Gough nearly died in Charge of the Heavy Brigade and then risked his life caring for cholera victims

man called Yates came up on his horse from somewhere and made for that Russian.

“He got him first of all on one side of the neck and then on the other – nearly cut the head off him. Then he turned to me and shouted: ‘Shoot him, quick he isn’t half dead.’

“I wasn’t going to shoot a dead man but that Yates didn’t think he was done for, and his head was nearly off.”

Finally Joseph had a horse brought up for him and he entered the fight again, by which time the Russians were retreating.

Joseph proceeded to take part in the battles at Inkerman and Sevastopol.

The weather in the Crimea was often poor and one legacy he was to suffer as a result was rheumatism, the result of “living in the mud and wet, continually wearing wet clothing which had to dry on for we had no changes and no fire to go to,” as he described it.

At one time half the regiment was down with cholera

‘I saw a mounted Russian making for me with his sabre drawn...’ ‘Poor fellows screaming and shouting in their agony’

Joseph Gough’s grave at Stoney Royd Cemetery, Halifax. and it was then that Joseph distinguished himself, displaying a superior courage than was required in the heat and tumult of battle.

He was one of six corporals whose duty was to escort the sick to what passed as a hospital.

“I was sent up one day in charge of these sick,” said the old man,” and it was my duty to stay all day. The poor fellows had to lay on the ground with a blanket over them and we had nothing to give them except tea and brandy.

“And they went off so quickly; I’ve been talking to a man and then seen him wrapped under a blanket two hours after – dead.

“None of the other corporals came up to relieve me and after a week of it I put the case before the regimental sergeant. He called the corporals together and they all said they were afraid of catching cholera.

“So the regimental sergeant asked me how I felt about it. I said I wasn’t afraid but that it was disagreeable hearing the poor fellows screaming and shouting in their agony, old comrades that we couldn’t do anything for.

“Well the sergeant said I had better stay if I wasn’t afraid and so I did, about a week longer and until the camp was broken up.” Joseph was promoted to sergeant for this dedication to duty.

The 5th Dragoons arrived back in England from the Crimea in May 1856, two years to the day after they had left. Joseph had not missed a day’s duty, despite the arduous nature of the campaign and, indeed, to use his own words, he was “never sick a minute”.

In November of that same year, at the request of his officers, Gough went back to the regimental band as trumpetmajor and held that position until he left the army in 1873.

In October 1858, at St Peter’s Church, Aston, Birmingham, Joseph married Selina Earp; they were to have five surviving children. The family moved around with the regiment, to Aldershot, Brighton, Dublin and Colchester. By 1871 Gough was stationed at barracks in Leeds.

Two years later he was discharged from the army and moved to Halifax, living initially in Green Hill Place. He transferred to the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry, serving until it was disbanded in 1894.

Joseph’s wife, Selina, died in February 1884, aged 47, and was the first of the family to be buried in the family vault at Stoney Royd. Twelve years later their eldest son, Joseph Frederick, died and was buried at Bournemouth.

Back in 1904 Joseph Gough had this to say in favour of the army: “It is an excellent thing for young men in these days. If they are steady and good scholars they are bound to get on.

“The conditions now are very different to what they were in my day. The men are well treated, better paid, have less to buy and have clothes oftener.”

He always treasured his Crimean medal with three clasps for Balaclava, Inkerman, and Sevastopol, also the Turkish medal and the medal for meritorious service.

Joseph died at 8 Heath Street, Halifax, in October 1908. He had often expressed the desire to die on the anniversary of Balaclava but survived one day too long.

He was given a military funeral, the coffin travelling on a gun carriage, being escorted by a detachment of soldiers; senior army officers also walked in the procession.

Many old soldiers, bandsmen and members of the former Yeomanry attended the interment and the Last Post was sounded by Buglers Cornwill and Howarth.