"British Army list 1805, online" Topic

A while back I posted a link to a fascinating (well, to me) piece of research by Steve Brown on the home defence forces in 1805:

PDF link

It is an analysis, down to individual company level, of the strength and location of every unit in Britain in 1805. I'm turning the data into a spreadsheet, but meanwhile, looking through it, it reveals that there was a Highland brigade based in Weeley Barracks, in East Essex, at that time. It comprised the 1/42nd under Lt-Col James Stirling, with 832 effectives in 10 companies; the 1/91st under Lt-Col James Catlin Craufurd, 583 effectives in 10 companies; and the 1/92nd, 930 effectives also in 10 companies, under Lt Col Alexander Napier.

The brigade's command was vacant at 1 September 1805 and as you do I wondered which of the three named lieutenant colonels was the ranking officer who would have stepped in to command it.

Amazingly Google Books has the 1805 British Army list online and searchable.

link

It took me minutes to establish from this that Lt-Col James Catlin Craufurd of the 91st Foot was gazetted 25 April 1797, Lt-Col Napier on 5 April 1801 and Lt-Col Stirling on 7 September 1804. So the acting commander would have been Craufurd, who was Napier's senior by 4 years.

How awesome is it to just Google that?

It gets better. I Googled "Weeley Barracks" where the brigade were based, and found a blog by a lady investigating her ancestor from there. She noticed the Scottish names in the local birth register and compiled from it a list of regiments mentioned as those of the fathers.

link

She has also dug up a precisely contemporary description of the place:

link

The writer of that description lost her child:

My spirits are still very low, I grieve much for my loss, though I am well aware how selfish it is for me to mourn, and am sensible that my sweet little angel is happier with her God, than all my anxiety for her welfare could have made her here..

There is still a Barracks Field and a Hospital Field in Weeley today.

I dunno. You dig around looking for stuff about these times as fodder for a solo campaign, and you come across the descendants of actual soldiers in the same units.

It's…actually quite moving, really.

Anyway, I thought the Army List might be interesting to others who like to name their mounted officers rather than just treat them as generic figures.

Thank you for that--and, yes, it is quite a unique experience when you start to feel that you actually somewhat know the subjects of your inquiries as individuals.

I live near Weeley. Metal detectorists find buttons now and then. One local amateur historian even claims a French landing in the area has been hushed up.

Thanks for those links and the info. My Very British Civil War action takes place in Essex and I think I can use this info to take the barracks into the 1930s from the early 1800s.

Jim

@ Ritter

I found that link too. He's fallen off the bus with that one, I think. Barracks Field is where the Barracks were, Hospital Field is where the maternity unit was, and Dead Frank Field probably belonged to a chap called Frank, who's dead.

Dead Frank was surely a permanently hushed up Frenchman

Are you sure it wasn't originally called Dead Frog Field?

Joking apart, a very interesting set of links. Thanks 4th C.