Born on 3rd of August 1830 at Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
His documents mistakenly show him as born in Edinburgh, Co. Midlothian.
Detailed family information was received early in 1985 from his great-great-niece, a Mrs. Neill of Doncaster, Yorkshire. This showed that his full name was William Henry Elam and he was christened at St. Peter's Church, Huddersfield, on the 28th of August 1830, the son of William Elam, described as a "Cordwainer" [shoemaker], and his wife, Mary, nee Sykes. Both his parents were "of the parish", his (William's) father, being shown as a "Grocer" at the time of their marriage in June of 1829.
In 1832 his father took over a dry-salting business until 1838, at Holmefirth, and then moved back to Huddersfield as the proprietor of a livery and coach business until 1846, when he suddenly qualified as a veterinary surgeon at the Royal Dick Veterinary College in Edinburgh and later practised as such at Huddersfield from 1853-67 and at Liverpool from 1867 until his death in 1876.
Mrs Neill was also able to provide information about William Elam's later life (below).
Enlisted at Hounslow on the 24th of February 1854.
Age: 23.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Farrier.
Features: Fresh complexion. Blue eyes. Dk. brown hair.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September of 1858 show no particular service movement during the whole of this period.
In action against the rebels at Zeerapore on the 29th of December 1858 and at Baroda on the 1st of January 1859.
From Private to Farrier: 1st of April 1862.
Appointed to Farrier-Major (ranking as Sergeant) on the 28th of July 1862.
Re-engaged for a further 12 years' service at Colchester on the 7th of February 1866.
He is shown on the Regimental "Married roll" from the 9th of May 1857.
Discharged from Dundalk, Ireland, on the 26th of March 1875, as "Free, to pension at his own request, after 21 years service".
Served 21 years 41 days (to count towards pension.)
In Turkey and the Crimea: 2 years 1 month
In India: 7 years 1 month.
Aged 44 years on discharge.
Conduct and character: "very good." In possession of two Good Conduct badges when promoted and would now have been entitled to five.
Never entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Granted a pension of 2/3d. per day.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with one clasp, the Turkish medal, Mutiny medal and the medal without gratuity for long service and good conduct.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Mutiny medal without clasp.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 10th of August 1871.
On the 5th of November 1895, William, together with just over 100 veterans of the campaigns up to and including the Ashanti War of 1874-8 were invited to an Assembly and Banquet at Shrewsbury, and from the Market Square marched to the Music Hall.
He said he intended to live at 144, Taylor Street, Liverpool, after discharge, and was still there in 1878.
1881 Census
No trace can be found of William H Elam on the 1881 Census . However, one of his daughters, Sarah Ann, can be found as a "sick nurse officer" in Prestwich Workhouse, Crumpshall, Lancashire. [RM]
Death registered
Anna Maria Elam, 62, March Quarter 1891, Wortley.
1891 Census
William Elam, brother, widower, 60.
Mill Lane, Brighouse.
One child shown: his son Thomas, a Blacksmith.
Living with his brother Thomas, 56, a Blacksmith, and his wife Eleanor.
Died at Shrewsbury 28th of May 1896.
William Elam died at 16, Lindley Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on the 28th of May 1896 and the following is an extract from the Shrewsbury Chronicle for the 5th of June 1896:
"Singular death in Castlefields — On Saturday afternoon, Mr. R.E. Clarke (Borough Coroner) held an enquiry at the Telegraph Inn, New Park Street, Castlefields, Shrewsbury, touching the death of Mr. Henry William Elam [sic] a widower aged 65, who was found dead in his bed at his residence, No. 16 Linley Street, the same morning. Sarah Ann Walton, wife of George Walton, railway goods porter, said the deceased was her father. He had been a farrier sergeant-major in the 17th Lancers. He was a pensioner, and had lived with the witness for the past four years. He was registered to practise as a veterinary surgeon, but did not at the time follow the profession.
Deceased had left home on the 27th inst. to go to the Manchester Races, by an excursion. He was then suffering from a bad cold and on his return on Friday night his cold was worse. He told witness he had lost all he had on the Manchester Cup. He did not however seem depressed, except that his cold was worse and that his limbs ached. Deceased refused to take anything before retiring to bed, saying that he had a glass of whisky before coming in. He retired to bed about 10.15 p.m. and witness followed him almost immediately, and as she passed his door she spoke to him and he replied.
About six o'clock in the morning witness heard him cough twice and about 8.30 p.m. went to take him some porridge as usual, but upon opening the door she found the room almost stifling with the smell of chloroform. She at once went to the bed and found that the deceased, who had drawn the bedclothes over his head, was dead, and the bottle (produced) was afterwards found by his side. The stopper was also in the bed, near the bottle. Deceased had a box in his room which witness knew contained drugs, but witness had never seen him use chloroform although she last saw the bottle (produced) some months ago, when it was half-full. It had no label on it and witness did not think it had ever been labelled.
