Born in the parish of St. Peter's, Leeds, on the 2nd of June 1828.
The IGI references show a Charles Macauley was baptised at Gildersome, Yorkshire, on the 7th of March 1830, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Macauley (nee Naylor).
His parents were married at Batley, Yorkshire, on the 19th of September 1819.
Other children born into the family were Mary Ann, baptised in November 1820, John, baptised on the 8th of January 1824, Elizabeth, in May 1824, Rachel, in March 1824, Sarah Ann in March 1826, and Hannah in February 1837.
All were baptised at Gildersome with the exception of Hannah, shown as St. Peter's, Leeds.
His father was almost certainly the Richard Macaulay who is shown practising as a doctor in the first issue of the Medical Directory in 1859.
On the 2nd of August 1858 an Act was passed requiring that:
"all persons in need of Medical aid should be enabled to distinguish between qualified and un-qualified practitioners. Exception was made that any person actively practising medicine before the 1st day of August 1815 should, on the payment of a fee fixed by the Council, be exempt from having to obtain these set qualifications..."
Richard Macaulay was one of these persons so excepted. His place of abode was given as Rawcliffe, Selby, Yorkshire, and was out of the Directory from 1871.
It has been suggested that his only brother, John, also joined the 8th Hussars and went to the Crimea, but died of cholera before reaching it. However, no one of this name is recorded in the Regimental muster rolls as having enlisted, or as going to the Crimea with the regiment, or as having joined it at some later date.
This would seem to imply that the IGI records show the same person and family, Charles being the youngest son, as shown in his obituary. [PB: I'm not sure I understand this last sentence.]
Enlisted at Manchester into the 6th Dragoon Guards on the 3rd of April 1846. Regimental No. 902.
Age: 17 years 10 months.
Height: 5' 9".
Trade: Tailor.
Appearance: Fair complexion. Grey eyes. Lt. brown hair.
Transferred to the 8th Hussars on the 1st of May 1848.
1851 Census
Preston Cavalry Barracks, Steyning, Sussex.
Charles Macawley [sic], 22, unmarried, Private Soldier, born St Peters, York.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Echunga" on the 15th of May 1854.
From Private to Corporal: 10th of January 1855.
Corporal to Sergeant: 28th of August 1855.
1st of October 1857, sent to the Depot at Canterbury when the regiment went to India for the Mutiny campaign. Rejoined it in India on the 8th of February 1858.
Discharged from Manchester on the 13th of June 1865.
"Disabled from secondary syphilis — in his present state there is extensive perforation of the soft palate, rendering articulation indistinct and imperfect."
Served 18 years 345 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 335 days
In India: 7 years 135 days.
Conduct: "very good".
In possession of one Good Conduct badge when promoted.
Once entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Never tried by Court-martial.
Aged 36 years 11 months on discharge.
Awarded a pension of 1/6d. per day. Pension letters to the 2nd of September 1902.
To live at No. 24 St. Peter's Square, Leeds.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.
Served at Kotah.
He was awarded the French War Medal. The citation for this stated:
"Charged with the Light Brigade at Balaclava. Also present in the ranks at the Alma and Inkerman. Served with the Regiment throughout the war."
Attended the first Balaclava Banquet in 1875.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1877 and 1879 [EJB had 1875].
Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.
(He signed the Loyal Address as "Charles Macaulay." See copy of this in the 11th Hussar "Scrapbook".)
Attended the Annual Dinners in 1892, 1893, 1895, 1897 and 1898.
1881 Census
25, Burley Lane, Salisbury Terrace, Headingley cum Burley, Yorkshire.
The 1881 Census shows him as a Draper, aged 49, born at Gildersome, Yorkshire, living with his wife, Hannah, 31, born in Leeds, and two children, Hannah, 8, and Ernest L., aged 5. One Domestic Servant was kept.
After leaving the Army he set up in business as a Hosier, having a stand in the Covered Market at Leeds for over 30 years.
He took a great interest in the Leeds Crimean and Indian Mutiny Veteran's Association, and was a vice-president.
Deaths registered
Charles Macaulay, aged 72 years, March Quarter 1905, Leeds
Hannah Macaulay, aged 64 years, December Quarter 1913, Leeds
According to a newspaper report [unspecified source] of his death and funeral (below), Charles Macauley was the youngest son of Mr. Richard Macauley, a surgeon, of Rawcliffe. He was 73 years old at the time of his death, and had married the youngest daughter of a Mr. Richard Compton, of Leeds. Charles Macauley left a widow, a son, William Macauley, and a daughter, the latter being the wife of Mr W. Sakeld, of Hull. (There is a copy in the 8th Hussar file.)
