Born at Kilocruch, Co. Wexford, c.1819.
Enlisted at Dublin on the 30th of August 1837.
Age: 18 years 4 months.
Height: 5'8".
Trade: Carpenter.
Appearance: Fresh complexion. Blue eyes. Lt. brown hair.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Echunga" on the 15th of May 1854.
Sent to the Depot on the 1st of October 1857, when the regiment went to India for the Mutiny campaign.
Discharged from Canterbury on the 2nd of October 1861.
"Free to pension, having completed 24 years' service,"
Served 24 years 34 days.
Conduct and character: "very good".
In possession of five Good Conduct badges.
Awarded a pension of 1/1d per day from the 15th of October 1861, but this was increased to 1/3d per day from the 25th of March 1862.
Aged 42 years 5 months on discharge.
Next of kin: Wife, Matilda Guill. There were three children in the family when he left the service.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with clasps for Balaklava, Inkerman and Sebastopol, and the Long Service & Good Conduct medal with a gratuity of £5.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
He was awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 24th of March 1860.
To live c/o. "The Prince Regent", Hounslow, after discharge, but he afterwards lived in Woolwich.
Died in the South London Pension District on the 3rd of January 1863.
The St. Catherine's House records show him as dying at Chertsey, Surrey, during the January-March Quarter of 1863. No age at death is shown, this being before it was recorded.
His death certificate shows that he died at St Ann's Hill, Chertsey (no particular number shown) from "Rheumatism and Meningitis", at the age of 45 years. Then shown as a Lodge Keeper and Pensioner of the 8th Hussars, and a Frederick Henry Williams, of the same address, was present at, and the informant of, his death. (See copy in the "Certificates" file.)
A son, William John, entered theRoyal Military Asylum at Chelsea on the 27th of May 1863, aged 10 years. His father was shown as "Dead" at this time, and his mother, Matilda, as "Still alive." He was "Returned to his mother," on the 28th of July 1864 in order to be placed in the North Hyde School.