Other Rank marriages Overseas

[DJP]

The finding of a wife was not easy for any British troops overseas for a length of time. Many married daughters the regiments to some extent because after the age of 15 any child was no longer "on strenth", and the young women were keen to get married and taken back "on strength" as a wife.
In Calcutta there was an establishment called Lady Moira's Orphanage, which housed orphans - white and mixed - of Britsih troops. Soldiers with permission of their CO would visit it hoping to find a bride. However Lady Moira's Orphange was in Calcutta on the east side of India. Were there other such establishments in other parts of the country? Was this
"marrige agency" concept practiced in other British stations?

David

[Maureene]

Hi David

I think orphanages everywhere in India, and probably elsewhere, were a source of brides, for both soldiers and other men. This India List archived post gives an example, although the groom was not in the military.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/t ... 0979164057

I am not familiar with Lady Moira’s orphanage in Calcutta, perhaps you could advise more details.

However, in Calcutta there was the Lower Orphan School, run by the Bengal Military Orphan Society, but funded by the East India Company/Bengal Government, for the children of soldiers, where many of the girls in turn married soldiers. This was in existence from 1784 to the late 1880s, although most of the children moved to the Lawrence Military Asylum at Sanawar, near the Himalayas, in 1855-56. The peak numbers may have been 649 children including 379 girls in 1823. Also in Calcutta was an orphanage for girls of European parentage called the European Female Orphan Asylum, established in 1815, mainly to care for girls whose fathers had been in the British Army.

Cheers
Maureen