Hi thank you for your kind help.
Yes I have seen some records when he enlisted in 1813 with the3rd foot 2nd battalion, he was discharged at the end of the Napoleonic war he enlisted again in Ireland were I believe he married Bridget then he was sent to New Zealand I’m guessing Bridget went with him or soon after.
He left the army in 1832 .
Kind regards Sue
Here in NZ I'm just not sure about the concept of being sent to NZ in the Army prior to 1832. There may have been military contact but this would have been from a base in NSW (Australia). Postings to Australia were very common. Have you tracked his later service?
'In the early 1830s, the Christian missionaries who had now been working in New Zealand for nearly 20 years believed that God’s work was being hindered by a general sense of chaos and violence. They pressured Britain’s Colonial Office to take action, but colonisation was an expensive business and London was not convinced of its necessity. New Zealand was not a sovereign state with a centralised government, so making formal arrangements with Māori was difficult.
Britain’s first steps were tentative. In 1833 James Busby was appointed as Britain’s first official Resident in New Zealand. Given little official support and provided with no means of enforcing his theoretical authority over British subjects, Busby was to seek any assistance he might need from the Governor of New South Wales (who was also reluctant to spend money or time on New Zealand).
Busby attempted to create a sense of identity and collective government by encouraging northern chiefs to choose a flag to represent New Zealand (1834) and sign a Declaration of Independence of New Zealand (1835). The 34 chiefs who initially signed the declaration called upon King William IV of the United Kingdom to become their ‘father and protector’."
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/history-of-new-zealand-1769-1914
