Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne (1802 – 1831)

In compiling this brief biography of my 1st cousin 5 times removed Pulteney Sherburne (1802 – 1831), I have tried to flesh out the bare record with a few inferences and conjectures but, with little material to draw on beyond names, dates, and the sparse chronology of his army career, I am afraid the portrait I have drawn of the man may be a little distorted. It’s the best I can do.

Born in India

Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne, the son of Joseph Sherburne (1751 – 1805) and Frances Johnstone Sherborne née Dana (1768 – 1832) was born in
north-east India and baptised in Bhagalpur in 1802. Joseph Sherburne was a Magistrate Collector and senior merchant with the East India Company. Pulteney was the oldest child. A sister, Frances, was born in 1803. Joseph Sherburne died in 1805 and Frances Johnstone Sherburne returned to England with her two children.

Army career

On 20 April 1813 Pulteney Sherburne was appointed as an ensign with the South Hants Regiment of Militia. The militia was designed to serve as a home guard or reserve force. In 1813 England was at war with the French. Sherburne was aged 11 and it appears that this was intended as a first step in a military career. In modern terms he had become a part-time officer cadet.

All three of Pulteney’s surviving uncles were in the army at this time:

• George Kinnaird Dana (1770 – 1837) was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 6th garrison regiment serving in Nenagh, Tipperary, Ireland.; he was promoted to Major-General on 4 June 1813
• William Pulteney Dana (1776 – 1861) was paymaster in his brother’s regiment, also serving in Ireland
• Charles Patrick Dana (1784 – 1816) served with the East India Company and was a captain with the 23rd Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry at the time of his death at sea travelling back to England in 1816

On 27 July 1815, a month after the Battle of Waterloo, Volunteer Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne was commissioned as an Ensign (without purchase) in the First Regiment of Foot, the Royal Scots. An ensign was the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the army. Pulteney Sherburne was about 13 years old. At the time the Royal Scots had four battalions. I am not sure which battalion Sherburne served in. The first was stationed in Ireland from 1816 to 1825; the second was in India and involved in the Third Anglo-Maratha War; the third formed part of the Army of Occupation following the Battle of Waterloo. It was disbanded in 1817. The fourth battalion was used mainly as a depot battalion for providing the other three battalions with drafts and it was recruited mainly from the militia. It was disbanded in 1816.

In 1818 Sherburne transferred from the 1st Foot where he had been on half-pay to the 70th Foot. In 1818 and 1819 the 70th Foot was serving in Canada: at Fort George from April 1817, Kingston from June 1819 and Quebec from May 1821.

The Gazette of 18 April 1822 announced the promotion of Ensign Pulteney J. Poole Sherburne, from the 70th Foot, to Lieutenant (without purchase) in the First Regiment of Foot. The Gazette of 11 May 1822 updated the announcement to say the Commission of Lieutenant Sherburne, of the 1st Foot, has been antedated to 18th October 1820, but that he had not been allowed to receive any back-pay. It seems that although Sherburne had been a lieutenant with the 1st Foot from 1820 he had been paid as such only from 1822.

In the Gazette of 24 October 1822 Pulteney J. Poole Sherburne of the 1st Regiment of Foot exchanged with Lieutenant Daniel Keogh of the 58th Foot who was on half-pay. The 58th Foot was in Jamaica, the West Indies, from 1816 to 1828 when it was deployed to Ceylon.

I can find no further notices in the Gazette revealing Sherburne’s military career.

Bruce Bassett-Powell who maintains a website devoted to the study of military uniforms at Uniformology.com, commented:

 Lieutenant Sherbourne’s experience as a company officer would be fairly typical. … The dramatic draw down of regimental personnel after the Napoleonic Wars left many career officers without a regiment of their choice, so officers were transferred with or without purchase to any regiment they could find. … [Sherburne’s] career was so very typical of the era in which he served.

email correspondence July 2020

Barrack Master

 From about 1825 (possibly as early as 1822) when he exchanged out of the 1st to the 58th on half-pay, Lieutenant P. P. Sherburne held the position of Barrack Master at Berbice in the British West Indies, now in present-day Guyana.

From 1822 British army barracks were the responsibility of the Board of Ordnance. In 1826 there were 41 barrack masters in the Foreign Departments administered by the Board; the West Indies station had 14 barracks.

Barrack masters oversaw individual barracks and their role was to see
that the blocks were properly equipped, maintained and run in accordance
with a bureaucratic system of regular returns.

In the 1826 Army Ordnance estimates Berbice had 10,000 pounds allocated for a new Barrack, Commissariat and Ordnance Establishment at Canje Point to replace the Barrack Establishment at St Andrews which was not worth repairing.

The army in Berbice used slave labour hired from others. There were several complaints about Lieutenant Sherburne and his treatment of slaves while he was barrack master; in at least one instance Sherburne was investigated for alleged cruelty and the charges were disproved.

New Amsterdam Berbice in the 1830s from Sketch Map of British Guiana by Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804–65) published in London 1840 retrieved from World Digital Library https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11335/

British colony in Berbice

The garrison at Berbice was quartered at Fort Canje one mile from New Amsterdam. The 1838 Army Medical Services Report describes the garrison as a small military post of square form bounded by the Berbice River on one side and a small stream called the Canje. The two other sides were protected by trenches and wooden pallisades. The ground on which it is built is low and swampy.

The 1838 report of the Army Medical Services observed that the climate of the whole of British Guiana was noted for its extreme moisture, the rate of annual rainfall being six times that of Great Britain. The average temperature in Berbice was 80 degrees Fahrenheit with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 86. The Berbice district was the most southerly British possession in the West Indies. It extended 100 miles along the coast and the ground was so low that at high-water it would be completely inundated were it not protected by strong dams (dykes).  Where the country was not under cultivation in the 1830s it was a succession of forests, savannahs and marshes. The soil was said not to absorb the moisture and became very muddy. The air was consequently reported as extremely humid.

