RootsChat.Com
General => Armed Forces => Topic started by: Joy Dean on Tuesday 17 February 09 11:14 GMT (UK)
-
I have received a copy of a letter sent to my great-grandmother by her brother John McCusker, dated March 1878. He was in Komgha, Cape Colony Frontier.
I have explored various sites about the 88th Connaught Rangers, and I would love to know more about his service records. However, that is all I know about him!
I have explored the national archives site, just in case I ever manage to get to Kew, but felt rather lost in the site. Does anyone know, please, is Kew the only place that would have any records about him?
Thank you.
-
Does anyone know, please, is Kew the only place that would have any records about him?
Yes, for the moment. Surviving records are being put online by Findmypast. But not until 2011.
A war was going on with various tribes from 1877 to 1879. The last year being the Zulu War. And the first Boer War was a few years later. Someone online may have a medal roll for the first one. No medals were given out for the second, as we lost. That will give some information without visiting Kew.
Ken
-
Thank you. Yes, I had read about that in the sites I had explored.
He said in his letter -
I am about three thousand miles from Cape Town up through the country.
The war is near all over now. There was only about 8 men killed and wounded since the beginning of it. I have escaped lucky enough myself. I think we will be going to Cape Town very soon.
two more Regiments come out to the Colony, the 90th and the second 24th so I think that when we get back to Cape Town we will have a long stay in it before we are sent up here again.
Sec Corpl John McCusker
N1280 B Company
88 Connaught Rangers
Komgha
Cape Colony Frontier
PS The 88 has got great praise from the General for their bravery.
-
hi sorry cant help with your research but i can say for certain the connaught rangers were a solid and a hard fighting force in every battle they fought may suggest reading Bernard Corwalls Sharpe the novells are set ealier than the time you are looking 1800s at but they still make good reading.
regards neil
-
Thank you.
-
JoyKM,
I'm just back from that neck of the woods, he is writing about the 9th Cape Frontier War 1877-8 against the amaXhosa people, under the leadership of Sandile.
The fighting took place in the Eastern Cape. The British base of operations was in King William's Town, and the amaXhosa strongholds were in the Amatola mountains.
He has somewhat exaggerated the distance at the most he would have been about 900-950 miles from Cape Town.
I'll do some checking for you for you when I get home and see what bar to the medal he's entitled to.
Isandlwana
-
The casualty roll shows that his numbers for killed and wounded was only one out – 9 instead of 8. These were at two actions – Draaibosch and Chichaba – which if you google will give you a few useful links to the 88th Foot in 1887-78, including these two:
http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/britishguide/zulu/despatch1_south_africa_1877_1878.htm
http://freespace.virgin.net/ecliptica.ww/meet_the_ancestors/charles_edward_n.html
The 88th also had a casualty at the battle of Gingindlovu in the Zulu War of 1879.
Ken
-
Thank you, both of you.
Perhaps it had seemed like three thousand miles. :)
One other thing that he said in his letter, apart from talking about family things, the weather, that he had "seen on the papers that peace is proclaimed between Russia and Turkey", and that he thinks he "will be getting eight or ten pounds cattle money that we took from the enemy" -
"Sergt Seavers is going to be pensioned off. He got a bullet through the head. It went in his mouth and came out under his ear and took a piece of his tongue away. He will be dumb for life."
I had found mention of this person in these sites:
http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk/britishguide/zulu/despatch1_south_africa_1877_1878.htm
http://britishmedals.net/files/cassa.htm
-
JoyKM,
I have found him on the Medal Roll which is held at TNA under reference WO 100/47. In addition I also have him recorded in my own files with the following information Private 1280 John McCusker, 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment of Foot. He saw service against the amaXhosa, for which he would have been entitled to the 1877-8 Bar to the South Africa General Service Medal had he lived. However, he appears to have died prior to the compilation of the 88th's submission of the medals in 1881.
It might well be worth your while checking the Pay & Muster Rolls of the 88th between 1878 - 1881 to establish where and when he died.
Isandlwana
-
Thank you so much for your help. That is very kind of you.
So, he went down from Sec Corporal to Private then?
Can I find that medal roll relatively easily in the TNA site? I did get quite lost in there before.
Is checking the Pay and Muster Rolls something that can only be done at Kew? Would it actually say his name in them?
Sorry there are so many questions but, as so often it seems, the more that I know, the more I want to discover.
Oh that is so sad, that he died before 1881. He had asked in the letter if his brother-in-law, that is my great-grandfather, could find him some work somewhere near to them in a few years' time; great-granny and great-grandad were in Portsmouth, England.
Oh, I do feel sad. I get so involved with my family.
Joy
-
Joy,
Second-Corporal or as it became Lance-Corporal, was only a temporary rank back then, worth a couple more pennies a day for more hassle. It wasn't unusual to bounce around the ranks then either.
The Medal Roll for 1877-8-9, was available a book, edited by D.R. Forsyth. However there is a cd-rom which is currently available of it.
The material at Kew used to be on microfilm, but it has been some time since I had to refer to it.
The Pay & Muster rolls of the 88th are at Kew. These are quarterly returns John McCusker's name would indeed appear in them, as would any stoppages to his pay for whatever reason.
