Henry Dyson Naylor was born on 2nd July, 1835, in Mildenhall, Suffolk, England. He was the second son of Thomas and Eliza Naylor.
Thomas Naylor and Eliza Star were married at Mildenhall, Suffolk on the 13th October, 1832. Thomas was employed as a basket weaver and they had three other children, William, born in 1833, Thomas, born in 1837 and George, born in 1844.
On the 1851 census, Henry was employed as a footboy at the home of Henry Greenwood, a General Practitioner at Southwark in London.
Henry enlisted in the 13th Light Dragoons at Westminster, London on 1st November, 1851, at the age of 16 years and fve months. He was sent to Crimea and fought in the Battle of Balaclava. He was involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade fighting the Russian soldiers armed with just a sabre. He was injured in that battle – his lower jaw was fractured by a Russian sabre, he suffered a gun-shot wound to the shoulder and finally a wound was inflicted to his loins by a cannon-rammer. He was sent home injured to England. When he recovered, he went to work for a short time as second coachman to Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.
On 15th July, 1855, he married Henrietta Violet Wells at the St. John’s Parish Church in Croydon, Surrey. Their children were:
| Emma Agnes Naylor – 5th November 1856 – Reem, Perth, Scotland | |||
| Louisa Sarah Naylor – 1861 – St George Hanover Square, London, England | |||
| Henry Naylor – 1859 – London, England | |||
| Thomas Henry Naylor – 1863 – Perth, WA, Australia | |||
| George Edward Naylor – 28th February 1863 – Perth, WA, Australia | |||
| Henrietta Naylor – abt 1863 – Fremantle, WA, Australia | |||
| John Alexander Naylor – 23rd February 1867 – Fremantle, WA, Australia | |||
| William Naylor – 13th June 1869 – Fremantle, WA, Australia | |||
| Martha Ann – 26th October 1871 – Fremantle WA, Australia |
Henry was formally discharged from his Infantry on 23rd October, 1855.
On the 16th March, 1862, Henry and his family boarded the ship ‘Norwood’ under the command of Captain Frederick Bristow and departed Portland, Dorset, headed for Australia. The passengers consisted of 382 people (both bond and free) including 21 enrolled Pensioner Guards with 38 of their wives and children. They arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia on the 9th June, 1862.
Henry was posted to Camden Harbour and was involved in the establishment and operation of the Harbour from 1864 to 1865. After that he was employed as a night warder and armourer at Fremantle Prison. He was promoted to Colonel on 2nd April, 1881.
On 5th August, 1884, he was granted full title of 20 acres of land in Cockburn Sound however the family continued to reside at the prison barracks where he worked as a butcher.
Henry died on 26th March, 1894, in Fremantle and Henrietta died on 20th October, 1909, also in Fremantle.
The sword that Henry used in the Charge of the Light Brigade was donated by his descendants to the Western Australian Museum.
The Naylor family is on the Welcome Walls at Fremantle in Western Australia
