William Henry Cory’s memoir of his service in the 11th Hussars, 1853–1856, written as letters to the Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell, has been transcribed by his descendants Michael and Tripp Cory: see The Memoir of William Henry Cory. This page sets the memoir beside what is known of Cory, of Private Walter Canning, and of William Tyson of South Carolina. It draws on the research gathered in PB’s notes, on the published work listed below, and on the correspondence of September 2026 with the Cory family, in which Tony Margrave identified further details that only a man who was there would know.
The commentary is kept separate from the transcription so that the Corys’ text stands as they made it. Each note links to the page of the memoir it discusses. Initials: EJB E.J. Boys; LWC Laurence W. Crider; RM Roy Mills; DJA Douglas J. Austin; TM Tony Margrave; PB Philip Boys. [CR?]
This page is a working draft.
What the memoir adds. The memoir is signed throughout “William H. Cory” or “William Henry Cory”. It gives two exact dates for its author’s service — and both are the dates recorded for Private Walter Canning, No. 1604, 11th Hussars, in the muster rolls:
| The memoir (William H. Cory) | Walter Canning, 11th Hussars | |
|---|---|---|
| Enlisted | “On the 3rd October 1853 – I enlisted in the 11th (P.A.O) Hussars” (memoir p. 1) | enlisted in London, 3 October 1853 (muster rolls, 4th quarter 1853, form 7: L.W. Crider, 2006) |
| Left the Army | “On the 7th November 1856 I took my [leave?] of the Army” (memoir p. 160) | discharged 7 November 1856, “as a bad character and on the reduction of the regiment” |
The enlistment date is the telling one. Lummis and Wynn give September 1853 (and have Canning dying in the Crimea on 7 September 1855); E.J. Boys and Roy Mills give 30 October 1853. Only the contemporary recruit return, as read by Laurence Crider in 2006, has 3 October — and so does the memoir, written some 150 years earlier. The memoir also places its author at Varna in 1854 and at Baidar in the summer of 1855, where the musters place Canning (notes 5 and 13).
Provided the manuscript is what it appears to be — letters written by Cory in the later 1850s — and unless he had access to Canning’s own papers, this is the strongest evidence yet that William Henry Cory served as Walter Canning. It does not by itself prove that Canning rode in the Charge: that still rests on Cory’s own word (note 7). — suggested reading, to be checked: the date on p. 160 is on one of the faded last pages, though it reads clearly in the transcription.
— 1. The man and his names: a timeline
— 4. Dates that seemed not to fit
| When | As | What | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 May 1831 | William Henry Cory | born; baptised 3 July 1831 at St Mary, Newington, Surrey; parents William Cory, “Gent.” (clerk, born Calstock, Cornwall) and Sarah (born Ripley, Surrey); County Terrace | LMA, Newington St Mary baptisms, P92/MRY/036 (PB) |
| 1841 | Wm Hy Cory, 10 | Brighton Row, St Mary Newington, with parents and siblings | 1841 census (PB) |
| 1851 | William Cory, 19 | 3 Kingswood Place, Lambeth; “No Employment”; father “Clerk, Machine Canning Company” | 1851 census, HO107/1573 f.357 p.31 (RM, PB) |
| c.1851–52 | William Cory | sailed for Sydney in the Resolute, on her first voyage (“some 3 years before” the winter of 1854–55) | memoir p. 93 |
| 3 Oct 1853 | Walter Canning, No. 1604 | enlisted in London in the 11th Hussars; “19”; 5′ 7″; clerk; born Newington | muster rolls (LWC); memoir p. 1 |
| 1854–56 | Walter Canning | at sea May 1854; Varna June 1854; battalion duty Jan 1855; hospital Feb 1855; guard March 1855; hospital April 1855; Baidar July 1855. Court-martial 5 March 1855, “disgraceful conduct: theft”, 50 lashes and imprisonment with hard labour; service forfeited (restored 22 March 1856); in confinement 29 Feb–31 March 1856. Medal with clasps Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol | muster rolls, medal rolls (LWC, RM, EJB) |
