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Subject: Joseph Sleightholme - War veteran or not?
Author: katz3_1
Date: Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Classification: Query
Surnames:

Hi All
First time of posting a query.

I am trying to establish whether a resident of our town was in fact in the Crimean War. The local history group has re-sited a gravestone for Joseph Sleightholme (born Kirkbymoorside 21 Oct 1831 - died same 15 March 1909) in the local churchyard and on it is carved the image of two medals and the word Crimea under them. In the parish magazine there is an entry, which states he spent his life "mostly in the Army and passed sixteen months in the trenches before Sebastapol, where he took part in most of the attacks upon that fortress." He came out "practically uninjured" at the end of the war with his "well won medals." At his funeral a squad from the 5th Yorkshire attended the graveside and fired three volleys - his coffin was draped in the Union Jack.

All this led me to ask the Green Howards Museum at Richmond if they had any records and the curator could find no trace on any database she had access to and his funeral was not listed as being attended in the 1909 Gazettes. (He may not have served in the war after all?) Can anyone give me any clues as to how to solve this mystery? He married around 1855 and appears in census 1861 onwards as a farmer/labourer.

Hoping someone out there can assist me.

Louise
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