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Women, Families and the British Army, 1700–1880 Vol 6 book cover

1st Edition

Women, Families and the British Army, 1700–1880 Vol 6

By Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Lynn MacKay Copyright 2020
    442 Pages
    by Routledge

    This series concentrates on women and the soldiers in the ranks whose lives they shared, assembling a wide body of evidence of their romantic entanglements and domestic concerns. The new military history of recent decades has demanded a broadening of the source base beyond elite accounts or those that concentrate solely on battlefield experiences. Armies did not operate in isolation, and men’s family ties influenced the course of events in a variety of ways. Campfollowing women and children occupied a liminal space in campaign life. Those who travelled "on the strength" of the army received rations in return for providing services such as laundry and nursing, but they could also be grouped with prostitutes and condemned as a ‘burden’ by officers. Parents, wives, and offspring left behind at home remained in soldiers’ thoughts, despite an army culture aimed at replacing kin with regimental ties. Soldiers’ families’ suffering, both on the march and back in Britain, attracted public attention at key points in this period as well.

    This series provides, for the first time in one place, a wide body of texts relating to common soldiers’ personal lives: the women with whom they became involved, their children, and the families who cared for them. It brings hitherto unpublished material into print for the first time, and resurrects accounts that have not been in wide circulation since the nineteenth century. The collection combines the observations of officers, government officials and others with memoirs and letters from men in the ranks, and from the women themselves. It draws extensively on press accounts, especially in the nineteenth century. It also demonstrates the value of using literary depictions alongside the letters, diaries, memoirs and war office papers that form the traditional source base of military historians.

    This sixth volume covers the period 1856-1880.

    Volume 6: Aftermath (1856-1880)

    Edited by Lynn MacKay

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Newspapers, Journals and Magazines

    Part 1. Experiences of Courtship & Marriage

    1.1. Domestic arrangements in the British Isles

    1.1.1 Marriage Regulations, Problems & Schemes for Improvement

    1. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, United Service Gazette, 25 July 1857, p. 4.

    2. ‘The Marriage of Soldiers’, United Service Gazette, 19 September 1857, p. 7.

    3. ‘Soldiers’ Wives’, P.C.B., Army Chaplain, in Norman MacLeod (ed.), Good Words for 1863, pp. 258-63.

    4. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Pall Mall Gazette, 24 February 1869, p. 11.

    5. ‘The Pall Mall on Soldiers' Wives’, The Broad Arrow, 2, 20 March 1869, pp. 348-9.

    6. ‘Quarters for Married Soldiers’, The Lancet, 28 August 1869, pp. 317-8.

    7. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, The Broad Arrow, 3, 73, 20 November 1869, p. 641.

    1.1.2. Travel

    8. ‘The Half-Yearly Change’, Pall Mall Gazette, 3 September 1867, pp. 6-7.

    9. ‘A Soldier's Wife’, The Broad Arrow, 16, 12 February 1876, p. 206.

    1.1.3. Barrack Conditions

    10. Florence Nightingale, Notes on the Health of the British Army, (London: Harrison & Sons, 1858), pp. 469-76.

    11. ‘Women at Aldershot’, Household Words Conducted by Charles Dickens, Vol. 13 (19 April 1856), pp. 318-20.

    12. General Report of the Commission Appointed for Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Barracks and Hospitals, British Parliamentary Papers Online, House of Commons (1861), pp. 51-5, 144-6, 153.

    13. ‘Married Soldiers' Allowances’, The Broad Arrow, 16, 6 May 1876, p. 590.

    1.1.4. Morality & Reputation

    14. Anon., Recollections of an Old Soldier (Birmingham: J. C. Aston, 1886), pp. 24-8, 38-41.

    15. Robert Blatchford, My Life in the Army (London: Clarion Press, 1910), pp. 93-6.

    1.1.5. Behaviour & Problems

    13. Old Bailey Proceedings, Dennis Sweeney, 25 October 1858, trial of Dennis Sweeney for cutting and wounding Esther Cragin.

    14. Wives' Punishment Book, 1866-1895, 82nd Regiment of Foot, Lancashire Infantry Museum, Preston.

    15. Married Establishment, 82nd Regiment of Foot, 1868-76, National Archives WO12/8660.

    16. ‘Agricultural Society’, Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth & Cornish Advertiser, 16 November 1864, p. 6.

    17. ‘A Women’s Fight in Barracks’, Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 9 October 1875, p. 5.

    18. A Private Dragoon, ‘Soldiers’ Wives’, St. Paul’s Magazine, Vol. 6 (1870), pp. 78-87.

    19. Thomas McKeirnan, Experiences of a British Veteran Soldier (Port Talbot, Wales: Major Jones & Co., 1892), pp. 158-9.

    1.1.6. Health

    20. ‘Baby Farming in England’, Freeman's Journal & Daily Commercial Advertiser, 3 January 1868, p. 3.