A 2012 visitor described the location:

It was always a sickly piece of land. Even now, few people live out here, on the swamps formed at the confluence of the Berbice and the Canje. The clay is always weeping oily water, and the air is itchy with mosquitoes. … There was no view beyond,just an enormous burning sky and a fringe of thick mangrove.

Fort Canje near New Amsterdam by John Gimlette http://www.guyanagraphic.com/blog/john-gimlette/fort-canje-near-new-amsterdam

Canje River, Guyana taken from the Canje Bridge in New Amsterdam in 2009 by User:Loriski , CC BY-SA 3.0 retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

In 1838 there was a barrack with an hospital and offices within the fort for the accommodation of the troops. The barrack was an oblong wooden building with a basement used for stores and two upper stories each divided into four apartments for the soldiers with some smaller rooms for non-commissioned officers. The hospital was also built of wood with a basement and two stories.

British Guiana was not a healthy place. In 1826 there were 1162 white
troops and 74 black troops in the colony. In that year there were 115 deaths among those troops. In 1831 there were 968 white troops and 2160 black troops with 113 deaths that year. Most of the deaths among white troops at that time were from fevers, particularly yellow fever.

Leave in England

In 1830 Sherburne was on leave in England and he signed his final will on 7 August 1830 at Burton in Wiltshire. He described himself as “Lieutenant in His Majestys Army and Barrack Master to the forces serving in the Colony of Berbice”. He appointed his cousin Joseph Coxon of Burton, Wiltshire, as executor and the main beneficiary was Joseph Coxon’s daughter Isabella Coxon.

[In 1788 Harriet Sherburne, sister of Pulteney’s father Joseph, had married John Coxon, Esq., Command of the Grosvenor, East Indiaman; the Grosvenor, under the command of John Coxon was shipwrecked in 1782; John Coxon was among those who died afterwards. Harriet’s son Joseph (1779 – 1842) had a daughter Isabella born 1809.]

Death in West Indies

Pulteney Sherburne died in Berbice on 28 June 1831 aged about 28.

At the time of his death he was Barrack Master, with the rank of Lieutenant. His death notices in The Asiatic Journal, Gentleman’s Magazine, and New Monthly Magazine describe him as “late of the “Royals” but the army death notices state he was of the 58th Regiment of Foot on half pay. As the 1st Regiment of Foot was more prestigious than the 58th Foot his family perhaps wanted to retain that association from before he transferred out.

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Bookplate

Bookplate in the collection of the University of British Columbia

In its Rare Books and Special Collection, the University of British Columbia has a bookplate belonging to P. J. P. Sherburne.  The bookplate is not associated with a particular book and is mentioned in H.W. Fitcham, “Artist and Engravers of British and American Bookplates,” 1897. Fitcham dates the bookplate to 1820. In 1820 Pulteney Sherburne turned 18 and was promoted to Lieutenant. The bookplate has a shield, Quarterly— 1 and 4, Vert, an eagle displayed argent ; 2 and 3, Argent, a lion rampant. Crest : An unicorn’s head. Motto : “Je ne cede a personne.”  The Sherburne coat of arms was discussed in a previous post on The search for the Arms of the Dana family as it appears engraved on a box which Pulteney’s mother left in her will to her niece and goddaughter Charlotte, my 3rd great grandmother.

The motto is unusual but as Arthur Fox-Davies notes in his Complete Guide to Heraldry, mottoes do not form part of the grant of arms in England but are “ left purely to the personal pleasure of every individual”. The phrase “Je ne cede a personne”  or in Latin: Concedo Nulli – I yield to none – appears associated with the Dutch philosopher Erasmus in the 1805 book “Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Joannes Picus of Mirandula, Actius Sincerus Sannazarius, Petrus Bembus, Hieronymus Fracastorius, Marcus Antonius Flaminius, and the Amalthei : translations from their poetical works: and notes and observations concerning other literary characters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries”.

Miniature Portrait

My father has a miniature portrait of Pulteney Sherborne passed to him
from his grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny who received it from his grandmother Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny née Dana.  The portrait was left to Charlotte Frances Dana by her aunt and godmother, Frances Sherbourne née Dana, Pulteney’s mother.

The uniform in the miniature portrait could be either the 58^th or the 70^th regiment. Bruce Bassett-Powell confirms both regiments had black facings with gold lace, evenly spaced.  Bassett-Powell suggests it is possible that the portrait of him was done in Canada, that is when he was serving with the 70th Foot.

Frances Sherburne, Pulteney’s mother, made her will not long after she heard of Pulteney’s death – sadly both her children predeceased her and there are no descendants. She specifically mentioned the portrait in her will, leaving it to her niece and goddaughter.

In his portrait Pulteney Sherburne looks bright, determined and optimistic. The role of Barrack Master in Berbice would have been demanding as he was in charge of constructing a new barracks and dealing with living in a challenging humid climate. Sherburne’s army career, cut short by his premature death aged 28, was not notably successful. He maintained his career despite the army being reduced following the end of the Napoleonic wars. Born in India and serving in Canada and the West Indies, Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne (1802 – 1831) was one of the many men who contributed to the making of the British Empire across the globe.

