Born c.1826.
Enlisted at Longford on the 17th of April 1846.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 6".
Trade: None shown.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Echunga" on the 15th of May 1854.
Killed-in-action at Balaclava.
In his Descriptive Account of the Charge, 1131 John Doyle refers to the manner of his death:
"Lennan, who had brought the dog, Jemmy, along with him, was riding on my left when a round shot struck him on the side of the head and I got another splash from him. His body also, remained in the saddle for some time."
Again from John Doyle's pamphlet:
"We had a little dog called Jemmy, which a man named Lennan brought from Devonport as a little puppy and was taken great care of by the men. He used to follow the spent shot and shell, snapping at the fuse and trying to pull it out.
A shell landed under Captain Longworth's horse that would have blown him and his horse sky-high but for Jemmy the dog, who flew at it and pulled out the fuse."
From the Regimental History:
"No visitor to the Officers' Mess of the 8th is likely to forget that Jemmy, a rough-coated terrier, went all through the charge of the Light Brigade, where he was wounded in the neck by a splinter of shell.
He returned to England with the Regiment and at Dundalk Colonel De Salis gave him the collar which is still preserved in the Mess.
He embarked with the Regiment for India and marched with them daily until after the engagement of the 14th of August 1858.
He was drowned in September of that same year whilst crossing the river Chambul, the current proving too strong for him.
On the collar are the clasps awarded to Jemmy for war service at the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and the Indian Mutiny.
Major Otley of the regiment wrote an article in 1956 for the Regimental Journal in which he said that:
"The famous dog collar belonging to 'Jemmy' who, incidentally, was wounded at Inkerman and not at Balaclava, is in the Officers' Mess."
Links to Jemmy's page