The dwindling band of military and naval veterans who have spent their later years in Birmingham was further reduced by the death on Saturday, of Isaac Reeves, a native of this city, Reeves who was 87 years of age was both a Crimean and Indian Mutiny veteran, and had many thrilling experiences.

            At the age of 7, young Reeves went to work for a copper plate printer as an apprentice, his wages being 1s, a week with a penny for himself. His master died, and Reeves went to Liverpool to work for his late employers brother, and then returned to Birmingham.

            When a mere youth Reeves walked with another young man from Birmingham to London to join the Army. While he was staying with an uncle, a retired Sergeant-major, the Crimean war broke out, he tried to enlist, but was rejected on account of being half an inch short of the required height. Nothing daunted, Reeves walked to Sheerness and joined the Navy, and sailed to the Crimean on the Princess Royal, eventually finding himself aboard the Spiteful, a small vessel which was ordered “close in “ at the attack on Sebastopol in October 1854. The boat was under very heavy fire, being shot through the foremast and main mast and having also four shots below the waterline, as a result it had to be lashed alongside the Rodney, while the carpenters plugged the holes.

Later they went to Balaclava Harbour and were ordered up the Danube. There they ran aground and were attacked by Russians in boats. Lightening their load by throwing many things overboard, they were just giving the Russians a parting shot when two Frigates arrived from the Black Sea, to help them.

      On another occasion when attacking Kinbourne, the troops were unable to land from the small boats, as these could not get close enough to the shore.   So the order was given: “Bluejackets overboard and land troops”.   Each sailor had to carry a soldier on his shoulders and wade to the shore.  The place was captured.

      After that they were ordered back to Odessa and as winter had set in they ran about on the ice. When they were cooking their Christmas dinner, however, they were ordered again to the Kinbourne, and they broke up the ice as they went. A number of Russians, who were on the ice started off for the land, but the British tars, firing into the ice, broke it up, and the Russians were drowned.  Again to the Danube and back to the Black Sea. Up to the Sea of Azof and back again through the Dardanelles and onto the Piraeus in Greece, then to Malta and eventually to England for six days, leave, Reeves found himself the only sailor in Birmingham at the time, and was made much of at the Birmingham Fair. 

When his leave was up Reeves sailed for the Cape of Good Hope in the Boscawen.  There they heard of the Indian Mutiny and he volunteered for service.  Arriving at Calcutta he went onto Fort William and was placed in number 12 Brigade. He was attacked by Cholera, and many of his Brigade were dying of the disease, but he pulled through.

        After being moved to Dinapore, Benares, and other places, Reeves arrived with his Brigade at Chuppera, where they stayed for two years.  Again on sentry duty during an awful night, rain falling in torrents, Reeves was contrary to orders, marching at the charge. All was dark as pitch, but a flash of lightening disclosed a native with club raised ready to dash out his brains. Reeves fired and killed him.

   Eventually being ordered to Calcutta, Reeves and his party went down the river in small boats, calling at the different stations on the bank and capturing stragglers and turning them over to the native police.  It took ten months to reach Calcutta, and when they arrived there he heard that the Brigade number 12, which he had been in before he went to hospital, had been completely annihilated, and not one of them escaped. That attack of Cholera had saved his life.

When back in England, following his discharge, Reeves worked as a printer.  On the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he visited many towns, sometimes in the company of Sergeant-Major C. Dawes, another veteran, assisting the recruiting Movement. 

 
My Aunt Rosie in Tasmania sent the above article to me. Until I received it, I had no knowledge of Isaac Reeves or the many other relations of his who must be out there. Isaac was born in 1836 and died in 1923 age 87. He married five times and had five sons George, Albert, Walter, Henry and Harry. He also had a daughter, Nellie.

His last known address was a small house in Winson Green.