Sources

• Sherborn, Charles Davies (1901). A history of the family of Sherborn. Mitchell and Hughes, London. Page 184 retrieved through archive.org and bookplate mentioned page 156
• FindMyPast British Army Officer Promotions 1800-1815
• The London Gazette:
  • 5 August 1815, Issue 17048, Page 1589
  • 27 April 1822, Issue 17812, Page 694
  • 11 May 1822, Issue 17816, Page 786
  • 23 November 1822, Issue 17872, Page 1915
• The army list. 1820. p. 6. P. P. Sherburne 27 July 15 Ensign with the 70th Foot.
• Weaver, Lawrence (1915). The story of the Royal Scots (the Lothian regiment) formerly the First or the Royal Regiment of Foot, London. p. 170 retrieved through archive.org
• Email correspondence July 2020 with Bruce Bassett-Powell who maintains a website devoted to the study of military uniforms at Uniformology.com
• Great Britain House of Commons (1826). Journals of the House of Commons. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 710. Army:- Ordnance Estimates 1826/7 Appendix to the Supplementary Estimate Item no. 2 Barrack Masters and Barrack Serjeants: list by station.
• Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords (1828). Papers presented to Parliament by His Majesty’s Command, in Explanation of the Measures Adopted by His Majesty’s Government, for the Melioration of the Condition of the Slave Population in His Majesty’s Possessions in the West Indies, on the Continent of South America, and at The Mauritius (in Continuation of the Papers Presented in the Year 1827). Pages 153, 213, and 234.
• John Lean, ”The Secret Lives of Slaves: Berbice, 1819–1827,” (PhD diss., University of. Canterbury, 2002). p. 309. Retrieved through http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.909.6252&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• Burnard, Trevor G. (Trevor Graeme) (2010). Hearing slaves speak. The Caribbean Press, [Georgetown, Guyana]. case 71 p. 123. Retrieved through http://caribbeanpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Trevor-Burnard-Hearing-Slaves-Speak-Complete-Text.pdf
• Great Britain. Army Medical Services; A. M.. Tulloch; Henry Marshall (1838). Statistical Report on the Sickness, Mortality, and Invaliding Among the Troops in the West Indies. W. Clowes and Sons. pp. 13–17
• Death notices
  • The army list. July 1831. p. 84– Deaths.
  • The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany. Wm. H. Allen & Company. 1831. p. 99.
  • The Gentleman’s Magazine: 1831. E. Cave. 1831. p. 477.
  • The New Monthly Magazine. 1831. p. 468.
• The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1790 retrieved through ancestry.com
• Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). A complete guide to heraldry. Jack, London. p. 448 retrieved through gutenberg.org 
• Greswell, William Parr & Poliziano, Angelo, 1454-1494 & Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, 1463-1494 & Sannazaro, Jacopo, 1458-1530 & Bembo, Pietro, 1470-1547 et al. (1805). Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Joannes Picus of Mirandula, Actius Sincerus Sannazarius, Petrus Bembus, Hieronymus Fracastorius, Marcus Antonius Flaminius, and the Amalthei : translations from their poetical works: and notes and observations concerning other literary characters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (The 2nd ed., greatly augm). Cadell & Davies, London. pp 90-1 retrieved from archive.org.

Related posts

• Frances Johnstone Sherburne (1768 – 1832)
• A search for the arms of the Dana family

The American Revolution: my Dana connection

Our house in Ballarat is two blocks from Dana street, named after Henry Edmund Pulteney Dana (1820-1852), commander of the native police corps in Victoria, who was responsible for collecting the first gold licence fees in Ballarat in 1851. Henry Dana was the brother of my third great grandmother Charlotte Champion Crespigny née Dana; he was my fourth great uncle.

The Dana family is a notable American family, and when in 1989 Greg and I spent a few days in Massachusetts, we visited some places there connected with my Dana forebears.

This was through the kindness of my great aunt Nancy Movius née Champion de Crespigny (1910 – 2003), sister of my paternal grandfather. Nancy, born in Australia, had married an American and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

My great aunt Nancy, her dachshund Cobber and me being licked on the nose. Cobber means friend or mate in Australian English and Cobber the dachshund was indeed a very dear friend.

Some of our Dana forebears lived in this area, from as early as 1640. Nancy shared my interest in our family history, and during our visit she drove us to the nearby town of Concord, where, it is said, “the shot heard round the world”, the first shot of the American Revolutionary War, rang out on 19 April 1775. 

• 

  Orchard House

• 

  Wayside Inn

• 

  Grist Mill

• 

  Old North Bridge

I took no photos this day but recorded in my diary: Drove to Concord saw bridge where first soldiers were killed in Revolution, also Alcott House. Had lunch at Wayside Inn – also saw mill where flour and corn still ground.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons: Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts. Home to Louisa May Alcott and her sisters – photo by user victorgrigas 2013 CC BY-SA 3.0; The Wayside Inn Sudbury and the inn’s grist mill – photos by user Dudesleeper CC BY 2.5 and CC BY-SA 3.0; Old North Bridge Concord, 1956 replica bridge in the Minute Man National Historic Park. Photograph by National Park Service retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

Actually, there is some dispute as to whether the first shot of the Revolution was fired in Lexington or in Concord.  In the centenary celebrations of the beginning of the Revolution at Lexington on 19 April 1875, Richard Henry Dana (1815 – 1882 my second cousin five times removed) claimed that “the first shots fired back by our troops at theirs” were fired on the Green at Lexington.

The battle of Lexington, April 19th. 1775. Plate I.” In: “The Doolittle engravings of the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775.” The first of four engravings by Amos Doolittle from 1775. Doolittle visited the battle sites and interviewed soldiers and witnesses. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

As they neared Lexington, the report came to them that some five hundred men were under arms; and I am not disinclined to reconcile their testimony with the facts, by the consideration that they heard the roll of our drums, and perhaps saw the flash or heard the report of our signal-guns, intended to call our men together, and thought them a defiance ; and perhaps officers in the centre or rear might have thought them hostile shots. But the front knew they had not been fired upon, and saw the short, thin line of sixty men with arms at rest. Pitcairn, when he rode up to them, and ordered them to surrender their arms and disperse, knew they had not fired. He was not the man to talk after hostile shots. Pitcairn has had the fate which befalls many men who carry out orders that afterwards prove fatally ill-judged. When he ordered our men to surrender their arms and disperse, he was executing the orders of his commander-in-chief and of his King. If Britain was in the right, Pitcairn was in the right. Twice they were ordered to surrender their arms and disperse; and twice they refused to obey, and stood their ground. Then came the fatal fire; and why not? General Gage had been authorized to use the troops for this very purpose. He was authorized to fire upon the people, if necessary to enforce the new laws, without waiting for the civil magistrate. He had resolved to do so. Had that volley subdued the resistance of Massachusetts, Pitcairn would have been the hero of the drama. Was he to leave a military array behind him, and not attempt to disarm and disband them? If they refused, was he to give it up? I have never thought it just or generous to throw upon the brave, rough soldier, who fell while mounting the breastworks at Bunker Hill, the fault which lay on the King, the Parliament, the Ministry, and the commander-in-chief. The truth is, the issue was inevitable. The first force of that kind which the King’s troops found in martial array was to be disarmed and disbanded; and, if they refused to obey, they were to be fired upon. Both sides knew this, and were prepared for it.

