Army deserter 1885

[nell1850]

Good afternoon
My ancestor, Martin Henehan, enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Artillery in 1876. In Aug 1885 he was transferred to the Army Reserve (Ist class). In January 1886, his army record notes that he ‘absented himself from AR’, and he was listed in the Police Gazette as a deserter.

I have a couple of questions which I hope someone can help with.
1.   What does ‘1st class’ mean in the Army Reserve?
2.   How were army reservists monitored? There are loads of them listed as deserters in the Police Gazette. My understanding is that they received only part-time training but had to make themselves available if required. Would Martin have been required to make himself known at regular intervals and simply didn’t show up at barracks when recalled?
The Police Gazette states that he deserted at his home town in Ireland (Ballinrobe) and his last posting before transferring to the Reserves was with the N. Irish division of the Artillery.
I can well understand that if an opportunity to make a better living arose, that would be preferable to a part-time army role.

Thank you for any advice.

[Andy J2022]

At the time we are talking about there were 3 types of Reserve Forces: the Army Reserve, made up of ex regulars who had completed the colour part of their service, the Militia who could only be embodied for home defence purposes, and the Rifle Volunteers and Yeomanry. The Rifle Volunteers were trained as infantry and the Yeomanry were trained in the cavalry role. There were also small numbers of gunners and engineers within the Volunteers. The Volunteers and Yeomanry were the reserves which went to reinforce the Regular Army, as formed bodies of men, in times of war or dire threat of war. In contrast, the Army Reserve would be called up as individuals to go into  existing Regular units to bring those units up to their war establishment.
All three types of reserve had a training commitment, usually amounting to 2 weeks 'in camp' training. The Volunteers and Yeomanry also had to complete mandatory initial recruit training and annual tests such as shooting and drill, which the  Army Reserve did not need to do. The militia were also expected to attend recruit training and an annual camp  but they were only committed for 3 years service so their standard of training was generally much lower then the AR or the Rifle Volunteers.

All reservists were paid. I don't have the 1885 figures to hand, but by the turn of the century a 'standard' Army Reservist would be on 3/6d per week (6d per day).

The first class reserve consisted of ex regular soldiers who committed to make themselves available for recall to the colours as and when required, before full mobilisation had been declared. Later they would later be known as the Class A reserve, and later still the 'Ever-Readies'. For this commitment they were paid double the rate for normal Army Reservists. This is why First Class Reserve deserters were treated so seriously: they were effectively taking the money but not complying with their extra commitment. It would usually only be discovered that they had deserted if they failed to come and collect their pay, which was paid in cash, quarterly, usually at the local barracks. However I suspect that since there could have been legitimate reasons for not coming in for your pay on a specified date, such as sickness, there were probably certain other steps to be completed before deciding that someone had deserted.

[Andy J2022]

I decided not to be lazy and went and looked up the rates of pay for a First Class Army Reservist in 1885. See the first paragraph on page 150 in the image below. This is taken from the invaluable source The Army Book of the  British Empire published in 1906. For interest I've also included the rates of pay for the Regular Infantry over the course of the nineteenth century.

[nell1850]

Hi Andy J2022
Thank you so much for both of your replies. That is so incredibly helpful to me and much appreciated.
I can see that collecting your pay at the barracks was a huge incentive and why desertion was taken so seriously. Martin appears to have gone to ground after this and then he left for the USA where the trail goes cold. It's great to fill in a bit more detail on his life.
Kindest regards