Wilsons

[AnneM]

Given that he survived to draw his pension, there should be records at The National Archive in Kew. When I was sorting our papers today I came across the notes I had taken when doing my own research there. Apart from one merchant seaman, these relate to 2 soldiers, one in the 42nd of Foot, the Black Watch, he's mine (well he would be as his discharge papers note that he is suffering from debility exacerbated by intemperence!). The other was a gunner in the Royal Artillery and is my kids 4x grandfather.

He was a bit earlier that your chap as he fought in the Crimea and as far as I'm aware once you get to these kind of dates the person is not indexed but you have to search by hand through the boxes of discharge papers, or get someone to do it for you.

The gunner's papers gave his place of birth, when and where he enlisted, how long and where he served, if he had any disciplinary charges or got a good conduct award, what medals he had, where he would draw his pension. It also had the bonus of a physical description.

I'm sure David told me that there are other papers which an expert can unearth not as easily accessible to us mere mortals but I was happy with what I found.

I can't imagine that there would be anything much different for your chap.

Anne

[DavidWW]

I think you've found the correct regiment for John Wilson I just looked at one of his son's second marraiages and it says he was a private in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment.

I also have the birth of Robert John Wilson 25/9/1873 in Athlone, Roscommon, Ireland(from IGI) which seems to fit with the link you gave David.

Would there be easily accessable records for this regiment? What would I be likely to find?

The 2nd of Foot, The Queen's Royal Regiment, became The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment in a major reorganisation in 1881.

The Athlone birth is an exact match in the terms of the 2nd of Foot.

His discharge papers should show his details at enlistment, age, occupation, maybe next-of-kin, regiments and theatres where he served, possibly wounds if any, maybe campaign medals, possibly a very detailed record of his service. The "maybes" and "possiblys" depend on just when he left the army, - the later the better in terms of the level of detail.

There could also be other records, - muster rolls, and pension.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cata ... lt.asp?j=1 doesn't have an entry for a matching John WILSON. That doesn't mean that there aren't recrods, only that, if there are, they haven't made it yet into the online index.

Options now are to visit TNA at Kew, or engage the services of a professional military records researcher, - I can recommend one if you PM me.

David

[Barclay]

Thanks for your response David. I don't think I'll be doing anything more on John for a while. However, was it unusual for a Scot to end up in the West Surrey regiment?

[Barclay1]

Following a 10 year hiatus in my Wilson research I have been able to confirm the details for my now not completely Aberdonian Wilsons.

Smith Wilson who we had assumed to be the father of John Wilson born Cromarty 1802 appears to be correct.

Smith appears to have lead an interesting but hard life. He was born in Newton Midlothian in 1773 the son of David Wilson and Margaret Shaw. He then turns up in Aberdeen on the 31st of March 1800 on a marriage registration to a miss Elizabeth Mason and he is listed as a "Soldier in the 2nd Regiment of North British Militia".

The next record is the birth of John Wilson, the illegitimate son of Smith Wilson, private in the Ross-shire Militia and Margaret Urquhart on the 12th of January 1802. I'm guessing here but I don't think the marriage to Elizabeth went too well!

John's 1868 death certificate states he was the son of - Wilson, Sergeant Rifle Brigade and Margaret Wilson, miss Urquhart both deceased.

None of this ties up exactly but the final piece of the jig saw is Smith's military records which I stumbled across on the find my past website.

These confirm that Smith Wilson born Newton, Midlothian, signed up to the Rifle Brigade in January 1801 having served in the militia previously. He served for over 20 years, including at Waterloo before being discharged in August 1821 with hypertension and hepatitis. However his battles had not ended there as the record of the days he served under the various different ranks was found to be incorrect and he was sent a letter telling him his pension would be stopped unless he could explain why, The letter he returned states it was an office administrator's error and all he did was sign the papers. Whether his pension was stopped or not I do not know but he died back in Aberdeen on the 7th December 1836 and is listed as "poor".

[AnneM]

A bit late in spotting this but that looks like some good hunting there, Barclay. Seems as if John may have informally legitimated himself by claiming to have married parents....by no means uncommon.