Hudson, Charles & Lexington Historical Society (Mass.) (1913). History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868. Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin company. pp. 284-5 retrieved from archive.org

The Battle of Lexington, 19 April 1775, Oil on canvas by William Barns Wollen, 1910. National Army Museum, London. Retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

I have a further Dana connection to the beginning Revolutionary War.

One of Richard Henry Dana’s cousins (and my first cousin seven times removed) was George Dana (1742 – 1787), a Sergeant in Captain Jonathon Gates’ Company of Minutemen, which marched from Ashburnham on the Lexington Alarm of 19 April 1775.

The Lexington Minuteman. Photograph by user Daderot CC BY-SA 3.0 retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Sources

• Edward Tabor Linenthal (1991). Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields. University of Illinois Press. p. 36.
• Dana, Elizabeth Ellery (1956). The Dana Family in America. Wright & Potter Printing Company, 32 Derne Street, Boston. p. 482.
• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War volume 4 page 388 retrieved through ancestry.com
• Stearns, Ezra S (1887). History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, from the grant of Dorchester Canada to the present time, 1734-1886 : with a genealogical register of Ashburnham families. Pub. by the town, Ashburnham, Mass. pp 139 – 145 – retrieved through Hathitrust and p. 674 retrieved through Hathitrust

Related posts

• George III: my part in his downfall
• Trove Tuesday: Nancy de Crespigny at Salt Creek 1936
• D is for Daniel
• S is for Shrewsbury
• A search for the arms of the Dana family

V is for Victory

In Australia today is ANZAC Day, the anniversary of the first large (and pointless and losing) military action by Australian and New Zealand soldiers (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), their landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

11 November 1918, when WWI came to a halt, was called Armistice Day. It was a truce, not a victory. Armistice Day is set aside as a day to remember all the men and women who served in Australia’s armed forces.

When WWII in Europe ended with the surrender of Germany on 8 May 1945, the day was known (on the Allied side) as V-E (Victory in Europe) day. In London there was great celebration.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill waves to crowds in Whitehall on the day he broadcast to the nation that the war with Germany had been won, 8 May 1945. Imperial War Museum photograph H 41849 retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

British Movietone News Film of VE Day in London 1945:

V E Day began with Mr Churchill’s broadcast officially announcing the end of war in Europe. Londoners took to the streets in celebrations which continued for nearly two days. Outside Buckingham Palace the crowds chanted ‘we want the King’ and were rewarded by the Royal Family appearing on the balcony. At nine o’clock in the evening the King broadcast to Britain and the Commonwealth.

Plans for V-E day had been announced in Australian newspapers on 2 May, a week before.

The war was not finished for Australians, however. The Japanese had not yet surrendered and Australia and its allies were still fighting in the Pacific. The Adelaide News noted that “the Allied victory in Europe, V-E Day, was [celebrated] in Adelaide in an atmosphere of sober satisfaction and thanksgiving rather than one of wild rejoicing.”
(News (Adelaide), 8 May, p. 3.)

The front page of the Adelaide News on 9 May did not report local V-E celebrations. It gave prominence instead to an article announcing that King George VI had pledged Britain would use all her resources in the war against Japan.

It was more than three months before Japan surrendered, on 15 August 1945 August, finally ending WWII for Australia. This day was celebrated as V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.

WORLD REJOICES AT VICTORY (1945, August 17). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43506752

“The Fallen of World War II” is an animated documentary about war and peace that looks at data on the human cost of the wars in the twentieth century and how these compare to wars in the distant past and more recently.

 

I hope we never forget the suffering and misery of war and the unspeakable wickedness and stupidity of people who let it happen.

Remembrance day 2019

When in 1914 what came to be called the Great War broke out, men of our families, mine and Greg’s, enlisted and fought for their country. This happened again in the war that followed the war to end all wars.

Taken together their determination to serve had a measurable affect on the shape of the conflict and its outcome, of course, but in each case their personal decision also had deep private consequences for their friends and family. Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children, girlfriends, mates, and acquaintances all became willing or unwilling partners in a man’s choice to join up, and one way or another they all suffered for it.

At the very least the father, son, husband, brother, or friend was taken from their lives for a long time, and it very soon became clear that the person finally returned to them, if he returned, might now be a sad maimed and crippled shell of the young man who had gone away.

Both Greg’s grandfathers fought in WWI. Both were wounded and returned to ordinary life more or less incapacitated, a burden to themselves and their families. Greg’s paternal grandfather Cecil lost a brother, a half-brother, and a cousin. His maternal grandfather Arthur Sullivan came back wounded and ‘shell-shocked’, to use the euphemism of the day.

Greg’s father signed on in WW2 and was sent to New Guinea. He didn’t like to talk about it.

All four of my great grandfathers fought in WWI. All were wounded or became ill. Both my grandfathers fought in WW2.

Family tree chart showing the men of our family who fought in WW1: all eligible men of our family in that generation fought and all of them were wounded or ill as a result. Men highlighted in grey: Peter, Geoff and Hans fought in WW2.

Greg’s paternal grandfather Cecil Young (1898 – 1975) fought along with the following relatives.

• John Percy Young 1896 – 1918 brother
• George Edward Tunks 1894 – 1983 cousin
• Leslie Charles Fish 1895 – 1988 cousin
• William Alfred Fish 1890 – 1917 cousin
• Leslie Leister 1894 – 1916 half-brother
• Ernest James Young 1878 – 1942 uncle

Greg’s grandmother Elizabeth Cross had two brothers and a cousin fighting.

