Enlisted at Coventry on the 13th of April 1838.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 9".
Trade: None shown.
From Private to Corporal: 9th of January 1843.
Corporal to Sergeant: 20th of September 1845.
Recruiting Sergeant in London during 1851-51.
To Provost Sergeant on the 7th of September 1853, the regiment being at Trowbridge and Dorchester.
Killed in action at Balaclava, 25th of October 1854.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, and Sebastopol.
Killed in action at Balaclava.
Next of kin: a wife, Hannah Talbot.
He left no will, his "credits" being £3/6/10d. Is shown as "Small book not forthcoming."
Edward Talbot is mentioned in 1177 James Wightman's "Memoirs":
"It was about this time that Sergt. Talbot who rode in the 2nd Squadron had his head severed from his body, and rode about 20 yards or more with the lance held firmly under the arm at the charge before the body left the saddle."
And in an interview given by 1009 Francis Stanley in October 1875 to a Sheffield newspaper:
EJB: From this it would seem that he did not actually reach the guns."Sergeant Talbot rode next to me in the front rank. When we were half-way down he had his head blown off, and he rode sixty yards in the saddle before he fell off."
He is also mentioned by 772 Thomas Davies in his letters home as "having had friends or relatives at the "Leopard" Public House at Dale End, Birmingham". (There is a copy of both in the 17th Lancer file.) There was a public house of that name at No. 87 Dale End, Birmingham, the then-proprietor's name being Joseph Richards. There was no obituary notice for Talbot mentioned in the Birmingham newspapers of the time.
See also the record of 481 James Scarfe, 17th Lancers, for details of Talbot's daughter Alice Mary, who married a son of James Scarfe.