The Rushden Echo, 31st December 1915, transcribed by Gill Hollis
Rushden Soldier Family - Interesting Career of Mr. Aaron Upton
Feeding Pigs & Starving Crows - How He Became a Bugler
In The Shoe Trade in Rushden - Father and Five Sons
Service in India - An Old Campaigners Medallist
Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Upton of 2 Montague-street, Rushden, have five sons in the Army. Mr. Upton himself had a long and creditable career with the Colours.
Born in the parish of Great Bourton, Oxfordshire, Aaron was the youngest son of John and Maria Upton. At six years of age young Aaron had to start work, and he was employed minding pigs for a farmer. Even at that early age he could milk cows. From feeding pigs he was promoted to the position of scaring crows – with clackers and horn. Along the turnpike road near by the fields where he was crow-scaring there passed along a troop of soldiers, and young Aaron began imitating their bugle calls on his horn, which he did with much success. This, by the way, led to his eventually becoming a bugler in the Army.
Aaron stopped with his parents until he was 13 year of age, being the last son left at home, and he was determined to clear out of the village, as he says, “through the domineering of the Church parson and the farmers of the village.” He went to Banbury Hiring Fair, and went into service at the age of 13 as a cow-keeper and milker. A year later he went to Weedon to try to enlist in the Army, but he was rejected because he was hardly-stout enough.
Removing to West Bromwich, just at the close of the Franco-Prussian War, he became a horse driver, and in July, 1872, when 15 years old, he went to Birmingham and enlisted, his “official” age being 18. Soldiering evidently runs in the Upton family, for at that time Aaron had two brothers in the Army – George in the 62nd Regiment and Solomon (now a staid citizen of Higham Ferrers) in the 9th East Norfolks. Aaron chose to go to Shorncliffe to his brother Solomon, in the 9th East Norfolk Regiment. When he joined the Army he had never been to school since he was six years of age. The Compulsory Education Act came into force in 1870, and as a soldier Pte. Upton came under its operations, which he did so well that in three months he gained the 4th class certificate, of which he is still the proud possessor. He was offered promotion provided he would go to school.
Mr. Upton showed a “Rushden Echo” representative a photograph taken at the “unofficial” – and actual – age of 16, and it is interesting to note that, when subsequently he was chosen as one of a Guard of Honour at the Shorncliffe Camp for the Czar of Russia on his visit to this country, he was wearing the very pair of trousers, khaki in colour, which are shown on the portrait.
Aaron volunteered for the 1st/9th Regiment for Guernsey, but was stopped as being too young through his brother pointing out to the authorities his real age. With the rest of his regiment he marched to Dover, and he volunteered for the first Ashantee War, but again stopped by his brother and others calling attention to his actual age.
In October, 1874, he and his brother Solomon left with the regiment for India, sailing from Portsmouth on the troopship Jumna, there being four other troopships also carrying soldiers. From Bombay the regiment took the train to Meanmear (the railway terminus at the time), and then marched to Rawulpindee, with transport animals – elephants, camels, etc. This was regarded as a three years’ station, and the troops were sometimes at Rawulpindee, sometimes on the hills, and sometimes in the open country.
The only thing that seems to have made Mr. Upton afraid during his soldiering career was the Asiatic cholera, which broke out among the troops, and, out of 75 patients, 72 died, only three recovered.
From Rawulpindee the regiment was moved to Pewshawr, where they stayed only a short time. Suddenly, one Sunday morning, in consequence of the Jowaki Afredee tribes raiding the villages around Pewshawr, the regiment were ordered to dress in khaki at once, and to take one blanket each (two men’s blankets being packed together), and to be ready within an hour for an 18 miles’ march to Fort Mackeson. There they stayed for two days for the concentration of troops from various parts.
Then, early in the morning, with no lights, they made the attack of Bori Ridge, under General Keys, Sir Lewis Cavenerie, who was afterwards massacred at Kabul, was in charge of the signalling staff, with the heliograph, etc. This was in 1877. They quickly took Bori Ridge and then the Valley of Pestonie, and they chased then Tribes to Kohat, in the Himalayan Mountains. This was the first time Mr. Upton had seen the Gurkhas – he was in the field with them at Walli. Thence the troops went to Jomoo, which place they blew up, and the wells were destroyed, which caused the tribes to hand over the chief’s two sons as hostages for their good in the future. Mr. Upton possesses the medal and clasp for that expedition. The medal is inscribed round the edge: “Jowaki, 1877-8, 2410 Drummer Aaron Upton, 2/9th Foot.” This medal gets him 8d a day as long as he lives. Mr. Upton says there is only one other Old Campaigner’s Pensioner in Rushden – Mr. Richard Gilbert.