• Frederick Beswick Cross 1893 – 1959 brother
• George Murray Cross 1890 – 1962 brother
• William Stanley Plowright 1893 – 1917 cousin

Greg’s maternal grandfather, Arthur Sullivan (1891 – 1975) fought. Also fighting were a brother and brother-in-law.

• Henry Sullivan 1894 – 1969 brother
• Edward Blakeley Clark 1879 – 1947 brother-in-law

The brothers of Greg’s maternal grandmother, Stella Esther Gilbart Sullivan née Dawson (1894 – 1975) were all too young to enlist and her sisters did not marry until after the war. Her husband fought. An uncle was killed in action and a cousin of her mother’s also fought.

• Stanley Gilbart Edwards 1889 – 1917 uncle
• Francis Walter Roy Rawe 1889 – 1969 cousin of mother

On my side of the family my father’s paternal grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882 – 1952), fought as did three of his brothers, one of whom was killed. There were also several maternal cousins who fought, however because his mother had died when he was young, I am not sure that he would have known these cousins well.

• Francis George Travers Champion_de_Crespigny 1892 – 1968 brother
• Hugh Vivian Champion_de_Crespigny 1897 – 1969 brother
• Philip Champion_de_Crespigny 1879 – 1918 brother
• Arthur Philip Chauncy 1897 – 1954 cousin
• Auschar Philip Lamothe Chauncy 1888 – 1937 cousin
• Clement Lamothe Chauncy 1893 – 1917 cousin

My father’s paternal grandmother was Beatrix de Crespigny née Hughes. Her husband fought as did two of her brothers; the other brother had been rejected on medical grounds. One brother was killed. One of her cousins also died. Two cousins of her father’s also fought.

• Cedric Stuart Castlereagh Hughes 1893 – 1953 brother
• Vyvyan Westbury Hughes 1888 – 1916 brother
• Selwyn Goldstein 1873 – 1917 cousin
• Cyril Hughes 1875 – 1916 cousin of father
• Harry Wynne Hughes 1870 – 1945 cousin of father

My father’s maternal grandfather, Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870 -1951) fought. He had quite a few cousins and a nephew fighting.

• Arthur Sexton Cudmore 1897 – 1972 cousin
• Collier Robert Cudmore 1885 – 1971 cousin
• Ernest Osmond Cudmore 1894 – 1924 cousin
• Francis Alexander Cudmore 1892 – 1956 cousin
• John Cudmore Sprod 1879 – 1923 cousin
• Milo Massey Cudmore 1888 – 1916 cousin
• Frederick Cudmore Andrews 1895 – 1975 nephew

My father’s maternal grandmother was Kathleen Cudmore formerly Cavenagh-Mainwaring née Cavenagh. Her husband fought as did two of her brothers; the other brother was rejected. Her brothers-in-law also fought.

• James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring 1865 – 1938 brother
• Wentworth Rowland Cavenagh-Mainwaring 1869 – 1933 brother
• Owen Francis Gillett 1863 – 1938 brother-in-law
• Thompson Horatio Millett 1870 – 1920 brother-in-law
• William Edward Blackwood Magee 1886 – 1981 brother-in-law

Both of my mother’s grandfathers served in the German army and were wounded.

• Fritz Hermann Boltz 1879 – 1954
• Emil Wilhelm Manock 1883 – 1966

101 years after the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 we remember those who fought and those who died in the war.

A poppy is commonly used as a remembrance symbol.

Surgeon James Gordon Cavenagh at Waterloo

A guest post by Diana Beckett; great great granddaughter of James Gordon Cavenagh.

Miniature of James Gordon Cavenagh in the possession of a granddaughter of Lt Col W.O. Cavenagh

 

Lt Col W.O. Cavenagh, (Wentworth Odiarne / WOC / Cousin Wenty) who did extensive research on our Cavenagh ancestry, was the grandson of the surgeon. The latter died in 1844 and WOC was born in 1856, so they never met. However, WOC knew as family tradition related by his father (Gen Sir Orfeur Cavenagh) that the surgeon had served at Waterloo, but was puzzled that he never received the Waterloo medal awarded to all those who served there. This therefore raised the question to later generations as to whether it was indeed true.

J G Cavenagh was the Staff Surgeon of the Royal Staff Corps, a regiment responsible for short term military engineering, which was stationed in Flanders from April to July 1815. The Battle was on June 28th.

In his book “The Bloody Fields of Waterloo”, M.K.H Crumplin, a retired surgeon, medical military historian much involved in Waterloo re-enactments,  meticulously lists all the surgeons present at Waterloo or working with the wounded in the aftermath. Cavenagh is listed on page 157 as a late arrival. Presumably he was not ordered from his Flanders base to the battlefield in time.

On page 148 Crumplin explains that surgeons who arrived late were not awarded the Waterloo medal nor the two years added pension rights.

“There must have been many a military medical man who wished he had been present at this monumental battle. The staff who were there, were mostly surgeons both in regimental and staff posts. Some arrived late and would not receive the coveted Waterloo medal and two years added pension rights.” See Appendix below.

Arriving late, Cavenagh would have worked after the battle in one of the several hospitals in either Brussels or Antwerp where the wounded were treated. We do not know how long he stayed in Belgium but WOC records that sometime after the battle he proceeded to Paris where he was joined by his wife. (GO471 p 29)
An internet search shows that at least 3 officers of the Royal Staff Corps did receive the Waterloo medal.

Cavenagh is also mentioned in the Medico Chirurgical Transactions 1816 (Volume 7, part 1) when he was consulted about an operation on the jaw and mouth of a young drummer. The wound healed and the young man was discharged on August 16th.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=XvK3l9ZKvHsC&pg=PA108

P148 Crumplin Bloody Fields of Waterloo.

Related post

• N is for neighbours

Y is for Yorks and Lancs

My step grandfather was George William Symes (1896-1980), a soldier, who retired with the rank of Major-General.

