This memorial in the north aisle of the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford's High Street remembers one officer, 14 non-commissioned officers, and 76 privates of the 1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry who died of cholera in Balochistan in 1885/6:

Note on the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, 1881–1908

In 1881 the 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) were amalgamated and became respectively the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry. The Regiment was based at Cowley Barracks. (This new regiment did not become the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry until 1908.)

The tablet above refers only to the 1st Battalion, which explains the “43” incorporated into the Oxfordshire Light Infantry bugle at the top.

The brass memorial above is mounted on grey marble and was designed by Messrs Gaffin, sculptors of Regent Street in London. It was erected in the north aisle of St Mary-the-Virgin Church in September 1856. A long report about it in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 11 September 1886 states that it was dedicated on Sunday 5 September 1886 at the ordinary morning service, which was “attended by 150 rank and file, the Major commanding, officers, and band of the Dépôt at Cowley Barracks, and there was a large congregation of the general public”. The Vicar of the church stated that they had died while “simply garrisoning an unhealthy town on the confines of Afghanistan and Beloochistan, not to provoke war, but in the best interests of peace, where they were struck down by cholera”.

The newspaper report concludes with the lines:

The memorial is the only one in the ancient Church which bears the names of the men who, during an arduous and fatal campaign, bore the heat and burden of the day. The privates in life were known only to their own kinsfolk, and their comrades in arms, but on this elegant tablet their names will be handed down to posterity, and may be read so long as the material of the monument may last, which will not only bear testimony to a gallant Corps, but commemorate the names of a few of those who in the far east laid down their lives for Queen and country at the call of duty.

Brief biographical information about some of the men on this memorial

There are many references to the 1881 census, which was taken just before the formation of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, when the men were in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and based at Chatham Barracks in Kent.

Officers

Lance-Corporal William Castle may be the Banbury-born man of that name who the time of the 1881 census was aged 24 and a Private in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and living at Chatham Barracks in Kent.

Lance-Corporal Hugh Hurndall was born in Middlesex Workhouse near the end of 1862. At the time of the 1881 census he was aged 20 and a Private in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and living at Chatham Barracks in Kent.

Lieutenant Alfred Hubert Spencer, the only commissioned officer listed, died around the time of his 21st birthday. He was born at Combe in Oxfordshire in 1864, the son of Colonel Robert A. Spencer, and at the time of the 1881 census he was aged 16 and training at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst as a gentleman cadet. On leaving the college in February 1885 he was immediately appointed a Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire Light Infantry. A few months later he was dead and another officer took his place in August 1885.

Lance-Corporal Frederick Stovold was born in c.1862 at Chatham in Kent. At the time of the 1881 census he was aged 19 and a Private in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) living at Chatham Barracks.

Privates

Private Thomas Bryan is probably the Irish-born Private of that name in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 30 and living at Chatham Barracks with his Staffordshire-born wife Mary and their children Thomas (2), who was born at Aldershot, and John (five months), who was born at Chatham.

Private Joseph Evans may be the Montgomery-born Private of that name in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 20 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private George Harris is probably the Oxford-born Private of that name in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 24 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private John Jones may be the Private of that name born in Montgomeryshire who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 19 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private William Jones may be the Private of that name born in Swansea who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 22 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private John McDermott may be the Irish-born Lance-Corporal John McDermott of the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 20 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private John Owen may be the Private of that name born in Clun, Shropshire in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 24 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private Frederick Smith may be the Peterborough-born Private of that name in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 19 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private John Smith may be the Manchester-born Private of that name in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 27 and living at Chatham Barracks. He was described as married, but his wife was not with him. It is an extremely common name, however, and it could also be the Private John Smith born in Chester who was aged 23 and in the Barracks at the same time

Private John Witherford was probably the Private of that name born in Ashted, Warwickshire in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 27 and living at Chatham Barracks.

Private Arthur Smith may have been the Private of that name born in Nantwich, Cheshire who at the time of the 1881 census was aged 18 and living at Chatham Barracks.