I am trying to find information regarding my 3G-Grandfather, James Bird Hill , who appears to have been a member of the 17th Leicestershire Foot.
James was born 1 Mar 1801 in Burton Overy, Leicestershire, and is reported to have died 31 Jul 1839 in Ghazni Afghanistan, just after the first Battle of Ghazni.
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Believed to have served as a member of the First 17th Leicestershire Foot Regiment; the Regiment is known to have been stationed at Parramatta, Sydney, NSW, Australia in 1832, and also Ghaznia, Afghanistan in 1839.
http://www.regiments.org/wars/19thcent/39afghan.htm1839 July 21-23 Ghuznee 1839 EIC award 1839; British award 1840; date added 1907
Cav: LD4 L16 Inf: F2 F13 F17
Cav: BLC2 BLC3 2/Skinner ByLC1 Poona Engr: BySM Inf: BE1 B16 B35 B48 By19
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It is apparent from the birth records of 6 of his 9 children, who were born in and around Poona (which was then just outside Bombay), that the entire family was in India during 1839.
I would be interested in any information pertaining to James, or the Regiment's stay in Australia, or the Regiment's actions/history in India/Afghanistan, or any links to written references that might be available in Australia.
I have tried accessing the UK National Archives, but have not had much success, as I can not visit them in person. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information here in Australia about the 17th Leicestershire Foot, which I find rather surprising, so I am guessing I have not yet hit the motherlode for that information here yet.
Apologies if this topic has already been posted in this forum, but I couldn't find anything relevant when I searched it.
Regards,
Megan from Australia
