Greenwich pensioner?

[MacGrigor]

Wow. Presumably he injured himself in war if he was discharged as an invalid. Or caught scurvy, any number of things could've happened. Thanks so much for your help! Is there anything else on William that you can find?

[silaswall]

Hello, Just logged on to tell you it was FindMyPast. Other people have helped you out. I discovered that my ancestor had eye and leg injuries. By tracing his ships (named in the records) found out that he was on a ship that stopped the French Revolutionary Army landed in the south of Ireland with the intention of supporting an uprising. He never went ashore. Not all good news as the Irish received dreadful treatment.

[MacGrigor]

What extraordinary detail! Amazing to think such excellent records were kept 200 years ago.

[Maiden Stone]

As I said to someone else on RootsChat a few months ago whose ancestor was a Royal Marine during Napoleonic Wars, if you want to see them in action, watch "Hornblower" TV series. They were made for ITV around 20 years ago. Repeated recently. The soldiers in the TV series "Banished" (2015) may have been Royal Marines.

[MacGrigor]

I remember watching Banished at the time! Shame it only lasted one series. I'll look for Hornblower.

[ShaunJ]

There should  be a lot more on William Pepper's Royal marines service and the nature of his disability  in those attestation and discharge papers at the National Archives. If you can't get to TNA yourself, you can ask for a quote on the cost of digitising the records, or put out a request on the Common Room board to see if anyone is going to TNA and could take a look for you.

[MacGrigor]

Thanks! I'll set one up now.