George Symes enlisted in the British Army in 1915 at the age of nineteen. In June he was commissioned with a war service commission (for the duration of the war) into the Durham Light Infantry as a 2nd Lieutenant. He was seconded to the Machine Gun Corps on 22 February 1916, and was sent to France and Belgium on 23 February 1916. On 1 November 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Temporary Lieutenant. On 21 June the following year George Symes was granted a regular commission in the York and Lancaster Regiment, with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

George Symes during WWI

Between WW1 and WW2 George remained a professional soldier. At the outbreak of the Second World War he was rapidly promoted, appointed Major-General in command of the 70th Division in Africa and then in India. The 70th Division was broken up, however, to form part of the “Chindit” Special Force under Orde Wingate, designed to operate behind the Japanese lines in Burma. George became deputy, but was stationed at New Delhi. He held command of Lines-of-Communications divisions in France and later in Burma, and after the war he was commander of the South-West District in England.

In 1949 he resigned his commission and emigrated to Australia.

George Symes in 1941

George was colonel of the York and Lancaster Regiment from 1946 to 48.

In 1968 the British army was reorganised. The York and Lancaster regiment was one of two infantry regiments that chose to be disbanded rather than amalgamated with another regiment.

When the regiment was disbanded George purchased some memorabilia including a drum.

On his death George Symes left a large sum to the Regimental Chapel for the York and Lancashire in Sheffield Cathedral, England. The ceiling of the chapel is a memorial to George and his first wife Katherine.

Screen of bayonets and swords in St George’s Chapel Sheffield Cathedral. Photograph from Wikipedia taken by user Oosoom license Cc-by-sa-3.0

Memorial to George William Symes in Sheffield Cathedral. Photo from Wikipedia, taken by user Author Andrewrabbott and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

 

There is a regimental museum and archives at Clifton Park, Rotherhamregimental museum and archives at Clifton Park, Rotherham.

Related posts

• I is for inn
• X is for the Military Cross
• Y is for Yangon Sailing Club

Sources

• Roger André, ‘Symes, George William (1896–1980)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/symes-george-william-11817/text21145, published first in hardcopy 2002

V is for volunteer

Between 1914 and 1918, 350,000 Australians enlisted in the armed services to fight for their country and the Empire.

Among these were my husband’s grandfather, Cecil Young (1898 – 1975) and his brother, John Percy (Jack) Young (1896 – 1918).

Both men and both their parents were been born in Australia.

When war threatened in August 1914, Australia, a Dominion of the British Empire, knew she was bound to join in. On 31 July 1914 in an election speech at Colac in Victoria, the Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher (ALP) famously declared that ‘… Australians will stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling’. A few days later, on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war against Germany. On 5 August, attempting to prevent a German ship escaping from Port Phillip, Australia fired her first shot against the enemy.

In October 1916 Jack Young, aged 20, signed up, becoming, as a member of the Australian Imperial Force, a soldier of Australia and the Empire.

The war was not going well for the Allies.

On 19-20 July that year Australians had suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Fromelles in France. The cost in Australian lives was the highest in any 24 hour period of the war. Among those killed in the fighting was Jack’s half-brother Leslie Leister.

From 23 July to 3 September 1916 Australian forces suffered badly at the Battle of Pozières in northern France. The Australian official historian Charles Bean wrote that Pozières ridge “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.” Among those killed were Wes Rowlands of Homebush, an acquaintance of Jack and Cecil.

The slaughter in France left the Australian forces under-strength, and it was widely believed that conscription was necessary to maintain troop levels. This was view of the Australian Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, which the losses at Pozières seemed to confirm. Not all Federal politicians supported Hughes, however, and the matter was put to a
plebiscite. After a divisive public debate and strong campaigning on both sides, on 28 October 1916, the “No” vote narrowly prevailed

Jack Young’s enlistment – he signed his attestation papers on 3 October 1916 – came at the height of this conscription debate.

Jack Young was not yet 21 and would not have been conscripted anyway.

After 6 weeks in the AIF Signal School Jack sailed on the ‘Medic’, leaving on 16 December and disembarking in Plymouth 18 February 1917. He was first at Hurdcott camp, 7 miles from Salisbury. A few weeks later he marched out to Sutton Mandeville, 15 miles west. There was a camp at Fovant nearby. From Fovant he was transferred on 7 April to Durrington 20 miles to the north-east; the military settlement of Larkhill is nearby. On 1 January 1918 he sailed for France.

Fovant Badges The badges were cut into the chalk hills near the miltary camp and originate from 1916. From the left:- The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, 6th London Regiment and the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces.

The Australian Rising Sun emblem cut in the side of a hill. Australian War Memorial ID number H13577

Group portrait of the Signal Section of the 10th Infantry Brigade, outside the Chateau at Querrieu, 7 July 1918. Pte J. Young is in the back row eighth from the left (fourth from the right). Australian War Memorial photograph E03830

On 26 August, wounded in a mustard gas attack, Jack was admitted to a Line of Communications hospital. On 28 August he was invalided to England and admitted to Beaufort Hospital near Bristol.

On 26 September Jack was discharged on furlough from Beaufort hospital, but on 6 November he was in hospital again, the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital Dartford. At 11:40 a.m. on 9 November 1918, two days before the war ended, Jack died of pneumonia. He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey.

Wooden crosses mark graves in the AIF section at Brookwood Cemetery January 1919. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial Accession Number D00190

I have written about Cecil’s war experience at Cecil Young and family: Cecil’s early life up to end World War I . I have previously remembered Jack at John Percival Young (1896 – 1918).

N is for neighbours

My 3rd great grandfather was James Gordon Cavenagh (1770-1844), an army surgeon who was with the Royal Staff Corps at Waterloo.

Cavenagh obtained his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1795-6 he first saw active service, with the 83rd Foot in the so-called ‘Maroon War’ in Jamaica. On 21 February 1800 he transferred to the Royal Staff Corps. The Royal Staff Corps was a corps of the British Army responsible for military engineering which was founded in about 1800 and disbanded in about 1837.

