July’s Ask the Expert puzzler comes from Rita McArthur. Our expert Paul Nixon gets his teeth into a knotty problem that has been common to many of our readers:

“We have found our ancestor’s discharge papers from the 9th Royal Veterans Battalion in 1814.  He was discharged to a pension due to disability but we can find no pension records or anything else relating to his army service, which was about 12 years (not consecutive) in total.   I have tried the Chelsea Pension records.  Any suggestions?

Angus McArthur

Discharged 1814

9th Royal Veterans Battalion (and other regiments prior)

Ref:  WO 97 /1135/44″

Paul replies:

“If you’ve found some papers, you’re doing well!  Remember, if a man was killed, or was not discharged to pension, his records will not survive in WO 97. Having said that, many record sets that do survive have been ‘weeded’ over the years and so what you see in some files may just be a fraction of what you could have hoped to see. 

In your case, I see that Angus McArthur has only two pages surviving in his WO 97 record.  All is not lost however.  One page clearly states the regiments and periods of service as follows:

3rd Argyle Fencibles – 21st April 1798 – 3rd December 1799
26th [Cameronian, Regiment of] Foot – 17th August 1803 – 24th July 1808
2nd Garrison Battalion – 25th July 1808 – 10th January 1809
9th Royal Veterans Battalion – 11th January 1809 – 24th March 1814

Wikipedia states that:

‘When hostilities resumed with France in May 1803, the Cameronians were based at Fort George, in the Highlands of Scotland. They were brought south to Stirling at the end of July, where they were heavily reinforced from men who had been recruited under the Army of Reserve Act. Over thirteen hundred new men were enlisted, and the regiment was able to raise a second battalion, both having about equal proportions of new and old recruits.’

So it looks as though Angus was one of those thirteen hundred new recruits, and the beauty of knowing the dates he served means that you can consult the muster rolls for the 26th Foot between 17th August 1803 and 24th July 1808.  By doing this, you will be able to get a physical description of him when he joined the regiment and see, month by month, where he was stationed.  You can’t do this online but you could hire a researcher to do these look-ups for you at The National Archives.   See this National Archive link for more information about the muster rolls, pay lists and description books between 1730 and 1898: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/army-muster-1730-1898.htm

Angus would appear to have spent much of his time with the 26th Foot in Germany and had he remained with it a little longer, might well have seen service in the Peninsular war at the Battle of Corunna.  However, by this time he had transferred to the 2nd Garrison Battalion, possibly as a result of infirmity. ”

If you would like to have the chance to Ask the Expert, please email your query to casestudies@findmypast.co.uk

Please note that our experts cannot enter into personal correspondence and only a limited selection of queries will be answered per month. We try to select questions which reflect the most common enquiries. 

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Auriel Abrahams in Johannesburg, South Africa:

‘I have an ancestor who served in the 72nd regiment of foot. He left the army, was a Chelsea Pensioner and settled in South Africa where he married and died. I have been able to establish that John McKenzie was born in Dingwall, Urguhart, Ross and Cromarty in 1787 via WO97/843/31.

His papers do not give his parents’ names so I am stuck and cannot see from baptism records who his parents were. I also cannot find the muster rolls in the British Archives. I assume the muster rolls will indicate his parents - or is this a will that the soldiers had to complete when they signed up which would indicate their next of kin? Any suggestions as to how I can go further back?’

Paul says:

‘This is probably a case of checking pay books and muster rolls in class WO12 at The National Archives. Use the information contained within the WO97 document to work out when John McKenzie enlisted and then consult the muster rolls and/or pay lists for this man. WO12 is organised by regiment and the date on which his name first appears should give more information about him.

Supplemental evidence about his physical description may appear in WO25, although this series tends to cover records from the first half of the 19th Century only. It was not obligatory for a soldier to make a will when he signed up.’

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!

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Gail Quirt in Toronto, Canada:

‘I have hit the proverbial brick wall in finding out about my great-great-grandfather, William Booth. I have a registration certificate from the General Register Office for the birth of his son, Joseph Booth, in Benares, East Indies on 27 January, 1864. I know he was in the British Army in India (since his son was born there) and the family stories have him fighting in the Crimea War.

William must have died around the time Joseph was born, as Joseph ‘is recorded as a child of the marriage of 1403 Lance Corporal Edward Lee and Rosannah Booth, Widow’, but I am unable to find the date and place of his death.

