Crimean War - Thomas Bruce Hutton

Family history is one way to explore and help to understand military events.

Thomas Bruce Hutton (1834-1914) was born in India where his father was a captain in the British army serving in India until 1841. The family then returned to Scotland and Thomas was listed in the 1851 Scottish Census as a scholar living in Lanarkshire. He became a professional soldier and served in the British Army from his enlistment in 1855 aged 20 to his resignation from the service in 1872 aged 38. During that time he served with the 21st (Royal Scots) Fusiliers, the 61st (South Gloucester) Regiment of Foot and the 100th (Prince of Wales Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot. Deployments were to the Crimean War, Indian Mutiny, Canada, West Indies and West Africa as well as time spent at Aldershot in England training soldiers.

Thomas Bruce Hutton enlisted as an ensign in the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers on10 January 1855 when he was 20. By July 1855 he was a lieutenant and on his way to the Crimean War (1853-1856). His first involvement was at the Siege of Sevastopol which took place from 25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855. Thomas would have arrived towards the end of the siege and during the final battle for Sevastopol on 8 September the regiment was in reserve and not involved in the actual battle.

With four other regiments from the Fourth Division the Fusiliers then took part in the bombardment of Kinburn on 7 October. The regiment then returned to the Crimea until the end of May 1856. From there they went to Malta before serving in the West Indies. For his services in the Crimea, Thomas received a medal and clasp from the Queen, and also a Turkish medal.

 Details of Thomas' military history were listed in an article in the Argus on Saturday 11 February 1882 when Colonel Hutton was invited by the Government to take temporary command of the volunteer forces in Victoria. Information about military units can often be found on line. In this case

History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers  is a book by Buchan available online and there is a Wikipedia article on the 100th (Prince of Wales) Regiment of Foot.

The Crimea Medal was a campaign medal of the British Forces awarded for taking part in campaigns against the Russians on the Crimean peninsula and surrounding area from 28th March 1854 to 30th March 1856. Clasp-Sebastopol.

 He was also awarded the Turkish Crimea Medal. The Sultan of Turkey awarded the medal to allied military personnel involved in the Crimean War.

Both of these images were found via a Google search the website, Forces War Records also has images of a number of British medals from various campaigns. They also have brief records relating to British soldiers who have fought in various wars including the Crimean War. This is a paid site and when I took out a one month subscription I found a little information. Like most databases additional records are constantly being added.