In March 1815 Cavenagh married Anne Coates. They lived at Hythe, Kent, where the Corps was headquartered and had eight children.

View at Hythe; illustration to Ayton’s ‘Voyage round Great Britain‘, vol. VII. 1823.  Print maker, draughtsman and publisher  William Daniell. In the collection of the British Museum retrieved through watercolourworld.org https://www.watercolourworld.org/painting/hythe-tww00a352

Engraving of “The Barracks and Town of Hythe, Kent” from Ireland’s History of Kent, Vol. 4, 1831. It appears between pages 224 and 225. Drawn by G. Sheppard, engraved by C. Bedford. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

On 25 June 1825 Cavenagh retired on half pay, afterwards continuing to live at Hythe.

In 1830 he leased a house next to the Royal Staff Corps Barracks, which earlier had been connected with it. There was a gate in the fence between the house and the barracks and the Royal Staff Corps decided to remove the gate and close up the fence. Cavenagh took exception to the this, and threatened the men removing the gate with drawn sword, saying, “I’ll run the first man through the body that attempts to touch the palings”. There was a brawl but eventually the fence was erected. When the matter went to court a jury found against Cavenagh and awarded 10 pounds damages. [The amount, hard to express in today’s money, would come to somewhere between £500 and £10,000.]

Hull Packet 17 August 1830 page 2 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

In 1834 Cavenagh became the mayor of Hythe and was still living there in 1837. He died at Castle House, Wexford, Ireland in 1844 and is buried in Wexford in the family vault in St Patrick’s Abbey.

The Royal Staff Corps Barracks has gone, with the site from 1968 occupied by a Sainsburys supermarket and carpark. The only surviving part of the barracks complex is Hay House on Sir John Moore Avenue. It was built in 1809 and became the Commandant’s House. It is now subdivided into 6 flats.

It would seem that Hay House is the house that J. G. Cavenagh rented. The Mainwarings of Whitmore family history states

During the short peace between the Peninsular war and Waterloo James Cavenagh was quartered with this corps at Hythe, where he met and married his wife. On the termination of the campaign he returned with this regiment to Hythe, and when it was disbanded he remained there for some years, living in the Commandant’s house which he rented from the Authorities and in which all his children were born.

Hay House, Sir John Moore Avenue, Hythe, glimpsed from the entrance to the Sainsbury’s Loading Dock. Image from Google Street View May 2009 https://goo.gl/maps/BsWaHM8Kzxk

Sources

• The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935
• John Booth (1816). The Battle of Waterloo: containing the series of accounts published by authority, British and foreign, with circumstantial details, relative to the battle, from a variety of authentic and original sources, with connected official documents, forming an historical record of the operations in the campaign of the Netherlands, 1815 : to which is added the names alphabetically arranged, of the officers killed and wounded, from 15th to 26th June, 1815, and the total loss of each regiment, with an enumeration of the Waterloo honours and privileges, conferred upon the men and officers, and lists of regiments, &c. entitled thereto : illustrated by a panoramic sketch of the field of battle, and a plan of the positions at Waterloo, at different periods, with a general plan of the campaign. Printed for John Booth …, T. Egerton … and J. Fairbairn … (Edinburgh). p. 20.
• Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London (1816). Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. Longmans, Green and Company. p. 108.
• “No. 18174“. The London Gazette. 10 September 1825. p. 1649.
• Hull Packet 17 August 1830, page 2 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

• Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser 8 February 1834, page 8 digitised by the British Library Board and retrieved through FindMyPast

• Paton, David. “Hythe’s Guides Town Walks (p. 38).” Hythe Life Magazine Spring Edition Issue 12, Hythe Life Magazine, Mar. 2017, issuu.com/hythelifemagazine/docs/hythe_life_magazine_-.
• Hay House.” Historic England, historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1068931.

I is for inn

My step grandfather George William Symes was born 12 January 1896 at Minterne Magna, Dorset. He was the son of George Symes (1859 – 1920) and Eliza Symes nee Paulley (1870 – 1946).

George Symes senior was born in 1859 at Puncknowle Dorset, 6 miles east of Bridport. He was the oldest child of Daniel Symes (1834 – 1914), an agricultural labourer, and Sarah Symes nee Trevett (1836 – 1925).

Daniel and Sarah Symes, Bridport, Dorset. Photograph from Rod Rumble who received it from Brian Jeans, a Symes descendant

On 2 October 1878, aged 19, George Symes, then a labourer, enlisted in the Royal Artillery. He signed his attestation papers at Bridport on 2 October and joined at Portsmouth on 14 October.

He first served as a gunner, was promoted to bombadier (equivalent rank of corporal) in 1884, and then to sergeant later that same year. He was promoted to Company Sergeant Major in 1892 and discharged at that rank in 1899. He served in India from 1884 to 1892, retiring in 1899 on a pension of 30 pence for life. He was formally discharged at the Tower of London, and became a Chelsea Pensioner (he would have been an out-pensioner as he did not live at the Royal Hospital Chelsea). His character on discharge was “exemplary”.

photograph of George Symes at the Tower of London from Rod Rumble who in turn got the photograph from Brian Jeans, a Symes descendant

George first married Rosa or Rose Guppy (1860 – 1892) at Milborne Port, Somerset, in 1886. They had two children: William Hensley Symes (1887 – 1888) and Edward Daniel Symes (1890 – 1950). William was born 27 November 1887 and baptised 1 January 1888 at Milborne Port Somerset. He died, only four months old, at Agra, India on 1 April 1888 and was buried there on 2 April. Edward was born in 1890 at Campbellpore, present day Attock, Pakistan. Rose died of cholera in 1892 at Ferozepore.

In 1894 George married again, to Eliza Paulley (1870 – 1946) at Minterne Magna, Dorset. They had one son, George William Symes, born 12 January 1896 at Minterne Magna.

At the time of the 1901 census the family was at Puncknowle. George Symes was 42, with occupation of ‘military pensioner’. His wife Eliza was 31 and they had two sons, Edward aged 11 and George aged 5.

