Coffey’s last years
Coffey’s
story after his final discharge has been interpreted as one of a man
unable to
settle outside the army, moving on from place to place - Pembroke, the
Shrewsbury district, the Sheffield district - before finally taking his
own
life in 1875.
New light was shed for me on
Coffey’s
days as a pensioner by the discovery of his friend, Sergeant Patrick
Gainey. I
first came across Gainey’s name on a marriage certificate from Pembroke
in 1868
between a William Coffey and a Margaret Gainey. This turned out to be a
second marriage for William Coffey. The young bride’s father’s name was
Patrick Gainey, a
labourer. His name I then found a number of other times in my
researches. The
picture that builds up is one of a longstanding friend of William
Coffey, both
in the army and then afterwards, and it is this friendship which
explains a
good deal of the shape of Coffey’s life between his discharge in 1868
and his
death in 1875.
Patrick was roughly the same age as
William and had joined the 82nd in Ireland a few months after him in
February
1847. But unlike Coffey, he had remained in the same regiment
throughout his
army career; he was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in
1866. He
had married his wife, Mary Lawrence, at Pembroke back in 1852 while the
82nd
was in Wales. He had married, unusually for a Catholic, in the local
registry
office. Mary was almost certainly pregnant, and she gave birth to
Coffey’s
future wife soon after the regiment’s move to Scotland.
Coffey
and Gainey later fought
alongside one another at Cawnpore, both were joined in India by their
wives,
and the two men were together again in the 82nd Foot from 1862. They
shared
many common experiences. Both suffered the deaths of some of their
children
while in India, and both were invalided home around the same time,
Gainey
leaving India for Netley the day before Coffey. Then they received
their final
discharge from the army on the very same day.
WO 97/1629
Coffey’s
discharge papers indicate that
he initially intended to make for Westminster in London. The papers
were
evidently changed at the last moment to make Pembroke his destination,
and the
reason was undoubtedly Patrick Gainey. Mary Gainey was a
native of
Pembroke Dock, and it was Patrick’s intention to live with his wife and
family
there, at
least for the moment. William was persuaded to accompany his friend,
and they
took up residence in King Street, Pembroke Dock. Then on 7 October 1868
William
married Gainey’s eldest daughter, Margaret, at St Mary’s Catholic
church in
Pembroke Dock. They were married by Fr O. Murphy CP, and the names of
the
witnesses were Rachael and Ellen Vaughan.
Gainey and Coffey had both given
their
professions at enlistment as labourer, and it was as labourer that each
was
discharged 21 years later. The surgeon had declared that Coffey could
‘partly
contribute to his maintenance’, though the inspecting medical officer
had been
more pessimistic: ‘can only very partially contribute towards his own
support.’
At first Coffey took up a new profession as a baker, but it was not
long before
he found new work with the military. On 1 January 1869 he was
transferred to the Shrewsbury Pension District, and joined the Royal
Cardigan Militia, which was at that time a rifle corps and the militia
for the Welsh county of Cardiganshire. Coffey was immediately appointed
a sergeant on its permanent staff.
William and
Margaret took up residence in the newly-built barracks at Aberystwyth
(demolished 1979-80). Among Coffey's tasks were the annual drilling of
new
recruits and the training of the men as a sergeant instructor - the
records
show that he was in possession of an appropriate certificate from the
Hythe School of Musketry. He was paid two shillings a day, was of
course in receipt of his VC annuity of £10, and was
declared exempt from income tax.
On 12 July 1870 a son was born - another
William John
Coffey - but like Coffey's son of his first marriage, this William John
also lived
only a matter of months, dying of 'consumption'(tuberculosis) on 3
December. Coffey himself continued to be
dogged by illness, though he was successfully reengaged by the militia
in
January 1874. But the following year, he was unable to continue working
throughout the annual drilling of new recruits, which began on 12
March. On 31 March 1875 he was for a second time
declared ‘unfit for further military duty’ and discharged.
And so the
Coffeys decided that they would rejoin the Gaineys. Not
long
after William and Margaret had left Pembroke, the Gaineys too had left,
but
to make their
home in the village of Stonegravels, Derbyshire, where Patrick had work
as a
labourer in
the coke ovens. His pension was registered to the Sheffield District
(which
contained Stonegravels) on 1 April 1869. Coffey made his own transfer
to this
district on 1 April 1875, and he lived the last few weeks of his life
in a
house called Park View, which was on the same side of the main village
street (today Sheffield Road in the town of Chesterfield) where the
Gaineys had been living for at least four years. There at
Park View,
according to his death certificate, Coffey died of ‘chronic
diarrhoea’(dysentery) in the presence of his wife on 13 July 1875.