I know I have one: Thomas Davis of Shropshire. Davis-32839
At the age of 12, Thomas Davis signed up as a drummer boy in the 9th Shropshire regiment. It is hard to imagine parents permitting children so young to join the army, but these were hard times. It could even be that Thomas had been orphaned, as many of the drummer boys came from the workhouses. Presumably, no one would miss them. This being because they had a high mortality rate, going in front of the troops into battle. Yet, somehow, Thomas Davis survived, and fought as a full soldier at the Battle of Corunna in 1808, one of the bloodiest of the battles of the Peninsula War. He served under Sir John Moore at Corunna during the Peninsular Wars in the 52nd Foot, and was present at his burial before dawn on the 17th January 1809 in the ramparts of Corunna. Later, he was transferred to Belgium, where he received the Waterloo Medal, even though he may not have fought at Waterloo! He seems to have been , instead, at the crucial battle of Quatre-Bras, two days before Waterloo. The Quatre-Bras Veterans were awarded the Waterloo medal as well. Well done, Thomas Davis. To have survived some of the most awful battles of the Napoleonic wars. Few drummer boys had got past the Pensinsula Wars. Thomas got through them all.