| 7 Nov 1856 | Walter Canning | discharged, Newbridge, Ireland, “bad character” and reduction of the regiment; conduct “Bad” | discharge records (RM, EJB); memoir p. 160 |
| 7 Feb 1857 | William H. Cory | letter to The Times (published 10 Feb 1857) defending Cardigan: “I was in the Light Cavalry Charge at Balaklava”; signed “Late 11th (P.A.O.) Hussars, Wandsworth-road” | The Times, 10 Feb 1857 |
| 1857–58? | William Henry Cory | the memoir: eleven letters to the Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell (after Nov 1856, since it records the discharge) | memoir |
| 1858 | William Henry Cory | “going about the country lecturing upon the Crimea”; Oct 1858 cheques uttered at Brighton, Gravesend and Margate; told a witness he had “left the army, and recently come from Paris via Dieppe”; charged at the Mansion House, Dec 1858 | The Times 10 Dec 1858; Morning Advertiser 17 Dec 1858 (PB) |
| 3 Jan 1859 | William Henry Cory, 27, clerk | pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to forging and uttering; four years’ penal servitude; counsel spoke of his gallantry at Balaclava and Inkermann | Old Bailey t18590103-173; The Times 5 Jan 1859 (PB) |
| 1861 | “W.H.C.”, convict, 29, clerk | Portland Prison | 1861 census (PB) |
| 28 Feb 1862 | William Henry Cory | licence for early release from Portland | TNA PCOM 3/102/10620 (TM, PB) |
| 1862–65 | William (Henry / Gaston) Tyson | Confederate cavalry: 9th Kentucky Cavalry; later Dortch’s 2nd Battalion Kentucky Cavalry; headstone: “Served in Confederate Army 1862–1865” | CSR microfilm M377 roll 13 (RM); TM 2018 |
| 1880 | William Tyson, 50 | Barnwell, South Carolina; born England, parents born England; school teacher; wife Ellen, 35; son William H., 9 | 1880 US census (RM, PB) |
| 29 Jan 1893 | William Henry Cory | died; buried Beaufort, South Carolina (St Helena’s Episcopal churchyard). Headstone “Born in Clapham … May 2, 1831 … Survivor of the famous charge of the Light Brigade”, erected 1934 (TM). Also named on the Cory family stone at West Norwood (destroyed 1980): “One of the 600 in the Charge of the Light Brigade” | headstones; EJBA; LWC 2006; TM 2018 |
— E.J. Boys (EJB): first identified William Henry Cory with Walter Canning, and recorded (from the family) that in America he became William Henry Tyson, and that his descendants kept his Crimean and Civil War medals “and a diary”. His sources were not recorded. Was the “diary” this memoir?
— Laurence W. Crider (LWC): “William Henry Cory and other doubtful chargers”, The War Correspondent 23/4 (Jan 2006): the Beaufort headstone; no Cory on any Light Brigade muster. “Walter Canning (1604), 11th Hussars”, WC (April 2006): Canning’s musters, including the enlistment date 3 October 1853, and his birthplace, Newington.
— Roy Mills (RM): “William Cory 11th Hussars: a tale of two headstones and three identities”, WC (April 2006): the case from the E.J. Boys Archive; the 1851 census and the “Machine Canning” company; William Tyson in the 9th Kentucky Cavalry and in the 1880 census.
— Douglas J. Austin (DJA): in correspondence with Tony Margrave: sceptical that Cory rode in the Charge, and of the Times letter.
— Tony Margrave (TM): “Three names, two stones, two countries”, Crossfire (American Civil War Round Table), Spring 2018, pp. 13–17 (pdf), and a version in WC, 2018: the forgery conviction of 1859 and release in 1862; the Tyson identity; the Beaufort stone erected in 1934.
— Philip Boys (PB): notes from 2013 onwards (PB’s notes): baptism, censuses 1841–1911, the 1858–59 court reports, Portland, the Christ’s Hospital enquiry (a different William Henry Cory, born 1828), the possible portrait.
— Michael and Tripp Cory: his descendants in the United States; shared their copy of the memoir and transcribed it, September 2026.
In the order of the memoir. Page references are to the transcription.
“On the 3rd October 1853 – I enlisted in the 11th (P.A.O) Hussars – then Commanded by Lieut-Col the Earl of Cardigan, and about ten days afterwards went on board the ‘Duke of Cornwall’ … bound for Dublin … Porto-Bello Barracks.”
