James Tait (26th Regiment)

[Scottish007]

I am looking for records about James Tait and Thomas Whitehouse.

Thomas Whitehouse married Jane Sweetman on 5th April 1831 at Chatham, Kent, England. They had 5 children, the last being Alexander Shanks Whitehouse on 24th June 1840 at Chatham, Kent, England.

Alexander died 18th May 1841 at Berhampore, Bengal, India. He was in the 26th regiment.

Jane Sweetman then married James Tait on 11th April 1842 at Berhampore, Bengal, India. James was a corporal in the 26th regiment. Jane was also in the 26th regiment.

James and Jane had my 4th great-grandmother, Mary Tait, on 20th January 1843. James was a corporal in the 26th regiment.

I have the images of the records on FamilySearch, which is where I got my information from. I cannot find any military record about Thomas Whitehouse or James Tait. I have no birth or death for either of them.

[Andy J2022]

Because Thomas died while serving his records will have been destroyed shortly after his death. Since there was no need for a pension, the Army didn't need to keep the record of his service. Wives did not get a widow's pension, which is why Jane pretty much had to find a new husband from within the Regiment, otherwise she would have been destitute.

I can't explain the lack of records for James Tait, but not all records were retained into the twentieth century. It may be that for whatever reason, he didn't qualify for a pension and so there is no Chelsea Hospital record for him (which is usually all we see for soldiers for that era).

Thomas most likely died from disease contracted during the Regiment's expedition into China in 1841 as part of the First Opium Wars. Well over half the battalion died from disease, with a much smaller number killed or wounded in the fighting. You can read more about this campaign in Thomas Carter's Historical record of the TwentySixth or Cameronian Regiment (see page 188 for details of the numbers who died in the period 1840 -1843)

[Andy J2022]

There was a Private James Tait number 921 in the 26th Foot in 1851 when the regiment were stationed in Gibraltar. If this is the same man, then he had obviously been reduced from the rank of Corporal. The only way you could find out for sure if it is the same person is to look at the Muster Rolls for the decade of 1840-50, and this would require a personal visit to TNA as the rolls haven't been digitised.