Hello, thanks! thats really interesting!
So the "station" of the regiment was like a depot base I gather which would be their current home base and possibly also the regiments headquaters (but not always looking at wiki).
I know Chatham was/is a Naval dock yard but looks like it was also a barracks for the army too.
That totally explains why Walter and his wife got married in Chatham - he was obviously based there at the time, I wander if the witness' to the wedding were fellow soliders (I don't recognise their names)
will have a google on Army stations of the 43rd - you say worth looking at papers too?
No Kate, the Service Battalion (as the fighting part was called) was based in a garrison, either in the UK, or overseas. In addition it had Depot (or for a period ‘Reserve’) Companies based somewhere else in the UK, where the regiment’s recruiting and administration could be centred. Both of these elements moved around every few years. The Depot Companies tended to be focused at coastal, or city ports with high populations and where shipping could easily be found to transport groups of reinforcements (known as ‘drafts’) from the Depot/Reserve Companies to the Service Battalion if it was overseas. In 1854 the beginning of the Crimean War led to a big expansion in the size of the Army and both the number of Service Battalions and Depot Companies increased substantially.
As regards the association with Monmouthshire, in 1782 the 43rd Regiment of Foot were, along with all other numbered regiments that did not already have a regional affiliation, given a secondary title associating them with a County. In the case of the 43rd it was Monmouthshire. The intent was to give them an permanent area to focus identity and recruitment, but no permanent headquarters and depot was allocated for any of the regiments, and so the link was largely meaningless because both Service Battalions and Depot/Reserve Companies continued to move around every few years. It remained so until 1881 when they were at last given a permanent base in the County of Oxfordshire (known as the regimental depot) and retitled as The Oxfordshire Light Infantry (apparently because their was controversy/reluctance in Monmouthshire to find a location for a permanent base.
Before 1881 all the regiment’s numbered from 25th and below had two battalions, 1st and 2nd and when not involved in a major war one battalion would usually be in the U.K. and the other garrisoned overseas. This was formalised in a more permanent arrangement after 1881, and regiments numbered above 25th were paired with another unit in the same nominal situation in order to provide a 1st and 2nd Battalion. The 43rd were paired with the 52nd and the two units became the 1st and 2nd Battalions respectively of the new, Oxfordshire Light Infantry regiment.
Topic: Help on what would govren which regiment you went into ... (Read 223 times)
