WARDE, John. East Indies and Malta.

Died October 1891, Age 57. Colour Sergeant, 51st (Kings Own) Light Infantry. Service Number 1880.

John Warde was born around 1833 in Bagdad, Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), and baptised in the Roman Catholic church in Hobart Town on 22 October 1834. He was the son of Edward Ward(e), believed to have been a soldier of the 21st Regiment of Foot (Royal North British Fusiliers), then stationed in the colony, and his wife Sarah Redmond. Army clerks recorded the family name as "Ward", but John signed himself "John Warde", the spelling his family has used ever since.

On 26 March 1845, at the age of 12, John enlisted as a "boy" in the 51st (King's Own) Light Infantry at Hobart Town, with the service number 1880. He became a Bugler in 1850 and served with the regiment in the Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-1853), for which he received the India General Service Medal with the clasp "Pegu". He rose to Bugle Major in 1855, then to Corporal, Sergeant and Bugle Major again, before being promoted to Colour Sergeant on 7 September 1864.

In all, John spent nearly 14 years overseas: 12 years and 11 months in the East Indies and 10 months in Malta. In 1862, he married Rebecca (née Bates) in Rawalpindi, India, where their eldest son, George Edward, was born the following year. Their children were born across the regiment's postings: George Edward (Rawalpindi, 1863), Louis Philip (India, 1865), Sarah (Dover, 1867), John Charles (Weymouth, 1869), Arthur (Athlone barracks, 1872), Walter (Derby, 1874) and Harry (Derby, about 1875).

In 1870 John was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with a £10 gratuity. In 1871 he was with the regiment at the Curragh Camp, County Kildare, and on 21 May 1872 he was discharged at Athlone at his own request, with a pension, after 21 years' reckonable service. His character was recorded as "very good". His son Arthur was born in the barracks there five weeks later.

John then came to Derby as Sergeant Instructor to the 1st Derbyshire Rifle Volunteers. By 1875 the family lived at 11 Crosby Street, Derby, where the 1881 census records him as a drill instructor. By 1891, he had retired as an army pensioner and lived at 163 New Street, Burton upon Trent. He died in October 1891 and was buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery (plot A33, grave 11862), where his wife, Rebecca (died 1924), and their daughter, Sarah (died 1951), were later buried with him.

Several of John's sons made their careers on the railway in Derby. George Edward worked in the Midland Railway accountant's department for 35 years and is also buried at Nottingham Road. Arthur became a railway telegraph clerk and Harry a railway telegraphist. Arthur was 42 when war broke out in 1914 and in reserved railway work, and he is the only man in the direct line not to have served.

The family's military tradition continued in later generations. John's grandson Arthur Andrew Warde served with the Royal Bucks Hussars and the 101st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, on the Western Front in 1918. His great-grandson Andrew Samuel Warde did RAF National Service in Egypt from 1947 to 1949. His great-great-grandson (who wrote this bio), served as an officer in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from 1999 to 2002, and as a reservist from 2018 to 2020.

Sources: Discharge papers, WO 97/2131; medal roll, WO 100/21A; 51st Foot muster roll, WO 12/6234; censuses of 1881 and 1891; Roman Catholic baptisms, Hobart, 1834; Derby Daily Telegraph, 1 August 1913.