Sgt. Thomas Rushent of the Grenadier Guards and Yoeman of the Guard.

Details of Thomas Rushent appear on page 182 of The Records of Service of the Yeomen of the Guard, St James's Palace, London. Thomas enlisted in February 1846 and was discharged 28th October 1856 with 10 years and 254 days credited service. His discharge date is entered on the, Pensioned: line, which usually indicates that a soldier has been discharged to pension with a minimum of 21 years service - not so in this case - the most likely reason for his early discharge could be due to the wounds he suffered in the Crimea (loss of middle finger of left hand and muscle of right arm shot through ) which rendered him unfit for further service. It was reported from the Crimea that Sgt. Thomas Rushent of 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards was severely wounded on the 5th November 1854 at the Siege of Sebastopol.

We note he was appointed yeoman in 1877 and exempt further duties from 17th December 1893. Service overseas is given as 1 year in the Crimea, but on the photograph is recorded Turkey ( on the voyage to the war) and North America ( almost certainly, Canada)

His medals are: Crimea, ( with clasps for, Alma, Balaclava, Inkermann and Sebastopol) Turkish Crimea, Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee 1887 with clasp 1897 awarded for her Diamond Jubilee in that year and King Edward VI1 Coronation 1902. Thomas was placed on the Exempt List, 17th December 1893. He died on 26th December 1905, this was entered and signed by Major E.H.Elliot, Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant at the time of Thomas's death. I note that the earlier details of his service were signed by Colonel Reginald Hennell ( Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant) as a true copy when he rewrote the Records of Service in 1895/6, it was usual for the yeoman to sign himself, so this indicates that for some reason Thomas was not able to visit St James's Palace in person.

The photograph is a copy from the album at St James's Palace, which is a duplicate of that presented by the Yeomen of the Guard to the Duke of York and Princess May of Tek (later King George V and Queen Mary) on the occasion of their wedding in July 1893, it seems that Thomas just managed to achieve this before he was placed on the Exempt List later that year. The medals pictured as we look at the photograph from left to right are: Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee 1887, British Crimea ( with 4 battle clasps) and the Turkish Crimea medal.
All information and photograph kindly supplied by Diann Barnett.