George William Symes, boy scout, aged about 13 in 1909

In 1911, George Symes, a ‘military pensioner and publican’ was living at 61 South Street Bridport. In the same house were his sons Edward aged 21, a cabinet maker, George aged 15, at school. Also living at that address was George’s brother-in-law, Lewis Paulley, age 25, a harness-maker. On census night Eliza was away, with her parents in Minterne Magna.

61 South Street was the pub. The 1911 census states it had 9 rooms, not including the shop, office, warehouse or bathrooms.

George Symes died at Weymouth, Dorset, 18 May 1920.

The building at 61 South Street Bridport is still there and still operates as a pub; it is now called The Woodman Inn.

Woodman Inn Bridport in 2017

Sources

• Census records retrieved though ancestry.com
  • 1901: Class: RG13; Piece: 2012; Folio: 75; Page: 10.
  • 1911: Class: RG14; Piece: 12486; Schedule Number: 22
• Wo 97 – Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 retrieved through FindMyPast: George Symes Birth year 1859 Birth parish Puncknoll, Bridport, Dorset, England Royal Artillery Attestation date 02 Oct 1878 Attestation age 19 years 6 months Attestation service number 5286 Attestation corps Royal Artillery Discharge corps Royal Artillery

140 years since the Battle of Isandlwana

Today is the 140th anniversary of one of the battles of the Anglo-Zulu
War. Several years ago I wrote a short piece about a cousin, a soldier who fought there. I thought I would republish it.

When my son asked me to write about the Zulu wars for the letter Z of the 2014 A to Z blogging challenge, I found a second cousin four times removed, Henry Germain Mainwaring (1853-1922), who served in the Zulu war of 1879.

Henry Germain Mainwaring was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot. He sailed for South Africa on 2 February 1878 and was there until 20 December 1879.

H. G. Mainwaring of the 2/24 Regiment. Photograph from the “Ron Sheeley Collection”

From 20 January 1879 the 24th Regiment was camped at Isandhlwana, an isolated hill in the Zulu kingdom in the east of Southern Africa. B Company of the Second Battalion had been left to guard the stores and hospital at Rorke’s Drift ten miles away. Rorke’s Drift was a mission station and the former trading post of James Rorke, an Irish merchant. It was near a ford, known as a drift, across the Buffalo River, which formed the border between the British colony of Natal and the Zulu kingdom.

On 22 January, Lord Chelmsford, British Commander-in-Chief,  took the second battalion of the 24th, with the artillery and some of the Natal Native Contingent away from the camp to seek battle with the Zulus, who had been reported to be south-east of the camp. 1,800 British and Colonial troops were left in the camp including 585 men of the 24th Regiment, the only British regular infantry regiment among them. While Chelmsford was absent, the camp was attacked from the north-east by a force of Zulu warriors, said to number 20,000. Of the 1,800 British forces, about 300 survived. These had fled south-west across the Buffalo River; of the 585 men of the 24th only ten survived.

The Battle of Isandlwana, 22 January 1879.  Charles Edwin Fripp (1854-1906), 1885 (c). A small band of the 24th gathered in a square around their Regimental Colour. In the aftermath of the battle there were several groups of bodies found which indicated that men had gathered themselves together to fight to the last. In the background rises Isandhlwana Kop which, significantly, is shaped like a Sphinx, the badge of the 24th.

Chelmsford and his troops arrived back at camp that night. John Price, of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment, wrote to his parents:

We arrived in camp about nine o’clock at night, and all the tents were burned to the ground, and where we had to sleep was a very uncomfortable place among the dead bodies all night…  from http://www.1879zuluwar.com/t2449-various-eye-witness-accounts

Henry Germain Mainwaring, a Lieutenant in F company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment was among those with Chelmsford.

The mission station at Rorke’s Drift was attacked by several thousand Zulu warriors on the afternoon of 22 January and the battle continued overnight. 140 British and colonial troops, including 36 men in the hospital, defended the garrison. Chelmsford’s troops arrived at 8am on the morning of the 23rd. Seventeen British soldiers had been killed, ten wounded, and 450 Zulus had been killed.

The defence of Rorke’s Drift 1879 Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville  via Wikimedia Commons

The battle was reported around the world. In New Zealand, in the Otago Witness of 22 February 1879, Mainwaring’s name was listed as one of the officers of the 24th Regiment which had been in the battle and “almost completely annihilated” in the “massacre”.

The remainder of the 24th cleaned up after the battle and buried the dead. Mainwaring made a map of the battlefield showing the graves of those who were killed and were buried.

Mainwaring received a medal and clasp for the South African Campaign of 1877, 1878, and 1879. He was promoted to Captain in 1880. In the First World War he served as a Brigadier General.

Location of the Zulu Kingdom, Southern Africa, ca. 1890 by Seb az86556 [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

1879 map of Zululand with Rorke’s Drift and Isandhlwana highlighted by red arrows

References:

• UK National Archives WO76/233 South Wales Borderers (2nd Batn). Descriptions relating to individuals have been created using information from a nominal card index relating to Army Officers’ service compiled in the 1980s.
• David, Saul. “Zulu: The True Story.” British History. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/zulu_01.shtml>.
• “24th – Anglo-Zulu War 1879.” 24th, 2nd Warwickshire, Regiment – Fact Sheets. The Royal Welsh Regimental Museum Trust, 16 July 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://royalwelsh.org.uk/downloads/B05-01-24th-Anglo-Zuluwar1879.pdf>.
• Luscombe, Stephen, and Charles Griffin. “The 24th Regiment of Foot.” British Empire: Armed Forces: Units: British Infantry. Britishempire.co.uk, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishinfantry/24thfoot.htm>.
• “The Battle of Islandlwana.” Zulu War. Britishbattles.com, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/isandlwana.htm>.
• Austin, Ronald J. (Ronald James) (1999). The Australian illustrated encyclopedia of the Zulu and Boer wars. Slouch Hat Publications, McCrae, Vic