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Some Special Interests => Travelling People => Topic started by: Conor Oldroyd on Sunday 06 July 14 14:17 BST (UK)
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Hello,
I'm hoping that somebody with a good knowledge of British military history will be able to assist me with what my my 4x Great Grandfather, Colour Sergeant James Lumsden would have gotten up to in his military career.
He joined the 46th Regiment of foot in approx 1838 and stayed with them until after the Crimean war until 1857 (though he was stationed at the depot to train new solders other than going to actually fight). He then retired from the 46th on a Chelsea pension and later became the Colour Sergeant of the Ayrshire Militia until his death in 1883.
What I do know is that in his 19 years of service, he served in Barbados in 1842, St Vincent in 1843, Barbados in 1844, and Canada from 1845-1848.
However, will he have seen active service whilst in these places? Were there any wars or conflicts occurring at the time that required British regiments to fight in? Or was it more just to establish colonial rule? I've tried google searching possible conflicts that they may have been involved in but I've had no such luck. In short, what was the role of the British army in Canada and the Caribbean in the 1840s?
Thanks
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I can't help with military history, but I can tell you that various regiments of the British Army stationed in the Caribbean in the 1840s would have been busy keeping the peace.
Slavery was abolished in 1834 but there was a 4 year apprenticeship scheme to for slaves to become free, so full freedom was not attained until 1838. The economic and social changes throughout the Caribbean caused some lasting turmoil and your great grandfather would have had a policing role.
archive.org has a book on Barbados published in 1847 which may give you further insight - chapter 17 deals with the period 1842-46.
www.archive.org/stream/historyofbarbado00schouoft/historyofbarbado00schouoft_djvu.txt
Hope this helps
Philip