Using findmypast.co.uk’s military records, there are a few William Booths who seem to have been in the Crimea and India at the right times. I have no information on when or where William Booth was born and I’m not sure which of the William Booths is my ancestor. Would you be able to find out which is the right William Booth, and when and where he was born and died?’

Paul says:

‘The excellent www.dnw.co.uk website gives three possibilities for a William Booth who fought during the Indian Mutiny and appears on the Indian Mutiny Medal Roll. These three men, all named William Booth, served with the 34th Foot, the 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 8th Hussars.

Finding a man on the Crimean war medal roll is far more difficult purely because the condition of much of the roll is best described as ’shocking’ and, at worst, ‘unreadable’ or ‘missing’. There is, however, a William Booth with the 8th Hussars (number 1350) who is possibly the same man who later served during the Mutiny.

I thought that he might be a possible candidate until I checked our Chelsea Pensioners records and found that he was discharged from the army (and, therefore, still very much alive) in 1866. Remember too that the Chelsea Pensioners’ data is only for men who were discharged to pensions. If a man was discharged without a pension, or if he died, he won’t be in the Chelsea Pensioners WO97 records.

Later in the year we’ll be releasing records from the WO119 series which is Kilmainham Pensioners’ discharge documents. These are similar to WO97 but only cover the period up until 1821 and so we can rule that out. You may, however, find a death for William Booth in the Indian collection which we’re currently working on with the British Library. Read more about this fantastic project.’

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!

We’ve done some digging around in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records and have found some fascinating characters. As well as providing rich historical detail about our military ancestors, the records reveal some controversial information about some of the soldiers. Read on to find out about three Chelsea Pensioner ‘bad boys’.

John Kray - great great uncle of the Kray twins

John Kray, whose mother was Elizabeth Kray, the great great grandmother of the notorious East End Kray twins, was born in Bethnal Green, London. He was a riveter by trade and on 13 August 1870 at the age of 17 years and 11 months, he joined the 65th Regiment of Foot.

Here is John’s attestation paper:

Click to enlarge

John deserted on 9 February 1879, rejoined 20 August 1879 and was placed in confinement. The District Court Martial tried him and convicted him of desertion. John was sentenced to imprisonment, hard labour and stoppages (of pay) for a month.

We can also build up a picture of what John looked like from the Chelsea Pensioner records. His physical description on attestation was: 5′6″ (he had gained half an inch by the time of discharge), 35-36 inch chest, ‘fair’ complexion, hazel eyes, dark brown hair. John also had a scar on his left buttock:

Click to enlarge

John Kirk - Victoria Cross winner and drunken scallywag

Another colourful character we found in the Chelsea Pensioner records is John Kirk. On 27 January 1846, John joined the British Army at the age of 18 years.

In June 1857, at 29 years old, John rescued a captain and a family of civilians from rebels during the Indian Mutiny. John was awarded the Victoria Cross for this heroic deed.

John didn’t gain any good conduct badges during his Army service, however, and was imprisoned numerous times for his improper behaviour. John was a notorious drunk who was tried and punished 12 times. The reasons for his punishments included ‘being drunk and making an improper reply’, being ‘drunk on the line of march’, being ‘drunk on evening parade’ and also for ‘habitual drunkenness’. John was also punished for going AWOL and for breaking out of barrack cells.

By 8 April 1864, at 34 years old, John was discharged from the army with chronic syphilitic rheumatism having been classified as ‘being totally unfit for further service’. Here you can see his medical report:

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Matthias Quinton - the insubordinate

Matthias Quinton was born in Limehouse, London and joined the Royal Artillery on 28 October 1889 aged 18 years and seven months. He saw service at home and in Gibraltar and was discharged after three years because of medical unfitness.

This particular Chelsea Pensioner has no less than 154 pages in his record. Among these are details of a trial by Court Martial which resulted in 42 days’ imprisonment because Matthias used ‘insubordinate language to a superior officer’. His record states that ‘when brought before Major W H Smart RA, his commanding officer, and when asked what he had to say in his defence, he replied “Sweet FA” in a highly disrespectful manner’.

Here are Matthias’ court martial sheets:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

These are just three examples of the valuable detail to be found in the vast Chelsea Pensioners records collection. The total number of records currently stands at 1,041,092.

