Death of a Waterloo veteran
17th June 2015From The Star, 18 June 1881.
On Tuesday last there died at No 30, Mansell Street, Mr Joseph Ricketts, at the advanced age of 96 years. The deceased, when a young man, served in the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army, and fought in the famous battle of Waterloo, the sixty-sixth anniversary of which is celebrated this day. The funeral, with military honours, will take on Monday next, leaving the house, 30, Mansell Street, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
La Gazette de Guernesey, 22 June 1881
At two o'clock on Monday the mortal remains of the late Mr Joseph Ricketts were taken, with military honours, to their last resting place at Candie cemetery. The deceased who died the previous Tuesday at No 30 rue Mansell, was 96 and, as an artilleryman, and at the age of only thirty, took part in the famous battle of Waterloo.
Tupper Carey, Commissary General: Mr Carey has received the War Medal with seven clasps, for Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse. Mr Carey joined the army in the Netherlands, and was with the second division of Infantry at the battle of Waterloo, capture of Paris, and with the Army of Occupation in France, when he was appointed a member of the Legion of Honour. [Le Lievre's Guernsey Almanack, 1862.]
See also The Star, April 25, 1865, for an obituary of another veteran, the Reverend Frederick Beatty, formerly of the 7th Hussars. Born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College Dublin, he had originally intended to enter the church, but instead became a soldier. He was a Lieutenant when he took part in the battle of Waterloo, during which he received a very bad wound to the lower part of his face. He overcame the resultant difficulty in speaking and made good his vow to rejoin the church. He was buried at St Saviour's, aged 72, having been many years resident in Guernsey.