John Bailey, Royal Artillery, Napoloenic period

[kglm]

My ancestor John Bailey served in the RA during Napoleonic times. He was born circa 1791 place unknown. He was a Chelsea Pensioner according to later non-army records. He appears to have been discharged between 1820 and 1823 (based on occupations given on children's baptism records). Following discharge he lived at Woolwich and worked as a painter at Woolwich Barracks for many years. Died at Woolwich 1850. An 1823 discharge would give a total service of no more than 16 years - is this long enough to get a pension - or do I have his birthdate wrong?

I cant find a service record for him that fits with this. There are other alternative spellings such a Bayley, Baillie, but I have search those names as well.

What other sources of information should I be looking at to find out anything about his service in the RA?.

[km1971]

Lots of men were discharged to pension 'on reduction', ie when they drastically cut the size of the army following the wars with France.

[DavidGreenall110]

You have to be careful here, quite a few veterans claimed to be Chelsea Pensioners when they weren't To qualify for the pension you needed to have completed 20 years service meaning he would have joined as a boy however, as in the case of my GGG Grandfather, if they serves at Waterloo or were a part of the Army of Occupation thereafter, they were awarded extra years of service.

I've had a look on the Forces War Records site and the Waterloo Medal Roll and there are a number of John Bailey's, your best bet would be to start there and whittle them down.

I've also had a look on Find My Past under their Chelsea Pensioners section, there is a John Bailey born 1791 Boston Lincs if that's any use?

David