94th Foot, Canada

[Spidermonkey]

Just had the most amazing breakthrough, and found my gtx4 grandmother's first husband (Charles Ot*way) listed on Ancestry in the Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900, apparently in the 94th Foot.  It looks as if he enlisted in Dec 1823 (2 months after he married) and died in service, in Canada, in 1826.

I wonder whether anyone has the answer to these two questions:
1) would he have come back to Britain between 1823 and his death?  His only daughter was born in 1824, so I'm wondering whether she ever met him.
2) would he have been buried in a garrison/military graveyard or in a civilian one?

Many thanks,

Spidermonkey

[*Sandra*]

There is also an entry - Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900 - Charles Otway - born 1805 - unit 43 rd foot soldiers - military attestation date December 1826 - 5 ft 7 3/4 ins - eyes brown - hair dark - form of visage, marks & ......round - complexion fresh - former service 94 th regt from 1823 to December 1826 - marked deceased.

Sandra

[ShaunJ]

Treat the "Canada" bit with caution. In my experience many of the soldiers listed in that database had no connection with Canada whatsoever.

It is as Sandra says a record of a man who was serving in 43rd regiment when he died in 1826, and who had previous service with 94th Regiment. He served overseas from 1823 until his death.

Per newspaper reports, 43rd Regiment was in Gibraltar in 1826.

[ShaunJ]

43rd regiment was in Gibraltar from July 1823 until the end of 1826 so it looks like Charles Otway died in Gibraltar.

94th Regiment was disbanded in 1818 and reformed in December 1823. It was posted to Gibraltar in April 1824 and was there until 1832. So his service with 94th was most likely in Gibraltar.  Muster rolls and paylists may tell you more.   

He only served with 94th and 43rd regiments and his only foreign service was from 1823 until his death in 1826 so he would not have served in Canada.

[ShaunJ]

Having said all that in my previous post, I see that he was only 21 when he died in 1826 so he may have had foreign service prior to 1823 but it has been excluded from the record because he was then under 18.

[Spidermonkey]

Thank you ShaunJ and Sandra.

I appreciate your note of caution about the Canada connection.  It seems therefore, that his military career was based in Gibraltar.

I guess my original questions still stand - is it likely that he would have been stationed in Gibraltar for the whole time, or would they have been moving back and forth from the UK?   

[philipsearching]

Presuming that your man died in Gibraltar he would most likely have been buried in the North Front cemetery.  There are online lists for the CWGC but I haven't yet found a list online going back to 1826.

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Gibraltar_Cemeteries

As far as travel between Gibraltar ant the UK goes, regiments were stationed abroad for years at a time and (unless a soldier was repatriated due to illness) it would be unlikely that serving soldiers returned to England before the regiment (or battalion) was recalled.

Philip

[Spidermonkey]

Thank you, Phillip, for your answer.  I didn't think that there would be much travel back and forth - his daughter was born about 3 months after he was first deployed and so he would never see her.  Which may explain why she entirely fabricated his profession and social status in her later life - on her marriage to Sir Edward Page-Tuner instead of being a lowly labourer/soldier, he becomes a Gentleman (although that might also have been to even up the class divide!)