Army recruiting locations and statistics

[skarm]

I'm torn as to whether this is the correct forum for this topic, of if the "researching individual soldiers or sailors" would be more appropriate. Feel free to move this if needed.

I am wondering if there's a list, or a good resource to see where the Regiments of Foot recruited? I know for example the 81st recruited in Bristol, but I doubt that was the only location they recruited. This would also be useful to track down some of those "missing" ancestors that disappeared from the census records without any matching death or burial records. I am sure a few of them must have enlisted. If I knew what Regiments were recruiting in the areas these people lived it would be easier than trying to search for a certain person in all the roll call/pay lists.

Thanks for your help,

Mike

[SWB]

Mike,

Regts recruited wherever they garrisoned. So you would need to know which regiments were in the locations you are interested. I think someone has created such a list but where you'ld find it I'm not sure.

But you could always try and find service papers at the National Archives, Kew. Try series WO97 for pre 1913 discharges and ancestry.co.uk for anyone who served in WWI or may have had a 'live' pension case after 1913.

Regards
Meurig

[The_Old-English_Gent]

Hi,

Would the vast majority of men in a regiment be from the regiment's 'local' area?

How often would one find a man from a different part of the country serving in a regiment that was not that of his home county/city?

Thanks,

[FROGSMILE]

Hi,

Would the vast majority of men in a regiment be from the regiment's 'local' area?

How often would one find a man from a different part of the country serving in a regiment that was not that of his home county/city?

Thanks,

Regimental recruiting areas were not formalised until the Cardwell "Localisation Act of 1872" that was further cemented by the Childers Reforms of 1881, when each regiment, usually of two regular battalions (although a very few had 4 and one initially had just 1) was allocated a specific area, usually located within a specific region. A very few regiments, most notably the Rifle Corps and Foot Guards, recruited Nationally.

Before 1872 regiments recruited wherever there depot happened to be, although they also sent recruiting parties further afield, sometimes, albeit rarely, to nominal regions with which they had been (loosely) affiliated since 1782. Before 1872 the locations of depots changed frequently and so the regional make up of a regiment's battalion would fluctuate and change accordingly over several decades.

[Peter]

“The localisation of 1872 divided the military districts of the United Kingdom into sixty six sub districts for the infantry, twelve for artillery, and two for cavalry. The linking proved less than popular. Many depots took several years to form. Some battalions had few associations with their linked battalion and disliked the depot assigned to them. Many prospective recruits did not wish to enlist in their local regiments and expressed preferences to join specific regiments.

“In 1881 Childers replaced this scheme by ….. relinking and renaming the battalions to form the first and second battalions of one regiment, with specific geographical areas, to be known as regimental districts.” [p 126]

“Undoubtedly this scheme had some beneficial effects, even if it caused considerable resentment when it was first introduced. Some regiments rapidly established, or quickly developed, their local roots and became identified with the counties in which they were based. By 1883 forty three of the sixty six districts were supplying their regiments with over 50 per cent of their recruits, and fifteen of these were supplying over 80 per cent. Inevitably there were some regiments, especially in the Highlands, which struggled to find recruits in large and predominantly rural districts.” [p 127]

Skelley, AR, The Victorian Army at Home, Montreal, McGill Queens University Press, 1977


“(Notwithstanding) localisation ….. the shift of population from rural to urban areas served to limit success…… in the end the army was forced to look beyond local connections for results. In 1874 83.8 per cent of the year’s 20,312 recruits were (sic) raised in local recruiting areas centred on large urban areas. In 1898 by contrast, local districts and regimental HQs accounted for only 63.3 per cent of the men enlisted.”

Spiers, EM, The Late Victorian Army 1868 – 1902, Manchester University Press, 1992, p 260

[FROGSMILE]

I am wondering if there's a list, or a good resource to see where the Regiments of Foot recruited?

Mike

The list of recruiting districts can be found at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childers_Reforms

Bear in mind however, the information and caveats outlined in the posts above.

[Skarramoosh]

Hi,

Does anyone know how I might go about finding statistics on infantry recruitment in the early to mid nineteenth century? I know that there were lists made of men being discharged from the army, some of these are available online in WO 117 on the National Archives website, but I would like to know if there are any similar lists of men being attested into the army and where to find them. Specifically I am hoping to find lists that would include the recruit's residence or place of birth at the time that they were recruited. It is possible to view individual records at findmypast but I am looking for more general records of overall recruitment numbers and origins. Would recruiting parties or magistates have kept records of men attesting to the army? I am trying to write a dissertation at the moment but am having a lot of difficulty finding info about army recruitment in the first half of the nineteenth century. Does anyone have any information pertaining to that era? Books or references, anything at all would be appreciated. The 1840s are the period I am most interested in. Help me please....

[Maureene]

Hi

There is a previous thread on this Forum called “Regimental Recruiting Locations” which perhaps may be of interest
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1460&p=25449

Cheers
Maureen

[Liz]

Thanks Maureen! Posts now merged and retitled for the benefit of current and future readers.

[Skarramoosh]

Just in regards to recruiting, here are links to two books, one is a personal account of the experiences of a new Irish recruit in the army in the late 1840s while the other concerns the administration of the military in the early 1850s. They may give you some idea of some of the methods by which men were recruited.

Here are the links: http://books.google.ie/books?id=mlQBAAA ... nt&f=false and http://books.google.ie/ebooks/reader?id ... g=GBS.PA11

I haven't read them right through but they may be of some use to someone looking into recruiting during the mid nineteenth century.