Thanks Gordon. Off line another person who knows quite a bit about the British regimental service mentioned to me that the British army was fastidious about keeping track of the soldiers they
executed for desertion. They were this person said less likely to record a regular dissection. He felt if the soldier had been executed it would be clearly recorded in the records of the regiment almost certainly and would be a clue to knowing the fate of the possible family member. Cheers Ron McCoy On 2019-12-01 10:32 p.m., Gordon Wilkinson via CoTyroneList wrote: > > Yes Ron, during the Irish wars of the mid 18thC there were many > deserters who joined the other side! It was a 2-way exchange too. > Depended on food, wages and the reliability of being fed, clothed and > housed than a particular loyalty. > > Gordon > > On 1/12/2019 8:51 pm, Ron McCoy via CoTyroneList wrote: >> >> Hi Bruce >> >> I have done a fair amount of reading on regiments of the British army >> and particular the 100th reg of Foot. I would not assume that your >> ancestor was killed for desertion. It appears that desertion was a >> very common problem in the army with extremely high percentages of >> soldiers walking away from their duties. Depending on the situation >> and circumstances the sentences where quite mixed and seldom >> involving the death penalty. Often corporal punishment was the rule >> of law. I suspect if they illuminated every soldier who deserted for >> various reasons the British army would have been very much smaller. >> >> Cheers >> >> Ron McCoy >> >> _______________________________________________ CoTyroneList Mailing List Mailing List Email Address: CoTyroneList@cotyroneireland.com Change Your Preferences: http://cotyroneireland.com/mailman/listinfo/cotyronelist_cotyroneireland.com Mailing List Archive: https://goo.gl/mQCKrY
