked grave-space in London Road Cemetery, Coventry, on the 8th of January 1884, aged 70 years. (See photograph in the 13th Hussar file.) His wife, Selina, was buried in the same grave on the 3rd of February 1897 and his daughter, son-in-law and grandson are also buried there.
His grave site is Reference No. 201 Square 75. The following is shown in the Cemetery records; "Plot purchased by Sarah Rhodes of Chapel Street for the sum of £1/2/7d. The following burials are recorded, the dates being those of interment:
8th January 1884: Joseph Rhodes. Age 70. Chapel Street.11th January 1895: Alec Cole. Age 1 month. Hill Street. Hill Street.
26th September 1896: Sarah Ann Clements. Age 38. Hill Street.
3rd February 1897: Selina Rhodes. Age 70 years. Hill Street
5th July 1899: Jabez Frederick Clements. Age 43 years. Found drowned at Stoneleigh.
Extract from the "Coventry Herald and Free Press" for the 11th of January 1884:
"On Friday last there died in this city at the age of seventy, Joseph Rhodes, one of the few survivors of the celebrated Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava. The deceased, who was a native of Yorkshire, entered the 13th Light Dragoons - now the 13th Hussars - in 1836 and in 1854 on the outbreak of hostilities with the Russians, Rhodes, who was still a private, went with his regiment to the Crimea, where he took part in the famous charge. He was also present at the battle of the Alma and other engagements in the Crimea, returning home in 1856 after 21 years service, with the Crimean medal, the badges for Balaclava and Inkerman and a pension of 1/- per day.For many years the deceased had been employed as a horse-keeper by Mr. W. D. Claridge of the Craven Arms Hotel, and that gentleman frequently showed him great kindness. The deceased had many times expressed a wish that at the time of his death his remains should be interred with military honours and Mr. Claridge attempted to comply with this but owing to the disbandment of the battery at the near-by barracks it was found impractical to obtain a military funeral."