88th Connaught Rangers

[Joy Dean]

 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

[John Young]

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

[Joy Dean]

Thank you again very much.

Sending a PM to you.

Joy

[Joy Dean]

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!' ".

[John Young]

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

[Joy Dean]

  Thank you   

[Joy Dean]

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.

[John Young]

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

[Joy Dean]

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.