ABSTRACT
Sergeant William Jowett served in the 7th Royal Fusiliers. He was severely wounded in the final attack on the Redan on 8 September 1855, after being hit by a shell. His right leg was subsequently amputated, but after being brought home Jowett died in hospital at Plymouth on 11 October 1856. He had been born in Derbyshire, and raised in Beeston, Nottinghamshire. Unhappy working in the lace trade, Jowett joined the army in 1847, and was 26 when he died. The explosion in the Crimea to which he refers in his letter was the destruction of the French magazine near Inkerman on 15 November 1855. It contained some 50,000 kilograms of powder and 600,000 cartridges, killing and wounding 250 when it exploded, and severely damaging Jowett’s hospital. Jowett’s letters were published in book form after his death.
