15th Hussars, 35th chelsea reg , 1815

[frederickay]

hi i would like to find historical history of my maternal ggggggrandfather Captain Charles Jones .15th hussars, aide de camp to Ernest king of Hanover . Jones fought in Waterloo with a dutch regiment and was based in Hanover for many years . how do i find out his  military history and correspondence. c. Jones was the father of Ernest Jones the chartist and poet. thanks . frederickay.

[liverpool annie]

Hi Frederick - First of all congratulations on 100 postings!!  

You probably have this about the son - but I found your Charles  was equerry to the Duke of Cumberland not with Ernest king of Hanover !! .... maybe he was both!!

Ernest Jones son of Major Charles Jones, the equerry to William, Duke of Cumberland a soldier of distinction, was born in Berlin on 25th January, 1819. Major Jones and his family lived at Reinbeck, Holstein, until it was decided to move back to England in 1838.  Ernest was a king’s godson in Germany, presented at court in England, and a barrister, but a violent chartist agitator, a two-years’ prisoner for sedition, an industrious journalist and lecturer, later a not unsuccessful practitioner in his profession, Jones inherited his father's property on his death in 1844

http://static.flickr.com/42/77587382_5a49e70ec5_o.jpg

ENGLAND. England has been in wars for centuries. Among the major conflicts were:
1939-1945 World War II
1914-1918 World War I
1877-1901 Boer Wars
1857-1860 Indian Mutiny
1854-1856 Crimean war
1805-1815 Napoleonic Wars
1775-1783 U.S. Revolution
1755-1762 Seven Years War
(French and Indian Wars)
1642-1649 Civil War and Cromwellian period
1455-1485 Wars of the Roses

Military service — other than the militia — was usually a lifetime career. The "regular army" and the navy were the major branches of the military. Armed forces that kept their own records include: Militia, fencibles, yeomanry, territorial armies, coast guard, royal marines, and merchant marines.

Civil registration, census, or church records usually can provide enough information to help in a search for military records. Pre-1914 records are at the Public Record Office, Kew, Post-1914 army records are at:
Army Records Centre
Bourne Avenue
Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1RF
Post 1914 navy records are at:
Ministry of Defense
Main Building, Whitehall SW1A 2HB

England's army began as a permanent organization in 1660. Pre-1847 English army service was usually for life or when they were discharged early for disability. Pre-1872 army records are arranged by regiment. Most regiments have published histories that provide information about where the units served and about the battles fought.

Surviving navy records date from 1617, but are difficult to use due to lack of indexes. Many are available only at the Public Record Office, Kew. Before 1853, individual ratings (seamen) are not mentioned in navy records other than on musters or pay lists unless they deserted, misbehaved, or earned a medal. After 1853, seamen served for the duration of their career. The Royal Marines has been a separate branch of the military since 1755. Alphabetically arranged records of marines survive from 1790, some by enlistment date and others by discharge date.

In order to use British military records you will need to determine the specific army regiment or navy ship on which your ancestor served. With this information you may be able to utilize such records as:

Muster Rolls
Description Books
Returns of Service
Pension Records
Pay Records
Continuous Service Engagement Books
Registers of Service
Soldiers Documents
Chaplains Returns (Army chaplains throughout the British Empire kept records that list the baptisms, marriages and burials of soldiers and their families. These returns, from 1760 to 1971, are indexed and available by correspondence from the General Register Office.
Regimental Registers (1790-1924)
Records of Service (army officers from 1771 to 1911, but incomplete before 1828)
List of Officers. The Army List is a published annual, with an index to each year beginning in 1765, but half-pay (semi-retired) officers are not included in early indexes.
The Navy List provides names of all commissioned officers, including masters, pursers, surgeons, chaplains, yard officers, coastguardsmen, and reservists.

Militia Lists and Musters. Begin as early as 1297 and contain the names of men eligible for military service. Not all have survived for all years in all localities.

Militia units were raised on a county basis and kept their own records

Fencibles — army units raised for home service only, records usually with militia records.

Yeomanry — volunteer regiments; few records have survived.

[liverpool annie]

Had to do it in 2 parts ...... !!


Colonial armies — forces raised in other countries and such records are usually in the country where the forces were raised, except the Indian Army, for which many records are held at the India Office Library, 197 Blackfriars Road, London Se1 8NG.

Coast Guard (1816-1923) and Royal Marines (1790-1914) kept their own records.

If your ancestor served in the British Army before 1913 the major source to search is a class of records known as War Office (WO) 97. However, because of the arrangement of these records, you can not write to the Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, England, and request a search for your William Winterbotham. You will have to make the trip to England or hire a researcher there to do the work for you. The WO97 records contain the personal document of soldiers, but not officers, who were discharged to pension. If your ancestor died in service, completed a limited non-qualifying period of service, purchased his discharge, negotiated a free discharge or deserted, you will not find anything about him in these records.

British army records start in 1760 and the WO97 records are divided into five periods by dates, and each group is arranged differently, meaning the researcher needs to know some of the peculiarities of this filing system in order to be successful.

From 1760-1854 these records are arranged alphabetically by regiment, so you need to determine that information first. However, there now is a computerized alphabetical surname index. It was compiled by volunteers from the Friends of the PRO, and there is a printout at the PRO in England. However, if there are several soldiers of the same name — a rather common problem — you still will have to determine which one is yours.
From 1855-1872 the records are arranged by regiment and there is no index.
From 1873-1882 the documents are filed alphabetically by name within the arm of service, i.e. cavalry, infantry, artillery, engineers and corps, rather than by regiment. If you do not have this information, start with the infantry, which was the largest group.
From 1883-1899 and 1900-1913 the records for the entire army are filed alphabetically by surname in these groups.

If your ancestor was an officer, tracing him is rather straight-forward since there is a variety of sources available. The key one is called "Army Lists" and it covers the period from 1702 to the present. There is a reference set of the published "Army Lists" at the PRO. Until 1871 officers were not entitled to a pension per se. When they retired they either sold their commissions or went on what is called "half pay." Payments of half pay and pensions rested with the paymaster-general (PMG), and it among those PMG records that the genealogist will have to search at the PRO. They date from 1737.

If you are tracing an ancestor born after 1837 in England and Wales or 1855 in Scotland, it is quite possible to find a reference to a solder's regiment on a birth, marriage or death certificate. Therefore civil registration records should be searched as well as the census returns of 1841-1891, where reference to professions and occupations are found.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm  
has information about its available
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/researchguidesindex.asp?j=1
and online records.

Hope this helps!

Annie  

[frederickay]

thank you for your very fyll answer . i will print it off and absorb.
the duke pf cumberland was also the king of hanover ...i think.
frederickay.

[liverpool annie]

You're right Frederick!
Found this - but it's still not an answer to your question!! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover

I'll post if I find anything!

Annie