Search our Chelsea Pensioners records to find out what stories they tell about your ancestors.

Check out The National Archives’ podcast about the Chelsea Pensioners records collection featuring military records specialist William Spencer.

I’m findmypast.co.uk’s records development manager and resident genealogy expert. As well as answering your ‘Ask the Expert’ queries, I work with archives, family history societies and other owners of original historical records to digitise these for findmypast.co.uk

Recently I’ve been reviewing our Chelsea Pensioner data so as to understand and think about how we can go about enhancing it.

Stephen Rigden

The Chelsea Pensioner records extend over 150 years - from 1760 to 1913 - and those up to the middle of the 19th century are, in some ways, especially interesting from a data point of view. At that time, spelling of place names had not quite settled and been standardised, at least not the spelling as used within the British Army. In some ways this is inconvenient but in others it provides an intriguing insight into local history.

Many of the soldiers’ places of birth are given and spelt phonetically by the recruits or the recruiting sergeant on the attestation and discharge papers which form the surviving service record.

This week I have been looking at the places of birth of soldiers born in my home county of Kent. This requires some thinking about the local accent and local pronunciation of place names. For instance, ‘Settingbourne’ sometimes appears instead of Sittingbourne (older members of my own family still say ’set’ instead of ’sit’). Similarly, Erith is sometimes spelt ‘Earith’ and ‘Eariff’, which gives a close approximation to the way it is pronounced locally.

On one occasion it appears aspirated (if that is the right word), as ‘Hereif’. This is a common fate of Kentish places beginning with a vowel and, therefore, tempting the local to add a leading H. For example, occasionally Eltham can become ‘Heltham’, Eynsford becomes ‘Hainsford’, Eythorne is ‘Haythorne’, Ide Hill is rendered as ‘Hide Hill’, Iwade metamorphoses into ‘Highwade’, Ulcombe becomes ‘Hulcombe’, etc.

The reverse process also occurs, where a required initial H is dropped: Hadlow becomes ‘Adlow’, Halstead becomes ‘Alstead’, Harbledown turns into ‘Arbledown’, Headcorn becomes the delightful ‘Edcorn’ and so on. These are not transcription errors but bona fide reflections of what is written in the original papers.

Sometimes the spelling can tell you how a place was (and often is still) pronounced. For example, there are a number of villages in Kent called Boughton. The ‘ough’ combination of letters in English can be pronounced in a variety of different ways - think of ‘bough’ (of a tree) ‘cough’, ‘though’, ‘nought’ and so on. Here in Kent, however, this place name is always pronounced as it is sometimes spelt in the Chelsea Pensioners, as ‘Borton’. We know this as the qualifier can be present: ‘Borton Aluph’ instead of Boughton Aluph, or ‘Borton Mallet’ instead of Boughton Malherbe.

Kentish pronunciation also has a tendency to run letters together and not trouble to pronounce some letters or syllables. Thus we get ‘Harrisham’ instead of Harrietsham, ‘Harcus’ instead of Hawkhurst, ‘Lamhurst’ instead of Lamberhurst, and ‘Trosley’ instead of Trottiscliffe. Other places have changed over time. Today’s Molash usually appears in Chelsea Pensioners records as ‘Moldash’, while in the older records Faversham is often shown as ‘Feversham’.

Understanding this sort of variation in spelling and departure from received pronunciation - and especially the adding or subtraction of an H at the start of a word - can be helpful when researching your family history as of course it applies equally to personal names just as to place names.

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Angela Dalby in Gillingham, Kent:

‘My ancestor by marriage, Edward Dalby, was born on 14 June 1839 in St. Mildred’s, Canterbury, Kent and he joined the Metropolitan police in 1873. His police records state that previous to this he was in the 7th Hussars for seven years and 313 days and the Kent County Constabulary for three years and 147 days. I can find a date of 5 January 1868 for him joining the local police constabulary so the seven years army record must be between 1859-1867?

The puzzle is that I can find no army records of service for him in the recently published Chelsea Pensioners records, unlike his father, another Edward Dalby. This Edward was born in Uppingham, Rutland 1766 and was in the army for 28 years. I have the full set of records for him. The family disappear from Canterbury in the 1861 census including Edward’s mother Elizabeth (born in Ireland in 1820), his brother Joseph born in St. Mildred’s in 1846 and also Edward senior.