    21. Francis Hogg, ‘Medical Notes on Soldiers' Wives’, The Lancet, 20 May 1871, pp. 680-2.

    Part 1.2. Domestic Arrangements Overseas

    1.2.1. India

    a. Travel & Separation

    22. ‘A Surprise’, Aberdeen Journal, 20 July 1859, p. 3.

    23. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Daily News, 22 September 1859, p. 2.

    The Accrington

    24.’Alleged Cruelties at Sea’, Morning Chronicle, 17 January 1860, p. 3.

    25. ‘Treatment of Soldiers' Wives’, Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 22 January 1860, p. 7.

    26. ‘The Soldiers’ Wives in India’, Times of London, 30 May 1860, p. 12.

    b. Health

    27. ‘The Inniskilling Dragoon, Glasgow Herald, 31 March 1863, p. 2.

    28. ‘Photographs of Military Life’, Liverpool Mercury, 22 August 1862, p. 6.

    29. ‘Married Soldiers’, Pall Mall Gazette, 18 October 1867, p. 3.

    30. ‘The Women and Children of the Bombay Army’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 3, 9 October 1869, p. 454.

    31. ‘Soldiers’ Families in India’, Times of London, 31 July 1875, p. 8.

    32. Report on Sanitary Measures in India in 1875-76 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1877), pp. 164-5.

    33. ‘Soldiers' Children in India’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 15, 18 September 1875, p. 365.

    34. ‘The Married Soldier in India’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 15, 18 December 1875, p. 703.

    35. William Munro, from Reminiscences of Military Service with the 93rd Sutherland Highlanders (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1883), pp. 270-5.

    36. Thomas McKenzie, My Life as a Soldier (Saint John, N.B.: J. & A. McMillan, 1898), pp. 93-4.

    1.2.2. Canada

    37. ‘Awful Murder and Suicide’, British Colonist, 4 November 1859, p. 2.

    38. Frances E. Herring, In the Pathless West (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1904), pp. 63-4.

    39. Colonel R.C. Moody to the Colonial Secretary, Victoria", British Columbia Archives, Moody Correspondence F 1155.

    40. Standing Orders of the Royal Canadian Rifles (Montréal: John Lovell, 1861), pp. 25-6, 41-3, 66-7.

    41. Juliana Ewing, Canada Home, Juliana Horatia Ewing's Fredericton Letters 1867-1869 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1983), pp. 219-20, 294-5, 350-4.

    1.3 Bigamy and Deception

    1.3.1. The Spurling Case

    42. ‘Police-Thames’, Times of London, 13 August 1858, p. 9.

    43. ‘The Sergeant's Wife’, Morning Chronicle, 24 August 1858, p. 3.

    44. ‘The Sergeant's Wife Again’, Morning Chronicle, 25 August 1858, p. 7.

    45. ‘The Sergeant's Wife Again’, Morning Chronicle, 16 October 1858, p. 5.

    46. ‘The Case of Mrs. Spurling Alias Readdey’, Morning Chronicle, 21 October 1858, p. 8.

    47. ‘Police Courts—Thames’, Daily News, 25 October 1858, p. 6.

    1.3.2. Fanny Taylor Case

    48. A Soldier’s Wife Charged with Bigamy", Derby Mercury, 29 May 1867, p. 2.

    49. Wednesday Before T.P. Bainbrigge, J. Bailey, and F. Longdon", Derby Mercury, 12 June 1867, p. 6.

    50. Old Bailey Proceedings, John Charles Henderson, 10 January 1870 trial of John Charles Henderson for bigamy.

    1.3.3. Waterfall Case

    51. ‘Police Courts—Greenwich’, Daily News, 10 February 1874, p. 3.

    52. ‘Curious Case’, Reynolds's Newspaper, 8 March 1874, p. 6.

    1.4. Desertion

    53. ‘At Hammersmith Henry Barrett’, Times of London, 7 September 1867, p. 11.

    54. ‘Married Soldiers’, Times of London, 11 September 1867, p. 8.

    55. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Times of London, 13 September 1867, p. 9.

    56. ‘The Liability of Soldiers to Support their Wives’, United Service Gazette, 21 May 1870, p. 5.

    57. ‘Liability of Soldiers’, The Examiner, 14 March 1874, p. 259-60.

    Part 2. Economic Survival

    2.1 Philanthropy

    2.1.1 Destitution at Colchester

    58. ‘Destitution of Soldiers' Wives at Colchester", Daily News, 11 February 1857, p. 2.

