Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Carol Dyer in New Zealand:

‘My great grandfather was on the Odin as ’seamen’s schoolmaster’ in about 1855. He is listed as receiving a medal for service in the Crimea.

1. What would his job entail?
2. What was the Odin doing in the Crimea? I can’t find many references to her.’

Paul says:

‘The rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was covered in a memorandum issued by the Admirality on 15 May 1837. It was introduced as a result of the desire of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty who were, “anxious to extend the advantages of education to the Petty Officers, Seamen, Marines, and Boys of the Fleet” by appointing one Seamen’s Schoolmaster “in every ship of His Majesty’s Navy.” The memorandum continued:

“The person to fill this rating is to be entered or selected by the Commanding Officer of the Ship, with the approbation of their Lordships. Vacancies occurring abroad may be filled up from the ship’s company, if a person properly qualified be found on board; if not, one may be taken from any other ship with the consent of his Commanding Officer, and the approbation of the senior Officer present.”

The Seamen’s Schoolmaster was to be “competent to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, viz., the first four rules, the ‘Rule of Three, Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, Logarithmic Arithmetic, Plane Trigonometry, and to keep a ship’s reckoning at sea.”

Commanding Officers of His Majesty’s Ships were obliged to allow as many boys and men who wanted to be taught, provided this did not interfere with the “proper discharge of the duties of the ship.”

So the rating of Seamen’s Schoolmaster was an uncommon one, and one presumes that medals awarded to Seamen Schoolmasters would command a premium. As for HMS Odin, according to Wikipedia, she was a steam-powered first class paddle steamer launched in 1846 and armed with 16 guns: two 68-pounders, ten 32-pounders and four ten-inch. The ship took part in the bombardment and siege of Sebastopol in 1855, having left Spithead on the 27th February that year. I hope this helps with your research.’

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We are very proud to announce the launch of four sets of nineteenth and twentieth century military records to help enrich your family history. The records provide useful detail including attestation and leaving dates, achievements made in service and soldiers’ physical appearence. And, certainly in the case of the 1861 records, the records can fill in gaps left by the census.

The releases are the 1861 Worldwide Army Index, Royal Fusiliers Collection 1863-1905, Paddington Rifles 1860-1912 and Surrey Recuitment Registers 1908-1933.

The 1861 Worldwide Army Index (or The 1861 Worldwide Soldier Index) entailed the extraction of some 245,000 serving soldiers.

The Paddington Rifles database contains the names of over 8,600 men who served with the battalion from its inception in 1860 until its demise in 1912. It can therefore be a vital tool in providing colour to your London ancestors.

The Royal Fusiliers Collection 1863-1905 comprises the names of close to 5000 officers and men who took part in a series of British military campaigns between 1863 and 1904.

The Surrey Recruitment Registers comprises details of approximately 85,000 men who attested for service with a variety of regiments in Surrey between 1908 and 1933.

You can also have a look through all our military records.

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Gail Quirt in Toronto, Canada:

‘I have hit the proverbial brick wall in finding out about my great-great-grandfather, William Booth. I have a registration certificate from the General Register Office for the birth of his son, Joseph Booth, in Benares, East Indies on 27 January, 1864. I know he was in the British Army in India (since his son was born there) and the family stories have him fighting in the Crimea War.

William must have died around the time Joseph was born, as Joseph ‘is recorded as a child of the marriage of 1403 Lance Corporal Edward Lee and Rosannah Booth, Widow’, but I am unable to find the date and place of his death.

Using findmypast.co.uk’s military records, there are a few William Booths who seem to have been in the Crimea and India at the right times. I have no information on when or where William Booth was born and I’m not sure which of the William Booths is my ancestor. Would you be able to find out which is the right William Booth, and when and where he was born and died?’

Paul says:

‘The excellent www.dnw.co.uk website gives three possibilities for a William Booth who fought during the Indian Mutiny and appears on the Indian Mutiny Medal Roll. These three men, all named William Booth, served with the 34th Foot, the 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 8th Hussars.

Finding a man on the Crimean war medal roll is far more difficult purely because the condition of much of the roll is best described as ’shocking’ and, at worst, ‘unreadable’ or ‘missing’. There is, however, a William Booth with the 8th Hussars (number 1350) who is possibly the same man who later served during the Mutiny.

I thought that he might be a possible candidate until I checked our Chelsea Pensioners records and found that he was discharged from the army (and, therefore, still very much alive) in 1866. Remember too that the Chelsea Pensioners’ data is only for men who were discharged to pensions. If a man was discharged without a pension, or if he died, he won’t be in the Chelsea Pensioners WO97 records.

