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Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Wendy Thomas in Australia:
‘I would like to obtain the Service Record for Elijah Francis who died and was buried on 27 July 1852 in Dinapore, Bengal, India. Elijah was aged 30 and his date of birth was given as 1822. He was a Corporal in HM 29th Regiment. I would like to find out if this Elijah Francis was born in Stoke Lane (Stoke St Michael) in Somerset on 16 January 1823 and baptised in that parish on 23 February 1823. His parents, Samuel and Ann Francis, moved to Bath in around 1830.
I obtained this information about his death and the film (number 98990) hoping it may provide more identifying information, but it did not. I would appreciate any assistance you may provide.’
Paul says:
‘Hello Wendy, thanks for your query. The 29th Regiment of Foot had been in India since 1842 and would only return to England in September 1859. In the interim, as well as venturing into Burma, the regiment took part in operations now known as the 1st Sikh War (1845-46), 2nd Sikh War (1848-49) and Indian Mutiny (1857-59).
Assuming that Elijah joined the regiment as a young man, the majority of his service would have been overseas and he may well have qualified for the Sutlej Campaign Medal and the Punjab Campaign Medal. Without a surviving service record for him you’ll need to see if he’s mentioned in a regimental description book. These survive in WO25 at The National Archives in England, pieces 266-688 covering Infantry of the Line, among others.
Descriptions typically give name, rank, regiment, height, age, description (complexion, hair colour, eye colour and sometimes “visage”), county where born, parish where born, trade and former service (where applicable). Here, it’s the where born and age which will enable you to tie him in to Stoke Lane in Somerset. You can call up these National Archives files yourself or engage a researcher to do this for you. While you’re at it, also have a look at WO12, the muster books and pay lists, as you’ll be able to track his career with the 29th through these.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
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Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.
From Wendy Thomas in Australia:
‘I would like to obtain the Service Record for Elijah Francis who died and was buried on 27 July 1852 in Dinapore, Bengal, India. Elijah was aged 30 and his date of birth was given as 1822. He was a Corporal in HM 29th Regiment. I would like to find out if this Elijah Francis was born in Stoke Lane (Stoke St Michael) in Somerset on 16 January 1823 and baptised in that parish on 23 February 1823. His parents, Samuel and Ann Francis, moved to Bath in around 1830.
I obtained this information about his death and the film (number 98990) hoping it may provide more identifying information, but it did not. I would appreciate any assistance you may provide.’
Paul says:
‘Hello Wendy, thanks for your query. The 29th Regiment of Foot had been in India since 1842 and would only return to England in September 1859. In the interim, as well as venturing into Burma, the regiment took part in operations now known as the 1st Sikh War (1845-46), 2nd Sikh War (1848-49) and Indian Mutiny (1857-59).
Assuming that Elijah joined the regiment as a young man, the majority of his service would have been overseas and he may well have qualified for the Sutlej Campaign Medal and the Punjab Campaign Medal. Without a surviving service record for him you’ll need to see if he’s mentioned in a regimental description book. These survive in WO25 at The National Archives in England, pieces 266-688 covering Infantry of the Line, among others.
Descriptions typically give name, rank, regiment, height, age, description (complexion, hair colour, eye colour and sometimes “visage”), county where born, parish where born, trade and former service (where applicable). Here, it’s the where born and age which will enable you to tie him in to Stoke Lane in Somerset. You can call up these National Archives files yourself or engage a researcher to do this for you. While you’re at it, also have a look at WO12, the muster books and pay lists, as you’ll be able to track his career with the 29th through these.’
If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!
More...
Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.