87th Irish foot regiment 1825-1849

[Kennedy1]

I have discovered my Irish Great Great Grandfather  Charles Kennedy served with this regiment, I have his Army records from Kew at great expense, unfortunately they don't give much away. Does anyone know much about this regiment, I know her served in Mauritius for 6 years and he was stationed in Scotland fort George in 1844. He married and settled in Scotland and left the regiment in 1849.

Regards Kennedy1

This the uniform of the regiment

[km1971]

87th Regiment

They were in India when he enlisted. He would have been trained at a depot somewhere in the UK and sent out to the regiment.  They served in the First Burmese War 1824 to 1826. They arrived back in Chatham in June 1827, then:

= July 1827 – Isle of Wight
= July 1828 – Chatham & Lambeth
= May 1829 – Stockport
= July 1829 – Manchester
= July 1830 – Bolton
= September 1830 – Newry
= Nov 1830 – Plymouth, leaving for Mauritius, February 1831

Arrived back in Plymouth – September 1843, then:
= October 1843 - Glasgow
= August 1844 – Edinburgh
= July 1845 – Aberdeen
= September 1846 - Newport (Monmouthshire)
= Oct 1847 - ?
Embarked for India April 1849

These are the locations of the main force. You will have to look at the muster books in Kew to see if he was on detachment in a nearby town. They were definitely in Mauritius for over 12 years. Maybe he was transferred to the Depot. Does his record say if he was awarded a medal for Burmah?

Ken

[Kennedy1]

By Ken thanks , makes some sense of dates I have . I am bashing my brains out with this guy, it is so important to find his history. My Great Great Grandfather. He did indeed serve in Mauritus and the dates you kindly gave me line up with his time in Scotland. Just paid a lump to KEW for his discharge papers, didnt give next of kin, but did tell me about Mauritius and  a "Good conduct Medal" I do know in 1844 he was stationed in Fort George Nairn in Inverness as he had a son born there. He met my great great gran in Paisley and they married there, 1843 her father served with the 2nd Battalion 4th fencibles of Caitness, so I imagine thats the link  of how they met?

Thank you so much kENNEDY 1 

[akanex2]

As I understand it this regiment was known as the Royal Irish Fusiliers and was the county regiment for Co Armagh, so your ancestor may well have come from this area. 

In 1968 it merged with the two other Northern Irish infantry regiments - Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Royal Ulster Rifles - to form the Royal Irish Rangers, which in turn merged with the Ulster Defence Regiment in 1992 to form the Royal Irish Regiment with its headquarters in Palace Barracks, Holywood, Co Down.

[km1971]

You should ignore regional affiliations of the line regiments until well into the second half of the 19th Century. As they did not have permanent depots they would pick up recruits as the battalion and depot moved around the UK. If you download the details for men who enlisted in the 87th Regiment from the NA catalogue, you will see that only six men were born in Co Armagh out of many hundreds.

Ken

[Kennedy1]

Not sure how to down load stuff from NA site will have ago, he was definatley born St Marks Parish Dublin
I have  a ref to Newport on the papers ties in with your dates. The regiment was commanded by General L Doyle/Dayle.
Scrawled 0n a record for 1846 right at the bottom is Paisley in big letters. There must have been some kind of Depot there, that was where he married his wife , he married in a church in Paisley 1843.

His final paper says discharge made in Chatham 1847 at this point 136 Private Charles Kennedy leaves the 87th foot.

Thanx Kennedy 1