Drummer Upton was chosen by the Commanding Officer as the one drummer required for the depot at Great Yarmouth, being asked specially if he would like a change of air, as only one had to go home. Drummer Upton embraced the opportunity and came straight from the field to Portsmouth. At that time the old Reserves, Militia, &c., were called up, owing to the threatened seizure of Constantinople by the Russians. The journey from Pewshawr to Great Yarmouth took Drummer Upton four months. On April 30th 1878, he went back to England, and he walked into Yarmouth Barracks on his 21st birthday, with only two months and 27 days to complete his six years’ service with the Colours. At Yarmouth he found men nearly 70 years of age called up ready for garrison duty in case war broke out between England and Russia, but conflict was avoided, and on August 2nd 1878, they were disbanded, and Mr. Upton came to the Reserves with two days over his six years’ service.
The opportunities in these days for a soldier when he leaves the service are much better than existed at that time, Mr. Upon told our representative. So many reserve men working on the railways were called up in 1878, and the train services were so dislocated that the railway companies passed rules not to employ military reserve men. This worked very hardly in the case of Mr. Upton, who had obtained a job at West Bromwich station at 22s a week, and was promoted as a permanency at 38s for goods shed clerical work, but when the Railway Co. found he was a reservist he was dismissed.
Being thrown out of work he joined the Staffordshire Constabulary and remained in the police force one winter, but did not like the work, and he came to Wymington where his sister (Mrs. Church) was living. Mr. Upton started work in the shoe trade at Rushden, and has spent 30 years in the industry, being the winner of two first prizes in competitions for “making.” Like his brother Solomon, Aaron is an ardent trade unionist.
For 18 years Mr. Upton has served in the Rushden Ambulance Corps, possessing all the certificates, medallions, &c., and being a member of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He is also in the Rushden District United Clubs’ Ambulance Association.
After a long career Mr. Upton has at last gone back to the work of a cowman, and that his new occupation suits him is shown by the fact that he is now over a stone heavier than he was 12 months ago.
Mr. Upton had four brothers and three sisters. All four brothers are alive but only one sister (Mrs. Church, of Wymington) survives. Three of the brothers were in India with the forces at the same time.
Mr. Upton’s parents were pious people, and in the main picked Biblical names for their children, which, as Aaron pointed out to our representative, form a rhyme:
Solomon and Aaron,
George and Uriah,
Patience and Annie,
And Sarah Sophia.
In fisticuffs no one has yet been able to beat Mr. Upton. Though by no means a quarrelsome man he has always been able to hold his own with the fists. At 19 years of age he fought for over 2½ hours, the match being stubbornly fought, but Aaron was not beaten though he was so badly punished that his own brother did not recognise him when he saw him.
Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Upton have five sons and two daughters. The latter are Mrs. Samuel Martin, of 13 Pemberton-street, Rushden, and Miss Elsie Upton, a well-known local mandolin player.
The eldest son is Eleazar (a Biblical name, son of the High Priest Aaron, selected by Mr. and Mrs. Upton doubtless for that reason). The second son is Albert Ernest. These two are gunners in the Royal Field Artillery, and they had previously had three years’ training in the local Volunteers. Both worked in the shoe trade at Rushden. The third son, Leonard Patenall Upton, is a driver in the Royal Field Artillery, and has been seven years in the Army, not leaving on the expiration of his six years’ service. John William, the fourth son, is in the 8th Northamptons. The youngest, Oliver Patenall Upton, is in the 1/4th Northants Regiment, at Halton Park. He had three years’ training in the Territorials, and was at Berkhamstead when war broke out, being mobilised with the rest. He enlisted at 14 years of age, being “officially” 17 – like father, like son! He is now of the right age, and expects to go to the front shortly. It might be mentioned that Mr. Aaron Upton married Lucy, eldest daughter of Enoch and Mary Patenall, of Higham Ferrers.
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