Were the 7th Hussars based out of this country or am I looking in the wrong index lists? Any help would be much appreciated.’

Stephen says:

‘The 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars were indeed out of England during the period 1859 to 1867 – they were on active service in British India from 1858 and did not return to England until 1871. The fact that Edward Dalby, your ancestor by marriage, joined the Kent police in January 1868 suggests either that he had enlisted for seven years and that those seven years were completed while in India in or before 1867 (probably in fact a year or two before 1865), or that he had left the regiment in India early due to injury or ill-health.

In any event, the records contained within The National Archives’ series WO97 relate to servicemen who were pensioned out of the army, irrespective of whether they were serving in the British Isles or overseas. We have now completed the publication of these Chelsea Pensioner records, which cover over one million men. This record series contains the majority of surviving records for pensioned soldiers but by no means all.

As you may know, findmypast.co.uk is currently in the process of digitising the WO96 Militia service records but we are also planning to publish in 2011 some other smaller TNA datasets which relate to Chelsea Pensioners or their equivalents. It is, therefore, worth keeping an eye open for the new datasets as they are released and re-checking the website regularly.’

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!

We have just added 7,247 extra Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records and 44,130 extra images to our WO97 collection.

The National Archives describes this set of records (WO97 boxes 6323-6383) as ’supplementary series formed from documents which were found to have been misfiled when the post-1913 records were sorted’.

There are now 1,041,092 records in the entire WO97 Chelsea Pensioners collection on findmypast.co.uk

This new release means that if you haven’t been able to find your ancestors in our Chelsea Pensioner records, it’s definitely worth searching again now. These new records provide an alphabetical list of soldiers by last name which spans over 100 years.

Search the Chelsea Pensioner records now to find your missing ancestors.

We’ve just added 341,888 records and 1,928,868 images to our Chelsea Pensioners collection for the period 1901-1913.

This completes the WO97 series of our Chelsea Pensioner collection and brings the total amount of these records and images on findmypast.co.uk to 1,033,845 records and 6,131,443 images.

This collection comprises records of men pensioned out of the British Army 1760-1913. The connection with ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ is that the pensions were administered through The Royal Hospital at Chelsea.

For the first time on-line, in colour, you can now see Territorial Force attestations. The Territorial Force was formed in 1908 and so these men would not have appeared in earlier record releases.

Also for the first time, you can view – in colour – attestations for men who joined the Volunteer Service Companies during the Boer War. These men, who had previously served with Volunteer battalions, re-enlisted with these special volunteer service companies and served alongside regular soldiers in the regular regiments.

Here’s a full breakdown of which records we’ve already published on the site and which are still to come:

These records are very special. They’re the closest you can get to looking at a photo of you ancestor as they contain detailed descriptions of a soldier’s physical appearance and any distinguishing features, for example, tattoos or scars. There are usually six or seven records for each soldier and you’ll also be able to see your ancestor’s signature.

We’re working in association with The National Archives and in partnership with FamilySearch on this ongoing project.

Remember that these records are free to search, like all the records on findmypast.co.uk. Even if you’re not sure that any of your ancestors could have been Chelsea Pensioners, try searching the records - your ancestor may have only served in the army for a short time before they were pensioned out.

Find your ancestors in our Chelsea Pensioner records today.

I joined findmypast.co.uk in August after seven years in India managing a team of software engineers. That’s probably about as far detached from family history as it gets. On the other hand, I have over 25 years’ experience researching British military history and have a number of military-related blogs including one on army service numbers between 1881 and 1918, a subject very close to my heart.

Paul Nixon with son Tauran

Findmypast.co.uk’s publication of the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records (WO97) opens up a vast new range of military records dating from 1760 to 1913. What’s more, the records are in excellent condition and have been scanned in colour, which really makes them come alive.

The beauty of the WO97 series is that the records encompass many different numbering systems. My own data has focused on the numbering system introduced in 1881 as part of Cardwell’s reforms, but WO97 goes back a full 120 years before this, enabling today’s patient historian to really study British military history in depth. In terms of military campaigns, in this series alone you’ll find records of men who fought at Waterloo alongside those who fought the rebels in the Indian Mutiny; Egypt and Sudan campaign veterans, Boer War veterans; in fact records of ordinary soldiers who took part in virtually every British military campaign between 1760 and 1913.

