Loughborough Roll of Honour - 3rd Anglo-Ashanti War

Private William Moore
Royal Marine Light Infantry.
William Moore was born in Loughborough in 1845. He was the son of George Moore, a cordwainer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Slater) who were married on 11th September 1842 at All Saints Church, Loughborough. William had one brother Frederick and one sister Sarah. Three other siblings died in infancy. In 1851 the family was living in Baxter Gate, Loughborough. William’s mother died in 1855, aged 31, and on 1st December 1860 William’s father married a widow, Ann Putt (formerly Humber). William acquired two step-brothers William and Alfred Putt and three step-sisters Elizabeth, Emma and Lucy Putt. In early 1861 William, aged 16, was a shoemaker, but later that year he joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry as a Private and during his time afloat served in HM Ships Orontes, a troop ship, Skylark, a 16 gun brig-sloop, Asia, a 64-gun guardship, Bellerophon, an ironclad battleship, and Druid, a wooden screw corvette. HMS Druid William served ashore with the Naval Brigade during the 3rd Anglo-Ashanti War. The Kumasi and Coomassie campaigns were carried out in the sweltering jungles of the Ashanti tribe (now Ghana and Sierra Leone). Led by Wolseley the expedition battled disease and natural disasters, as well as the Ashanti before Kumasi and Coomassie fell. William received the Ashanti Medal with the Coomassie clasp. He left Druid on 21st February 1874 and was invalided back to England, where he was discharged for 'length of service', on 9th April 1874. Fifty Coomassie clasps were issued to HMS Druid. Ashanti Medal with Coomassie Clasp. After his discharge William returned to work as a shoemaker. His father had died in the 1860s and his step-mother had married Thomas Cowlishaw on 1st June 1870 in Nottingham and had moved there. In January 1875 William was working as a pressman for Pougher and Iliffe, shoemakers of Willow Street, Leicester, and was charged with stealing a quantity of leather. On 1st September 1875 he married Louisa Norman in Leicester. By 1881 they had three children Louisa Ann, Ada and William Frederick and were living at 3 Dover Square. Their son William Frederick, however, died in infancy. William’s wife also died in 1885 after the birth of another daughter Minnie who also died aged four months. When and where William died is unknown.