    59. ‘Destitution at Colchester", Ipswich Journal, 28 February 1857, p. 4.

    60. ‘The Camp at Colchester", Times of London, 3 March 1857, p. 10.

    61. ‘The Camp at Colchester", Times of London, 20 March 1857, p. 12.

    62. ‘Camp at Colchester", Copy of correspondence between the War Department and Major-General Gascoigne, in relation to the destitution amongst the families of soldiers at Colchester, House of Commons British Parliamentary Papers online, 1857, Session I (102), pp. 1-8.

    2.1.2 Archbishop Cullen and the Kirleys

    63. ‘Archbishop Cullen's Reply to Lord St. Leonard’, Liverpool Mercury, 27 November 1857, p. 10.

    64. ‘The Archbishop's Letter’, Freeman's Journal & Daily Commercial Advertiser, 27 November 1857, p. 2.

    65. The Case of the Kirleys’, Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 31 December 1857, p. 3.

    66. ‘Lodging Association at Aldershot’, United Service Magazine & Naval & Military Journal 1864, Part 1, pp. 441-3.

    68. ‘Soldiers’ Wives at Aldershott’, Daily News, 29 November 1864, p. 8.

    69. ‘Military Orphans’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 3, 4 December 1869, pp. 706-7.

    70. ‘Women of the Regiment’, United Service Gazette, 10 January 1874, p. 4.

    71.’ Soldiers' Widows’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 3 April 1875, p. 420.

    72. ‘The Poor of the Army’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 15, 25 December 1875, pp. 802-3.

    2.2. State Relief

    2.2.1. Poor Relief

    73. ‘The Irish Poor Law’, Freeman's Journal, 6 December 1864, p. 3.

    74. ‘South Union, A Hard Case’, Freeman's Journal & Daily Commercial Advertiser, 8 October 1869, p. 4.

    75. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 11, 16 August 1873, p. 205.

    76. ‘A Case’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 23, July 1879, p. 645.

    2.2.2. Education

    77. ‘Food for Powder’, All the Year Round, 20 May 1865, pp. 400-03.

    78. Patrick Beaton, ‘On Soldiers' Children’, Good Words (1871), pp. 219-24.

    79. ‘The Murder at Purfleet’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 20 December 1874, p. 2.

    80. ‘The Dreadful Tragedy in Essex’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 20 December 1874, p. 3.

    81. ‘The Outrage and Murder at Purfleet’, Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 26 December 1874, p. 7.

    82. ‘The Outrage at Purfleet Letter to the Editor’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 2 January 1875, p. 13.

    83. ‘Dreadful Tragedy in Essex, a Child Outraged and Murdered’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 2 January 1875, p. 13.

    84. ‘Conviction of the Purfleet Murderer’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 14 March 1875, p. 4.

    85. ‘Confession of the Purfleet Murderer’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 28 March 1875, p. 7.

    86. ‘Execution of the Purfleet Murderer’, Pall Mall Gazette, 29 March 1875, p. 8

    87. ‘Regimental School Teachers’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 10 April 1875, p. 463.

    88. ‘Daughters of the Regiment’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 24 April 1875, p. 527.

    89. ‘Army Schools and Soldiers' Daughters’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 22 May 1875, p. 655.

    90. ‘Regimental Girls’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 29 May 1875, p. 687.

    91. ‘Soldiers’ Wives and Daughters’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 26 June 1875, p. 815.

    92. ‘Training Boys for Enlistment as Soldiers’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 14, 7 April, 1875, p. 495.

    2.3. Work

    2.3.1. Plans

    93. ‘Occasional Notes’, Pall Mall Gazette, 12 November 1867, p. 4.

    94. A Staff-Sergeant, excerpt from "How to Make the Army Popular", St. Paul's Magazine, 7 (January 1871), pp. 369-71.

    2.3.2. Practical Schemes

    95. ‘Washing and Drying for Soldiers’, Daily News, 24 June 1857, p. 2.

    96. ‘Our Soldiers in India and Their Clothing’, Daily News, 9 July 1858, p. 5.

    97. ‘Female Employment’, Belfast News-Letter, 8 June 1859, p. 3.

    98. ‘Employment for Soldiers’ Wives’, Manchester Times, 9 January 1864, p. 14.

    99. ‘Occasional Notes’, Pall Mall Gazette, 5 January 1872, p. 8.

    Part 3. Impact of War - Separation and Loss

    100. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Morning Chronicle, 29 July 1857, p. 3.

    101. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Belfast News-Letter, 18 September 1857, p. 4.

    102. ‘The Families of Soldiers Serving in India’, Times of London, 13 November 1857, p. 10.