I list below sample records for the 1st and 2nd (regular) battalions of The King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). The regiment was formed on 1 July 1881 from the 4th (King’s Own Royal) Regiment of Foot and was established as the newly formed regiment for North Lancashire. It started numbering from 1 in July 1881.

Use the information below to narrow down the date on which your ancestor joined this regiment. For instance, if he had the number 444, and was soldiering with the King’s Own in the late 19th Century, he must have joined between 2nd June 1883 and 21st March 1884.

A word of warning, however. Numbering in the British Army is far from a simple matter and regiments could and did start new number series for other battalions - or indeed the same battalions - within the regiment. For instance, by 1908, the King’s Own had five battalions and the number 444 had already been used four times, once for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, once for the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, and once each for the 4th and 5th Territorial battalions.

The King’s Own - Regular enlistments 1881-1913

10 joined on 9 July 1881
271 joined on 16 December 1882
397 joined on 2 June 1883
599 joined on 21 March 1884
1012 joined on 12 March 1885
1632 joined on 22 July 1886
1923 joined on 1 January 1887
2300 joined on 19 January 1888
2561 joined on 15 January 1889
2981 joined on 11 June 1890
3244 joined on 24 June 1891
3506 joined on 31 January 1892
4061 joined on 24 July 1893
4317 joined on 17 February 1894
4650 joined on 12 January 1895
5019 joined on 29 January 1896
5311 joined on 3 May 1897
5671 joined on 14 April 1898
5923 joined on 24 March 1899
6288 joined on 2 April 1900

The 1st Volunteer Battalion, The King’s Own, sent over 150 of its volunteers to South Africa to serve with the 2nd Battalion. Such was the number of men wishing to serve with the Volunteers that a 2nd Volunteer Battalion was formed and its headquarters was set up at Lancaster. Those volunteers who made it to South Africa fought in several actions and guarded prisoners at Ladysmith.

Numbers within the range to 7200 to 7352 were issued to men serving in the 1st VSC. Numbers 7353 to 7448 were issued to men serving with the 2nd VSC. Numbers 7449 to 7468 were issued to men serving with the 3rd VSC and - as stated on the QSA medal roll - the Volunteer Service Section.

6665 joined on 4 January 1901
7003 joined on 17 February 1902
7652 joined on 5 January 1903
8079 joined on 11 January 1904
8489 joined on 9 January 1905
8847 joined on 9 March 1906
9134 joined on 1 January 1907
9800 joined on 20 August 1908
10076 joined on 21 April 1909
10178 joined on 14 February 1910
10439 joined on 20 April 1911
10649 joined on 3 May 1912
10836 joined on 3 January 1913

I hope you enjoy searching findmypast.co.uk’s Chelsea Pensioners collection for your military ancestors.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured, answers your questions.

From Barbara Jarvis in Bromley, Greater London:

‘I am trying to find some information about a probable great or great great uncle whose medals I have inherited. They are from South Africa and the first one has a date bar 1878-9. The inscription is ‘1724 Pte J Lipscombe 1/13 Foot’. The second medal is inscribed ‘2100 Pte J Lipscombe. Som L I’.

As far as I know they belonged to the same person, who may have been my paternal grandmother’s brother or uncle. Are you able to tell me where I might get his military history or any other information? I cannot find a J Lipscombe on any census.’

Steve says:

‘Thanks for your question, Barbara.

You are in luck here, as your man is to be found in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service records which we have recently been publishing on findmypast.co.uk. The originals of these records are held at The National Archives; we have scanned and indexed them.

They are the surviving army service records of men who were pensioned out from the British Army within the period 1760 to 1913 (although at present only the records up to 1900 have been published online - the period from there to 1913 will follow later this summer). Some of the soldiers were indeed Chelsea Pensioners resident at the Royal Hospital Chelsea; however, the great majority were out-pensioners receiving a home pension at home.

There is an entry in the database for a Private 1724 later 2100 John Lipscombe (sometimes Lipscomb without the e) of the 13th Foot, complete with no fewer than 10 images. These give all sorts of fascinating information - a physical description, his medical history, a complete potted history of his army career including the Sekukuni Campaign in South Africa in 1878 and his related medal entitlement (South African Medal and Clasp 1878/79). You can also see details of his immediate family: mother, brother, sister and wife, with date and place of their marriage.

You can search for Private John Lipscombe in the British Army service records and download the images here.’

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