By searching them between 1878 - 1881 you be able to establish the date, and I use the expression that would be recorded in the Pay & Muster Roll, he became Non-Effective that also normally gives details of his Next-of-Kin to whom any personal items and outstanding pay/prize money would have been sent. So they are well worth a look from that aspect.
The Battle of Quintana as mentioned in a number of the links is now referred to as Centane, try a search on that version and you should find some modern photographs of the area as it is now. I've got some engravings of the 1877-8 campaign from the illustrated newspapers of the time, should they be of interest please PM me.
Regards,
Isandlwana
-
Thank you again very much.
Sending a PM to you.
Joy
-
For anyone else interested in the 88th Connaught Rangers, I read in "Companion to the Anglo-Zulu War" by Ian Knight that members of the British Army have never had a national war cry, although some regiments have had specific phrases used as a rallying cry, "such as the old Gaelic war cry of the 88th Regiment (Connaught Rangers) 'Faugh a Balloch!', meaning 'Clear the way!' ".
-
Joy,
I hate to correct the author but that should read "Faugh-a-ballaugh!" rather than "balloch".
Take it from a former T.A. Faugh.
There's even a song entitled The Connaught Rangers by written an officer of the regiment in the 1880's.
Isandlwana
-
Thank you :)
-
I did not know when I would be able to get to Kew and, probably by the time I had found my way around the building and the relevant fiches / films, it would have been time to come home ::) :) ; so, having seen in Family Tree Forum that one of its members does professional research there, I decided to ask her to look at the Pay & Muster Roll. I should be receiving her report in the post soon.
One thing that she has told me by email is that he became Non-Effective in June 1879 in Mauritius.
-
Joy,
That narrows him down to being in either 'E' or 'H' Company of the 88th. There were three companies of the 88th on Mauritius but 'B' Company left as part of the reinforcement in the wake of the disaster at Isandlwana on 22nd January 1879.
Isandlwana
-
He died in Port Louis. His service was only just over two years.
He was born in Killorran.
I am sitting digesting the information sent to me.
-
Another question - regarding the possible age of John when he enlisted in 1877.
His army records gave his place of birth as Killorran, but did not give his age nor date or year of birth.
I have been searching for sites that would give the age of enlistment; I read that someone enlisted at 13!
This site states " ..... we drove them off with a mere handful of young soldiers ... "
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1879/mar/03/supply-army-estimates.
John's parents married in Clogher, Co. Tyrone in 1848. His sisters Elizabeth and Susan were born approximately 1854 and 1856 in Fermanagh, the former in Maguires bridge (according to census); another sister Charlotte was born about 1855, according to her marriage certificate in 1879. His brother William was born in 1865 in Lissavally, Killererin, Galway.
Thank you for reading this.
PS
I have just seen this " ... Troops were enlisted from age nine years and were paid men’s wages from age 15. ..."
http://users.bigpond.net.au/thurlow/francis_bridget.htm
-
I have just seen this " ... Troops were enlisted from age nine years and were paid men’s wages from age 15. ..."
Not in 1880 they weren't. Your link refers to 1800. By the second half of the 19th Century, Boys (under 18) were paid 8d a day, Privates 1s or 1s 1d a day. There were only about 6-8 boys per battalion of c850. Most came from the two military asylums aged 14.
I am surprised his papers do not give his age on enlistment. If you can get to Kew the Muster books (WO12 and 16) might help; especially his first entry. If he went in as a Private you can guarantee that they thought he was 18.
Ken
-
Thank you. So that makes him at least 18 then at enlistment.
This is from part of the Army records:
WO16/2017
1/10/1877 - 31/3/1878 Stationed Cape Town
Brigade or Regiment 68BD
Brigade or Regimental No. 1280
Period for which payment has been made 1 Oct to 7 January
Pay Ordinary at 1/- Number of days 99
Remarks To Lance Corporal 8 January.
Perhaps I should ask the researcher to look at WO12 for me, too.
-
i have two ancestors who were in the 1st Battalion Connaught Rangers/88th Regiment of Foot.
A great-great grandfather George Joyce, who joined up in 1864 aged 14 years and 5 months, and my great-grandfather, Herbert Child, born 1865 (his son-in-law). Both of them were in the band.
I have George's records downloaded ( very tatty and damaged), but nothing for Herbert. I suspect he served in the Boer War, as two of his children were born in Ireland at that time; both Herbert and George were from London originally.
Herbert married George's daughter in Dinapore, India in 1890. One of those coincidences that occur in family history is that in 1975 when doing the 'hippy thing' in India I had to get discount on a rail ticket back to Delhi. To obtain it I had to travel from Patna to the District Railway HQ a few miles down the line - at Dinapore!
I would love to know when Herbert joined up and left, or any details of his career. We suspect he played (in the band) for Queen Victoria in 1875 at the opening of the Town Hall; a brush with Royalty!
Does anyone have him in their family tree and can fill in the blanks?
-
Records for most men who fought in the Boer War have not been published by Findmypast yet. They were due last month, but they have changed the release date a number of times. Originally it was 2011.
Ken