Born at Steyning, Sussex.
Enlisted at Brighton on the 3rd of December 1854.
Age: 23.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Smith.
Joined the regiment in the Crimea on the 20th of June 1855.
A nominal roll of men of the regiment at the Cavalry Depot, Scutari, made out on the 9th of November 1855, shows him as being On Duty there from the 24th of October.
Transferred to the 7th Hussars at Aldershot on the 1st of August 1857. Regimental No. 88.
Died "of sunstroke," in India on the 18th of June 1858.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasp for Sebastopol.
Mutiny medal with clasp for Lucknow.
Served in the field in Oude, East Indies, from the 4th of February — 14th of May 1858, including the Siege of Lucknow, 2-16 of March 1858.
Not recorded by Lummis and Wynn.
He was christened William Coverson White at Steyning parish church of St. Andrew's on the 3rd of July 1831, the son of Maria White, a single woman. A further search of the records shows a William Coverson, aged 31 years, being buried in the churchyard there on the 15th of February 1832.
Added to the entry is "Shot by Excise Officers" (the last smuggler but one to be killed in Sussex.) Was this man perhaps his father...
See extract from the "Brighton Herald" for the 26th of February 1832, describing the affray at Worthing between the smugglers and the coast-guards and the inquest and verdict on the death of William Cowardson [sic] in the 4th Hussar file. A similar, but shortened, report appeared inThe Times of the 27th of February 1832.