Colour Sergeant William Nicholl

William Nicholl was born in 1785, in Longhorsley, Northumberland. He was an apprentice carpenter but enlisted in the 8th Regiment on 4 April 1804 at Berwick on Tweed. He was selected to be in the Grenadier Company because of his height, being 6’2”. He had the rank of private for 7 years, during which time he served in Germany, Ireland, Copenhagen, Nova Scotia, the capture of Martinique, and Canada. He was promoted to corporal in 1811. He fought in many actions in North America, and was wounded in 1812. He reached the rank of sergeant in 1814. There was duty in England and Ireland, then the regiment went abroad for service in the Mediterranean, first Malta in 1819, then Corfu in 1819 where Bill Nicholl was promoted to Colour Sergeant. He served in the Ionian Islands until he ended his military service at Plymouth on 5 April 1825.
There are comments on his character in his discharge papers. Lieutenant-Colonel J Duffy, Commanding Officer of the 8th said ‘he has invariably conducted himself as an honest, trustworthy, sober man.’ However, the most glowing report is from Captain Malcolm Ross of the Grenadier Company.
‘Plymouth, 5th July 1825. This is to certify that Colour Sergeant Nicholl served in the Grenadier Company of the King’s Regiment for twenty one years, and being myself one of the Officers of the Company during the greatest part of that period, I have consequently had an opportunity of closely observing his character and conduct, therefore it is but doing him that justice which his uniformly good behaviour merits, to state that I have never (in this station in life) met with a more truly steady or strictly honest a man.’
The discharge papers were signed at Plymouth in 1825, but it seems that Bill Nicholl returned to the island of Corfu where he was employed as a wheelwright by the Ionian Government and later the Board of Ordnance in the RE department until 1843. He returned to England in 1843 and, according to a census of 1851, lived with his wife and two of his daughters at Longhorsley, the place of his birth in Northumberland. The accompanying photo is Colour Sergeant Nicholl’s uniform which was made for him c1822 and hardly worn.

Regimental Details | Soldiers