Later in the year we’ll be releasing records from the WO119 series which is Kilmainham Pensioners’ discharge documents. These are similar to WO97 but only cover the period up until 1821 and so we can rule that out. You may, however, find a death for William Booth in the Indian collection which we’re currently working on with the British Library. Read more about this fantastic project.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

We’ve been looking into the records of the legendary Florence Nightingale to mark the centenary of her death today.

Nightingale was a visionary health reformer who led the nurses during the Crimean War (1853-1856), which is mainly remembered for three things: the Charge of the Light Brigade, mismanagement in the British Army and Florence Nightingale.

As well as finding out about Florence, we’ve also unearthed fascinating documents on Edwin Hughes, who in 1923 became the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade until his death on 18 May 1927. Hughes was buried with full military honours in Layton Cemetery in Blackpool.

Florence Nightingale

In the census for England and Wales, taken every 10 years, Florence Nightingale can be found listed from 1871 to 1901 living at 10 South Street, St. George Hanover Square, London. In the 1861 census she is found living at 30, Old Burlington Street, St. James, London as a lodger, aged 40:

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Her occupation is listed as a former hospital nurse and she lived with just one other person, her housekeeper, Mary Beatley (48). In the 1841 census Florence, then aged 20, can be found living with her parents in Embley, Wellow, Hampshire. This was the family home from 1825, before she started to pursue her nursing career.

After her death in London on 13 August 1910 her body was brought by train back to Romsey, and her coffin carried from the station to the church at East Wellow where she is buried.

In the later 1881 and 1891 censuses, Nightingale lists her occupation in greater detail as Directress of Nightingale Fund for Training Hospital Nurses - in the 1891 census she was 70 years old and still working:

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The fund was set up as a direct result of her work in the Crimean War. In all the census entries she is listed either as single or unmarried, further documenting the fact she never married.

In the final census that was to be taken in her lifetime, the 1901 census, she is listed as living on her own means; she was 80 years old, and still living at 10 South Street, Hanover Square with five servants - a cook, a ‘maid domestic’, two ‘housemaid domestics’ and a ‘kitchen maid domestic’. Her housemaid Alice Moody and domestic maid, Ellen Kate Tugby were both from Wellow, Hampshire, where Florence was brought up.

Edwin Hughes - the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade

We have also found Troop Sergeant Major Edwin Hughes, known as ‘Balaclava Ned’, the last survivor of the famous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records, which we have published online for the first time, in association with The National Archives.

The collection currently comprises over 4 million full colour images of the service records of soldiers in the British Army in receipt of a pension administered by The Royal Hospital Chelsea, and who were discharged between the dates 1760 and 1900.

Each individual soldier’s record consists of a minimum of four pages, and can be up to 20, full of fascinating personal details. Edwin Hughes has eight pages of records charting his time with the military in great detail. Each page has been painstakingly filmed by hand by FamilySearch, our partner in this two-year project.

Hughes was born in Wrexham, Wales on 12 December 1830, and died in Blackpool on 14 May 1927, aged 96. In the service records he was listed as a shoemaker before and after he joined the 13th Light Dragoons (later known as 13th Hussars), part of the Light Brigade, at Liverpool on 1 November 1852, as 1506 Private Hughes. In 1854 he went to fight in the Crimean War for two years in Russia and he was also based in Turkey for two years 11 months.

He was awarded the British Crimea Medal, the Turkish Crimea Medal, as well as The Silver Medal for long service and good conduct. The Chelsea Pensioner Service Records also list his progression through the army. In 1858 Hughes was promoted to Corporal, in 1863 to Sergeant, and in 1871 to Troop Sergeant Major.

On 24 November 1873 he was discharged from the Army at Colchester Garrison at his own request having completed 21 years and 24 days’ service. His discharge papers describe him as being 5 feet nine inches tall, of fresh complexion with sandy hair and hazel eyes:

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The day after leaving the Army, Hughes enlisted in the Worcestershire Yeomanry (a mounted volunteer unit), staying as Sergeant-Instructor until 5 January 1886. He was discharged on account of ‘old age’.

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Debra Chatfield, our marketing manager (pictured below), said:

‘Finding both Florence and Edwin within the records is fascinating, as we get to imagine them on a more personal level, adding to the legends that already surround them. Collections like the censuses and the British Army service records can enable everyone researching their family tree to add the same level of personal details to their own ancestors - truly bringing to life their family history.

‘Using family history websites, such as findmypast.co.uk, is more popular than ever in the UK. With the amount of historical records that are now available to search and view online people are not only able to find out about their own family trees, but historical events and figures through history.’