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« on: Thursday 16 June 16 10:42 BST (UK) »
The following, or a variation of it, appeared in newspapers across the UK in January 1857. I believe the person in question is the brother of my gt gt grandmother, can anyone help as regards his military career?
"At the Petty Sessions, Limerick, the mayor presiding, the man who gave his
name as James Johnson, a private in the 88th Regiment, now in the military
prison, was brought up, he having made a declaration that he had murdered
a man named James Pickersgill, in Hull, in the month of March last.
Mr M*Leod, S.I., now produced the correspondence between the Inspector-General
of Constabulary and the official authorities of Hull, who clearly ascertained
that the James Johnson of the 88th Regiment, now in jail at Limerick, and the
James Pickersgill, said to have been murdered at Hull, were one and the same
identical person. This was proved by the evidence of William Gee, who is married
to the prisoner's sister, and knew him well for the last twelve years. He stated that
the prisoner, whose real name is James Pickersgill, enlisted in the 69th Regiment
under the name of James Johnson, and was discharged at Malta on a pension of
6d a-day, that he re-enlisted in the 88th, under the same name, at the breaking
out of the war, and served throughout the entire campaign in the Crimea. The
impression on the minds of all the authorities now is, that the prisoner invented
this ridiculous story of having murdered himself, with the object of escaping the
strict discipline and labours enforced in the military prison, and of having himself
transferred to a comfortable prison in Hull, and brought to a trial on which he knew
he could never be convicted. The bench ordered him to be given up again to his
regiment, to be dealt with by the military authorities."
Any help appreciated
Bee
amended to say that James was born in 1829 in Hull
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