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Joseph Sleightholme - War veteran or not?

Joseph Sleightholme - War veteran or not?

Posted: 29 Jul 2014 10:24PM GMT
Classification: Query
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

Re: Joseph Sleightholme - War veteran or not?

Posted: 31 Aug 2014 10:54AM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi Louise

Ancestry have the Crimean War medal roll on line. There are four - W, 2 As and an F, but no Js. One problem is that the medal roll for the Crimea is in poor condition, and so liable to transcription errors. It is true that a veteran would receive two medals - the British one inscribed with his regiment, rank and name, and an un-named Turkish medal. To use the medal rolls you need to know his regiment. There were no permanent barracks in these days, so you cannot use his location as a pointer to which regiment he joined. It would have been one just passing through.

The siege of Sebastopol only lasted 11 and a half months, not eighteen. The war lasted longer but did not always involve trench warfare. It occupied the whole of 1855, so I think you should concentrate on finding his marriage which you say took place about then.

KM

Re: Joseph Sleightholme - War veteran or not?

Posted: 2 Sep 2014 11:57PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi Ken

Thanks for that - I have tracked him down by using the number for the nearest surname in Ancestry and you were right - the transcription was wrong. It seems he joined the Grenadier Guards and a prompt reply from their volunteers confirmed the number does indeed match my man.

Very grateful for the info on the medals as that matches his headstone carvings.

Louise
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