Exactly the date on Canning’s recruit return (LWC, April 2006), not the later dates given by Lummis and Wynn (September) or EJB and RM (30 October). The musters show Canning receiving pay from 20 October; the memoir has him sailing for Dublin “about ten days afterwards”. (P.A.O) is the style he also used in the Times letter.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“Misfortune – grim and stark drove me into the army – and I entered it armed with a fair education and the experience gained by having previously made the circuit of the world under equally unfavourable Circumstances.”
He tells us where he went: in the winter of 1854–55 he met “poor Captain Lewis – of the ill-fated ‘Resolute’ – in which vessel. on her first voyage. I had sailed for Sydney some 3 years before” (memoir p. 93), that is, about 1851–52, after the census that found William, 19, at home with “No Employment”. The Resolute’s passenger and crew lists should be searched for Cory. “A fair education” fits the clerk’s son, the well-formed Times letter, and the later school teacher of the 1880 census. Enlisting under a false name suggests he did not want his family, or someone else, to know.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
P.S. to Letter I: “If I forward ‘Maud’ on Saturday will it be in sufficient time?”
Probably Tennyson’s Maud, and Other Poems (July 1855). The last letter records his discharge (note 14), so the letters were written after 7 November 1856. In 1858 he was “going about the country lecturing upon the Crimea”: were the letters connected with the lectures? He was arrested in December 1858 and was in prison until 1862.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
Every letter is signed “William H. Cory” or “William Henry Cory”. The name Canning does not appear anywhere in the memoir.
As in the Times letter of February 1857. He wrote as Cory, never admitting the service name.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
From Constantinople “we received our orders to proceed to our final destination – Varna”; the episode of the mule, the French officer and Lord Lucan’s tent (pp. 16–18).
The musters place Canning at sea in May 1854 and at Varna in June 1854. The mule story, with its complaint by a French officer taken to Lord Lucan, might be found in another source.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
Letters signed off to “The Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell M.A.”, with remembrances to “Mrs. Rowsell and family” and “the young ladies” (also pp. 12, 24, 52, 71, 99, 112, 147).
Identify Rowsell (Crockford’s Clerical Directory; Alumni Cantabrigienses or Oxonienses): where he was in 1856–58 may show where Cory was living, lecturing or seeking help. Was Rowsell among those he approached in the months before his arrest?
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“… cannon balls were bowling along all around me, – Run I could not – but picking up my sword blade – hobbled along for a mile before I got out of range – recognizing the lifeless form of many a comrade on my way.”
His claim to have ridden in the Charge, in much more detail than the Times letter. Just before this, “poor Jordan! he falls cloven to the chin – and at the same instant a big shot strikes my horse full in the chest – and down I go” (memoir p. 68). Canning’s musters say nothing either way; Lummis did not count him a Charger, and DJA doubted Cory. The account (pp. 60–70) should be tested against the known course of the Charge and against the 11th Hussars’ casualties: was there a Jordan of the 11th, or of the 13th Light Dragoons, killed in the Charge? In 1859 his counsel said he had a horse shot under him at Inkermann; the memoir puts it in the Charge. (Corrected in Build 3: Build 2 wrongly said the memoir did not mention the horse.)
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“I say, And would do so openly – The Earl of Lucan”
Consistent with the Times letter, which defends Cardigan.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“… a comrade, who now, minus his right arm, is filling a situation at Hampton Court Palace.”
An identifiable 11th Hussar who lost his right arm. Identifying him would date the letter and connect the writer to known men of his troop.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
The Chasseurs’ officers “sent for L’Anglais to their mess tent – asked me many questions about the Charge – where I learnt to speak French”
In 1858 he told a witness he had “left the army, and recently come from Paris via Dieppe”, and he showed her his passport. He spoke French, and knew France.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“About the 20th December I was again compelled to give up. and enter the Hospital tent, the scurvy having broken out in my legs … I was once more discharged from Hospital on New Years Day” (pp. 119–120; also pp. 22, 94, 104).
Compare with Canning’s musters: hospital in February and April 1855. The musters for December 1854 would settle it.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“Towards the beginning of March our stable sheds were completed, and each Troop had about Six horses to put into them”; “The month of March dawned upon us with more than characteristic fierceness” (pp. 124–135).
