Hello everyone
Henry was born at Athenry, Galway in approx. 1833.
He was noted in the 1851 Wales Census to be part of the 77th Regiment of Foot and was a private.
British Army worldwide index 1851 has his service number 2425/1F 2504 (from Findmypast.co.uk and also Fold 3) and he was located in Newport Mon. Wales - Period 01/01/1851 - 31/03/185.
I can find no other records for him - can anyone let me know why he has 2 service record numbers? could this indicate he transferred to another regiment?
Also this short period of 3 months - did this relate to a stay in Newport and did the regiment then move on.
Thank you in advance
Cheers
Suzane
Hi Suzane, I can't tell you which is the correct number, but I don't think this represents his service in two different regiments. The Army Worldwide Index was compiled (in around 2016) from the muster rolls submitted on a quarterly basis by the regiments, so it represents a snapshot in time. Given that idea was to mirror the civilian UK census I would imagine that the data relates to the actual entries in the muster roll for either the month March or April 1851. Since each muster roll was internal the regiment which compiled it, I can see no reason why the regimental clerks would have included any other regimental number for Henry as it would have been irrelevant to him at the time. And secondly when Roger Nixon extracted the information from the muster rolls, I cannot see why he would have bothered to include a separate regimental number if it didn't apply in March 1851. Unfortunately the only way to be certain would be for you to check the relevant muster roll (WO 12/8287) at TNA. That would mean a personal visit as they haven't been digitised.
The fact that no other records appear to have survived for Henry suggests that he completed his 12 years of service (possibly 5 with the colours and 7 in the reserve) without incurring any injuries and so didn't qualify for a pension, and his record was subsequently destroyed because there was no need (as the War Office saw it) to retain it after he had been discharged.
As he was born in 1833, he might have been expected to join the 77th in around 1850-1 at the age of 17/18 and would probably have sailed to Malta with the regiment in March 1854. In April he would have landed at Scutari in Crimea. The regiment saw action at the Battle of Alma in September 1854, the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and at the siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854. In July 1856 they returned to the UK and were stationed in Ireland.
The regiment embarked for New South Wales in June 1857 and then sailed for India in April 1858 in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny. However it is probable that Henry may have ended his service without going to India.
