Indian Army Attestation Records

[macken_h]

I have just found a record on the FIBIS website that looks like an ancestor I've been searching for.
Here is the website
http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_detail.php?id=764557
I would like to know where I would be able to find the Attestation papers for this gentleman.
It says that he is a Sub-Contractor Artillery Brigade Majors List. What is that title?
Also, where would the Pension Records be held? Would they be part of the Chelsea Pensioner records?
Any help will be gratefully received.
Hilary

[KGarrad]

The Bombay Army was one of the private armies alligned with the British East India Company.

It was only after the Indian Mutiny (or First Indian War of Independence) in 1857 that these military units became part of the British Army.

You need to look in the India Office Records.

[ShaunJ]

Sub-Contractor

He was a Sub Conductor - equivalent to Sergeant Major

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indiaofficerecordsfamilyhistory/glossary/glossarys/glossarys.html

[macken_h]

It was only after the Indian Mutiny (or First Indian War of Independence) in 1857 that these military units became part of the British Army.

The record says that he was pensioned at Bombay in 1860. Would that then mean that there would be records at Chelsea as part of the British Army?

[KGarrad]

That rather depends on whether he was transferred to the British Army, or to an Indian Civil Establishment?

My ancestor, a Vet., transferred to the Indian Stud - and eventually to the British Army, some years later.

[ShaunJ]

At first pass I don't see a "Chelsea" regimental record for him but in the India Office records there is a burial in Back Bay, Bombay for Donald McKenzie aged 70, a pensioner. Died 12 October 1867, buried 13 October.

[macken_h]

I have seen that death record and it would seem to be him. I am more interested in his Attestation Papers. He seems to have signed up in November 1822 and then arrived in India in 1823.
His attestation papers would hopefully give me his place of birth (It only says Ross) and more importantly his parents names. Where would I find the Attestation Papers?
 At the moment I'm facing a brick wall!

[ShaunJ]

The FIBIS transcription says "The following is a transcription of the soldiers of the Bombay Army taken from India Office Records L/MIL/12/110. Note that, for some reason, there are no microfilm copies of these records available in the cabinets in the Asia & African Studies Reading Room at the British Library."

[KGarrad]

Attestation papers generally are only applicable to the British Army?

He was signed up with a private army, and would almost certainly have been recruited by the East India Company.

The three independent armies of the company's Presidencies (Madras, Bombay and Bengal), with some locally raised irregular forces, expanded to a total of 280,000 men by 1857.
British officers initially trained at the company's own academy at the Addiscombe Military Seminary.