Death & burial
Death registered
William Newitt, aged 63 years, June Quarter 1889, Kensington.
Born c.1829.
Enlisted into the 14th Light Dragoons at London on the 19th of February 1848. Regimental No. 1715.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 9".
Trade: None shown.
Embarked for India on the 15th of June 1850 and joining the regiment on the 2nd of October 1850.
Transferred to the 3rd Light Dragoons, "by order of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, India, dated the 11th of August 1852" on the 13th of November 1852. Regimental No. 2113.
Transferred to the 8th Hussars on the 1st of July 1853.
Embarked for the Crimea aboard the H.T. "Wilson Kennedy" on the 2nd of May 1854.
From Private to Corporal: 1st of November 1854.
Corporal to Sergeant: 1st of January 1855.
Served in Lord Raglan's Escort from January of 1855
Resigned to Private, "at his own request", on the 23rd of June 1855.
He was batman to Lord Seaton from July-September of 1856.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
Embarked for England on the 1st of January 1860, going from Chatham to the Canterbury Depot on the 24th of April 1860.
Discharged, "on completion of service", from Canterbury on the 12th of June 1860, per H.Q. Authority, dated 18th of January 1860.
Served 12 years 226 days.
Conduct: "good".
In possession of one Good Conduct badge.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Central India.
Served at Kotah (1858).
From Britain's Roll of Glory, by D.H. Parry, published in 1895:
"The last Balaclava man that I knew personally was Private Newitt of the 8th Hussars... and for many years he carried a sandwich board for Madame Tussaud's Exhibition.
When he died the papers announced that he was in the employ of the Marylebone Vestry — which was a gentle way of saying that he had died, either in the Workhouse — the last home for many survivors of the gallant Six Hundred — or at any rate, he was in receipt of parish relief."
1881 Census
3, Circus Mews, St. Marylebone.
The 1881 Census shows a man of this name, a Labourer, aged 54, born in St. George's Parish, Middlesex, with his wife, Charlotte, 50, born in Brighton, Sussex, and one son, 12,a scholar.
Death registered
William Newitt, aged 63 years, June Quarter 1889, Kensington.
Death registration and clipping kindly provided by Chris Poole.