The deceased had never said anything about destroying himself, and it was nothing unusual for him to be without money for some weeks before drawing his pension. He had suffered from sleeplessness and witness thought he had been in the habit of using chloroform to induce sleep. Deceased had been put under chloroform at the Salop Eye and Ear Hospital some eight or nine months ago, when he had a cancer taken from the jaw.
This was all the evidence, and the Coroner, in summing up, said it was possible that the deceased had resorted to chloroform for the purpose mentioned by Mrs. Walton, i.e. to induce sleep, and that he had, whilst in a drowsy state, dropped the bottle into the bed, and had thus been suffocated. The jury returned a verdict of 'Death by misadventure'."
William Elam was buried in the General Cemetery at Shrewsbury in Plot No. 95.12.F.
No headstone was erected. (See photograph of the grave area, positioned immediately in front of the kerbed grave at the top of the picture, in the 17th Lancer file.)
According to his great-great-niece, Mrs. Neill of Doncaster, Yorkshire [writing in 1985], the address to which William Henry Elam moved on his discharge (144, Taylor Street, Liverpool) was an establishment with stabling for 36 horses in the heart of commercial Liverpool and although it was here that his father died, it was not his father's home address.
At the time of William H. Elam's enlistment into the Army he was working as a "Veterinary druggist" for an Oxford Street, London, veterinary surgeon, and the Census of 1851 shows his place of birth as Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
His wife's name was Anna, and up to the January-March quarter of 1871 there were four children shown in the family, their ages being as 13 years 6 months, 6 years 5 months, 4 years 1 month and 1 year 9 months. A check of the St. Catherine's House Army Chaplain's Baptismal Records shows a Sarah A. born at Neneagh, Ireland, 1857, Maria T. at Colchester in 1866, William H. at Aldershot in 1867 and Bertha at Sunbury in 1869.
The lapse of time between the first and second children would imply that Sarah A. was born about the time the regiment left Ireland to serve during the Indian Mutiny, and his wife did not join him in India. (The Regiment was at Colchester from May of 1865.)
Following his discharge from the Army, William H. Elam followed the family tradition and in 1881 qualified as a veterinary surgeon practitioner under the act of that same year. The preamble to this act then declared:
"It is expedient that provision be made to enable persons requesting the aid of a veterinary surgeon for the cure or prevention of diseases in, or injuries to horses or other animals, to distinguish between qualified and un-qualified persons..."
Following the passing of this Act, membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons became the only legal right to practice. However, Section 15 of the Act related to existing practitioners:
"Where at the passing of this act any person practices and has continually for not less than five years next before the passing of this Act practiced veterinary surgery in the United Kingdom, but is not on the Register of Veterinary Surgeons, he shall be entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, to be placed on a separate register under the heading of "Existing Practitioners" without examination, on such terms as to the payment of fees, and as to the other matters, as the Council of the said Royal College, with the approval of the Privy Council, directs."
Of these "Existing Practitioners", 866 were so registered, William Henry Elam being among them, but by the death of the last surviving Practitioner in 1952, the Register ceased to exist.
The R.C.V.S Register shows him as being at No. 127 Bradfield Road, Huddersfield, until 1891, at Mill Lane, Brighouse (where his brother, Thomas Alfred Elam, had a forge and farriery business, from 1882-92 ,and in 1894 at No. 35 George Street, St. Helen's, Lancashire. From 1895 until his death he was at No. 16 Lindley Street, Castleford, Shrewsbury.
Veterinary Surgeons seem to have run in the family. Besides William Henry and his father, the youngest brother, Charles Wentworth Elam (1st) 1839-9, Charles Wentworth Elam (3rd) 1896-1966 (W.H.'s nephew) also practised. Others were Master Farriers, Thomas Alfred Elam (1st) 1835-1910, (W.H.'s second brother) Charles Wentworth Elam (2nd) 1863-1947 (W.H.'s nephew) and William Henry (2nd) (also a nephew) and born in 1869, who is said to have emigrated to Australia after a broken love-affair and of whom all trace has been lost. Another great-nephew is said to have gone to Australia in the 1920s.
It is also known that W.H.'s son, William, born at Aldershot in 1867, was left £250 in his grand-father's will to pay for his training should he also wish to become a veterinary surgeon, but nothing further is known of him.
EJB: Mrs. Neill's own father just missed becoming a vet too because he could not pass the Latin examination. Mrs. Neill also possesses two hand-written exercise books formerly belonging to William Henry Elam, dated and signed on the fly-leaf, 1851-55, on horse anatomy and cures for general horse ailments.
Registration of death, and Census information for 1891, kindly provided by Chris Poole.