Canning was court-martialled on 5 March 1855 for theft and given 50 lashes and imprisonment with hard labour (84 days, PB; 80 days, RM); the musters show him on guard duty in March and in hospital in April 1855. The memoir says nothing of this — hardly surprising in letters to a clergyman — and narrates March and April 1855 as an ordinary member of the regiment (“our stable sheds”, “our Reconnoitring party on the 19th April”, p. 144). Is anything in these pages told at second hand, as by a man who was not there? Compare also Canning’s confinement of 29 February–31 March 1856 with pp. 157–158.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“The weather during the first Two or Three weeks of our stay at Baidar was excessively hot …” (Letter XI)
The musters place Canning at Baidar in July 1855.
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
“… we proceeded to Aldershott Camp, where, having been inspected by Her Majesty, we received orders to march into Canterbury. – On the 7th November 1856 I took my [leave?] of the Army.”
Just before, “The Troop to which I was attacked [sic] embarked in the Steamship ‘Tonning’ in June” (memoir p. 159): TM confirms that the Tonning carried part of the 11th home, via Malta, 20 June–18 July 1856, and that all returning regiments were sent to Portsmouth. Canning’s discharge date exactly. But the records say he was discharged at Newbridge, Ireland, while the memoir mentions only Aldershot and Canterbury. Where were the 11th Hussars in November 1856?
Suggested note, to be checked. — [initials]
— The Times letter and Canning’s discharge. PB’s notes ask whether Cory’s letter was written while Canning was still serving. It was not: Canning was discharged on 7 November 1856, and the letter is dated 7 February 1857, three months later. The memoir confirms 7 November 1856 as the day its author left the Army.
— Enlistment dates. 3 October 1853 (musters; memoir) against 30 October (EJB, RM) and September (Lummis). The musters and the memoir agree.
— A Confederate enlistment in April 1861? A William G. Tyson enlisted at Norfolk, Virginia, on 21 April 1861 (5th, then 15th Virginia Cavalry). This cannot be Cory: he was in Portland Prison at the 1861 census and was not released until 28 February 1862. The 9th Kentucky Cavalry and Dortch’s battalion, 1862–65, fit; the Virginia records belong to another man.
— Age. Canning said he was 19 in October 1853; Cory was 22. Recruits often gave a younger age.
— Birthplace. Canning: “Newington” (EJB read Stoke Newington); Cory: baptised at St Mary, Newington, Surrey. The Beaufort stone’s “Clapham” was the family’s later home.
— The muster rolls for December 1854–March 1855 and April–November 1856: hospital, court-martial, confinement, and where Canning was discharged (notes 11, 12, 14).
— The 11th Hussars’ movements in 1856: Aldershot, Canterbury, Newbridge (note 14).
— The Rev. Evan Edward Rowsell (note 6).
— The one-armed 11th Hussar at Hampton Court Palace (note 9).
— Reports of Cory’s lectures on the Crimea, 1857–58, in local newspapers.
— The original manuscript and its history in the family: is it the “diary” EJB heard of?
— The portrait at the front of the Corys’ volume (IMG_7492), and the photograph found on Ancestry in 2015.
— The source of EJB’s picture of the West Norwood stone.
— Emigration, 1862; Confederate service records (M377 roll 13); marriage to Ellen (Rebecca Hill?); the son William H. (Tyson) Cory, born c.1871; when the family took the name Cory.
— The Memoir of William Henry Cory, transcribed by Michael and Tripp Cory, using Claude, September 2026.
— Walter Canning, 1604, 11th Hussars (E.J. Boys Archive), with Canning as William Cory (PB’s notes) and extra information.
— Correspondence with Tripp and Michael Cory, September 2026.
— L.W. Crider, “William Henry Cory and other doubtful chargers”, The War Correspondent 23/4 (January 2006), and “Walter Canning (1604), 11th Hussars”, WC (April 2006).
— R. Mills, “William Cory 11th Hussars: a tale of two headstones and three identities”, WC (April 2006).
— T. Margrave, “Three names, two stones, two countries”, Crossfire, Spring 2018, pp. 13–17 (pdf).
— W.M. Lummis and K.G. Wynn, Honour the Light Brigade, p. 152; L.W. Crider, In Search of the Light Brigade, p. 159.
— The Times, 10 Feb 1857, 10 Dec 1858, 5 Jan 1859; Morning Advertiser, 17 Dec 1858; Old Bailey Proceedings t18590103-173; TNA PCOM 3/102/10620.
Compiled by Philip Boys, with Roy Mills, Laurence Crider and Tony Margrave, building on the work of E.J. Boys. Build 3 — 26 September 2026.