Joining the army in 1884

[littleprince]

Just discovered that my G.Grandfather was served with a notice of enlistment to join for 4 years, with the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He was 26 at the time, employed as a slater,married with two children and according to the notice had prevoiusly served with the regiment (although haven`t found any details on this yet). Found this by chance on Find my Past. Curious as to why he was conscripted at this time.

[km1971]

Was he joining the Militia Reserve? They usually served 4 years after previous service. Does it mention which battalion he was joining?

He was not conscripted

Ken

[Malcolm33]

  Was 1884 the year of his first enlistment and not the year that he was recalled to the Reserve perhaps?    My grandmother's brother William Grant first enlisted in 1893.    As can be seen by the attached he was sentenced to 5 Cal Months in HM Prison for being 'Drunk violently assaulted Police', and then discharged at the end of his enlistment.   However he was recalled to Service in 1899 under a Special Army Order.
   I would recommend that you obtain a copy of his service record as I did for William from the Records Office at Kew (if still the same location).
   William did well after his recall winning a few medals and clasp.    The Battles he took part in are listed and one was at Diamond Hill.   I then found a Sketch of the charge of the Coldstream Guards at Diamon Hill on the Net and it is quite possible that he is one of the soldiers drawn in that sketch.   Anyway I like to think so.   We can get so much more out of records when we look at some of the details.

[km1971]

I would recommend that you obtain a copy of his service record as I did for William from the Records Office at Kew (if still the same location).
   

These are no longer available at Kew. They should be on Findmypast which appears to be the origin of the question.

1899 was a special case (as was 1914) when the Regular army Reservists were recalled for the Boer War.

The only four year enlistment I can think of was either in the Volunteers Battalions - and no records appear to have been kept. So unlikely to be the source. Or four years in the Militia Reserve. A third was spending another four years in the Army Reserve after his 12 year enlistment as a Regular soldier had expired.

Ken

[suey]

These are no longer available at Kew.

[/b]

Hi Ken, does this mean you can no longer go and look at the originals ?   I must admit when I looked through some of those boxes of records, a while ago now, some were rather fragile.

suey

[km1971]

Once the NA and FindMyPast had signed their contract the originals were no longer available. In return you get free access to both FindMyPast and Ancestry at the NA. Before the agreement the NA had already microfilmed the records for men discharged up to 1854. The friends of the PRO (as was) indexed these. FindMyPast were give access to the originals for pre-1854 discharges, so a source of error was introduced.

Also FindMyPast's searching facility is amateurish. At least in the old dates you could search through a box and find what you were looking for.

Ken

[Malcolm33]

At least in the old dates you could search through a box and find what you were looking for.

    When I went to Kew, would have been late 1970's or early 1980's, one could only look for a name in the index registers.  You then went to a counter filled in a request for copies of any entry and they then gave me messaging device.  When this beeped one went back to the counter and picked up the copies.