About a year before his death he suffered a stroke, from which he never fully recovered.Confined to his room for about a month, he died suddenly at his home at No. 12 Providence Row, Claypit Lane, Leeds, on the 5th of January 1905. He was buried from St. Matthew's Church in Camp Road, Leeds, on the 9th of January in Woodhouse Cemetery, St. George's Fields.
Several years ago [in the 1970s] the Woodhouse Cemetery (a small inter-denominational one) was bought by the town's University to enlarge their grounds. On its being landscaped to make into a small park, a professor at the University pressured the local authority to preserve some of the more interesting headstones, and Macaulay's was one of these.
The gravestone bears the inscriptions:
"In memory of Charles Macaulay. Late Sergeant 8th K.R.I. Hussars. Died 5th January 1905. "One of the Six Hundred."
Also of Hannah Macaulay, his dearly beloved wife, who died the 29th December 1913, aged 64 years.
Also Hannah, wife of Charles Macaulay, died November 11th 1873, aged 31 years.
Also of Charles Herbert Macaulay, died November 29th 1874, aged 3 years and 6 months.
Also of Ernest Crompton Macaulay, who died January 13th 1883, aged 3 years and 2 months."
(See copy of a photograph of this stone in the 8th Hussar file.)
Extract from the Broad Arrow for the 20th of August 1905:
"8th Hussars — Mr. Charles Macauley, one of the Light Brigade heroes and formerly of the Regiment, was buried at Leeds on the 9th with military honours. The funeral took place in the Woodhouse Cemetery, the Revd. C.E. Croft officiating. Wreaths were sent by officers and men of the Regiment and four sergeants attended the funeral."
His name appears on a memorial in Leeds Parish Church (St. Peter's).
[PB: See http://www.yorkshireindexers.info/wiki/index.php?title=Leeds_Parish_Church_Crimean_War_Memorials. Also Pte John Murphy 13LD.]
IN MEMORY OF LIEUT. JAMES MARSHALL
68TH REGT. L.I.,
AND OF
THE NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND PRIVATES, NATIVES OF LEEDS
WHO DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
IN THE CRIMEAN WAR
FROM 1854 TO 1856
In May 1897 a Mr G.H. Powell wrote an article for the magazine The Regiment on 598 John Vahey, 17th Lancers — "Butcher Jack" — in which he stated that Vahey had served in the 13th Light Dragoons.
1209 William Bird, 8th Hussars, commented in a letter to the Editor that this was wrong. In reply, Powell referred him to the article by Archibald Forbes [quoted in full in Vahey's entry] which said that Forbes had an interview with Vahey a few years before this [impossible, because Vahey had been dead many years, dying in India soon after the Mutiny campaign] and that the latter had stated that he definitely belonged to the 13th Light Dragoons.
Shortly afterwards a letter from Charles Macauley of the 8th Hussars was printed:
In connection with the previous correspondence concerning John Veigh, I beg to state that he was one of the 17th Lancers and not of the 13th Light Dragoons...
I have every reason to know, as I was the "boy" referred to as the one he picked up on the field.
I was lying under my second horse, a Russian one, my first having been shot under me. He was on foot, in his shirt-sleeves, and held his naked sword-blade in his hand, not his axe, as stated.
He assisted me from under the second horse and put me on another which was passing (being without a rider) and brought me off the field.
The Brigade was dismounted when we got in, and we were some of the last who came out of the "Charge."
In 1857 the 8th and the 17th embarked aboard the "Great Britain" for the Indian Mutiny campaign and my old comrade and I were amongst the passengers. The last I heard of him was about 4 years after the Crimea, when I received a letter from him... Shortly afterwards I heard that he had died in India."
After the funeral of 1126, Robert A. Johnston, 8th Hussars at Harrogate, Macaulay and a few others met in the Gymnasium there to discuss the possibility of a headstone for him. It was arranged for a local stonemason named Potts to carve and erect this.
On the face of the stone before it was recently renovated it said from "a friend", but these words were cut on top of other letters which it is thought said "dear friends". So did Macaulay pay the whole cost, or did the other men who sat down with him think it was only right that the stone should be from him, as he had ridden with Johnston?
Census information for 1851, membership of the Balaclava Commemoration Society, and death registrations kindly provided by Chris Poole.