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LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

Added 26.11.12.

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

1424, Private Thomas NEIL — 4th Light Dragoons

Birth & early life

Born in Moale, Co. Westmeath, c.1832.

Enlistment

Enlisted at Athlone on the 16th of October 1849.

Age: 17.

Height: 5' 8".

Trade: Tailor.

Fair complexion. Hazel eyes. Brown hair.

Service

At Scutari from the 4th of April — 11th of May 1855.

Sent to the Invalid Depot on the 28th of June 1861.

Discharge & pension

Discharged from Dublin on the 26th of August 1861.

"Unfit for further service. He has, for the last 18 months, laboured under disease of the right lung. There is also a tendency towards consumption. The disease has probably developed by his service in the Crimea."

(The muster roll for the period shows him as being "discharged by purchase," but this was obviously not so, and there is no "Amount paid" shown.)

Served 10 years 290 days.

In Turkey and the Crimea: 1 year 10 months.

Once tried by Court-martial.

Tried by a Regimental Court-martial on the 4th of January 1856 for "absence, and being drunk on the streets of Constantinople." Sentenced to 14 days imprisonment, with hard labour.

Aged 28 years 10 months on discharge.

Granted a pension of 6d. per day for two years.

Medals

Documents confirm the award of the Crimean medal with four clasps, [sic].

Entitled (according to the medal rolls) to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol.

Commemorations

Life after service

Death & burial

His documents also state, "Dead"... no date.

Died in the Tullamore Pension District, Ireland, on the 28th of June 1862.


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