    103. ‘In the Early Days of the Movement on Behalf of the Wives’, Daily News, 29 December 1857, p. 4.

    104. ’Scandalous Treatment of Soldiers Wives’, Reynolds's Newspaper, 28 March 1858, p. 4.

    105. ‘Suicide of the Last of the Crimea Nurses’, Jackson's Oxford Journal, 24 July 1858, p. 6.

    106. ‘Soldiers' Wives’, Daily News, 19 October 1858, p. 2.

    107. ‘We are Very Soon Furnished with Painful Proof’, Morning Chronicle, 25 December 1861, p. 4.

    108. ‘Soldiers' Remittances’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 20, 2 February 1878, p. 142.

    109. ‘Soldiers' Widows’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 22, 5 April 1879, pp. 448-9.

    110. ‘Widows of Soldiers Killed at Isandula’, The Broad Arrow, Vol. 22 5 April 1879, p. 454.

    Part 4. Sex Outside of Marriage - Prostitution

    111. George MacMunn, ‘Mees Dolly: an Untold Tragedy of '57’, Cornhill Magazine 63 (1927), pp. 327-31.

    112. Henry Mayhew, ‘Soldiers' Women, London Labour & the London Poor, Vol. 4, (New York: Dover Publications, 1968), pp. 233-6.

    4.1. The Wrens of Curragh

    113. ‘Stoning the Desolate’, All the Year Round, 26 November 1864, pp. 369-72.

    114. James Greenwood, ‘The Wrens of the Curragh—No. I’, Pall Mall Gazette, October 15, 1867, p. 9.

    115. James Greenwood, ‘The Wrens of the Curragh—No. II’, Pall Mall Gazette, October 16, 1867, pp. 10-11.

    116. James Greenwood, ‘The Wrens of the Curragh—No. III’, Pall Mall Gazette, October 17, 1867, pp. 4-5.

    117. James Greenwood, ‘The Wrens of the Curragh—No. IV’, Pall Mall Gazette, October 19, 1867, pp. 4-5.

    118. An Ex-Dragoon, "Correspondence, Irish Bushwomen", Pall Mall Gazette, October 23, 1867, pp. 3-4.

    4.2. The Contagious Diseases Acts

    119. ‘The Contagious Diseases Acts at Aldershot’, The Lancet, 17 October 1868, p. 524-5.

    120. ‘The Contagious Diseases Acts’, The Lancet, 8 January 1870, p. 49.

    121. ‘Contagious Diseases Act in Calcutta’, The Lancet, 1 October 1870, p. 472.

    122. William Henry Sloggett, witness, ‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts’, (London: H.M.S.O., 1871), 3 February 1871, Q. 4422-35.

    123. William Littleton, witness, ‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts’, (London: H.M.S.O., 1871), 24 February 1871, Q. 8375-99, and Q. 8471-72.

    124. Joseph Webster, witness, ‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts’, (London: H.M.S.O., 1871), 17 March 1871, Q. 12,319-35.

    125. W. Shaen, witness, ‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Administration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts’, (London: H.M.S.O., 1871), 12 May 1871, Q. 19,551-54.

    126. ‘The Police and Prostitution’, Reynolds’s Newspaper, 9 July 1871, p. 5.

    127. ‘The Contagious Diseases Acts’, Glasgow Herald, 14 November 1871, p. 5.

    128. ‘Murders and Suicides’, Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 3 April 1875, p. 6.

    129. ‘Woolwich’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, 9 January 1876, p. 4.

    130. Anon., Recollections of an Old Soldier (Birmingham: J. C. Aston, 1886), pp. 34-5.

    Part 5. First Person Accounts – Memoirs and Interviews

    131. John Pindar, Autobiography of a Private Soldier (Cupar, Fife: Fife News, 1877), pp. 49, 68-9.

    132. Timothy Gowing, A Soldier's Experience (Nottingham: Thos. Forman & Sons, 1892), pp. 325, 350, 359-64, 373-7.

    133. Edwin Mole, A King's Hussar (London: Cassell & Co., 1897), pp. 128, 137-8, 142-52, 154-6, 158, 162-3, 167-8, 193-4, 196-7, 202-5, 313-6, 324-6, 328.

    Part 6. Fictional Representations

    134. E.C. Grenville Murray, Six Months in the Ranks, or the Gentleman Private (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1881), pp. 16-18, 269-71, 288-93 & 317-318.

    135. ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’, in J.H. Stocqueler, The British Soldier: an Anecdotal History of the British Army (London: Wm. S. Orr, 1857), pp. 269-70.

    Biography

    Jennine Hurl-Eamon is Associate Professor of History at Trent University, Canada

    Lynn MacKay is Professor of History at Brandon University, Canada

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