The British Garrison in Australia 1788-1841: conditions of service-wives and children.

Clem Sargent

Although the wives and children of soldiers were not subject to military discipline they formed a significant part of the regimental family and this was recognised in the Regulations and Orders which stipulated the conditions under which the wives and children were allowed to accompany the troops and gave guidance to the way in which they lived.

The Regulations and Orders of 1816, 1822 and 1837, with minor differences in wording, allowed:

   `... that when a Regiment embarks for Garrison Duty on foreign
   service, the lawful wives of the soldiers shall be permitted to
   embark, in the proportion of Twelve per Company, including the wives
   of Non-commissioned Officers, and Rations are to be issued to them
   as long as the Corps remains in a Foreign Garrison.' (R 1816 p 370).

The same General Order allowed only six wives to accompany each Company on field service and that when a Royal Veteran Battalion embarked for foreign garrison duty all the wives `of good character' could accompany their husbands. This latter condition would have applied to the Royal New South Wales Veteran Companies arriving in 1825. R 1822 clearly specified that the allowable number of wives was twelve per 100 men.

When the number of wives in a regiment exceeded the allowed twelve per 100 men a ballot to determine the wives to go or not to go was conducted by the Pay Sergeant. Those women who drew `not to go' tickets were provided with passes to enable them to return to their homes but no further provisions were made for the sustenance or welfare of the wives and children. Most would be fortunate if they ever saw their husbands again.

Not all wives who drew `no go' tickets were prepared to accept what could be a final separation from their husbands. On 20 march 1834 Governor Bourke complained to the Secretary of State for Colonies that Elizabeth Connaughton, wife of a private of the 21st Regiment, had arrived in Sydney as an assisted female emigrant on the Layton on 17 December 1834. Elizabeth claimed that she had not been asked if she were single. Bourke complained again in May 1835 that two more wives of the 21st, each with a child, had reached Sydney on the Duchess of Northumberland, another migrant ship but the circumstances under which they voyaged are not clear as Bourke's words were that `--Wives of soldiers stationed in Van Diemen's Land have been sent out [writer's underlining] by the Emigrant Ship--'. It seems most unlikely that the Horse Guards would have been providing free or assisted passages for wives to join their husbands overseas. If so would they be entitled to rations if the regiment already had the prescribed number of wives already on rations? (1) Elizabeth Connaughton may have been the wife of either Pte John or Pte Patrick Connaughton, both with the 21 st in Van Diemens Land. The other two women were reported as the wives of `Coin' and `Hartman'. There were no soldiers of those names on the Muster Rolls of the 21 st but there were Cpl, later Col Sgt Patrick Coyne and Pte John Hartigan with the regiment. (2)

Wives and children shared the barracks accommodation with their husbands and accompanied them when sent on detachments. Women were issued with rations at half the scale allowed to the men and children one third, both without spirits. Records show wives and children at the first settlements established at Port Macquarie, Macquarie Harbour, Moreton Bay, Norfolk Island and at the aborted settlements in the Northern Territory. The first white children born in these remote settlements would be the children of the remote garrisons and it has been proved that the first white child born at Moreton Bay was Amity Moreton, born 21 September 1824, the daughter of Corporal Robert Thompson of the 40th Regiment. (3) At the site of the ironed gang stockade at Towrang (approx 30 kms north of Goulburn, NSW) there is a small graveyard containing three graves, one is the grave of four year old Mary Brown who died on 9 June 1841 and who is probably the infant daughter of Sergeant John Brown of the 80th Regiment, detached for duty at Towrang at that time. (4) The experience of those wives who had `followed the dram' during the Peninsular War would have established a tradition of being able to rough it in the remote garrisons of New South Wales.

There can be no better example of the fortitude of these women than the experience of Mrs Martin, wife of a soldier of the 50th Regiment, when the convict transport George III in which they were voyaging to New South Wales, was wrecked at the southern entrance to D'Entrecastraux Channel on the approach to Hobart in April 1835. Mrs Martin, who had recently been confined, the wife of Private Martin, clung to the lanyards of the forward chains with her new baby held in one arm and the baby of a woman who had drowned clutched in the other, while between her legs she had wedged her own toddler. Mrs Martin and the children were saved. One woman, three children, two sailors and 127 convicts were drowned. (5)

Another woman who had earlier displayed the same fortitude was Jane Waddy, wife of Corporal George Waddy of the 48th Regiment. She had accompanied her husband in 1821 to Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Tasmania where Waddy was the storekeeper in the first settlement to be established there. Jane Waddy had two children with her, a four year old daughter and a two year old son; a third child was born in the isolation of Macquarie Harbour. The Waddys left Hobart in 1824 with the 48th for service in India where Corporal Waddy died four months after arrival. His wife and family were repatriated to England and in May 1826 Jane Waddy arrived back in New South Wales with two children, the youngest, born at Macquarie Harbour having died in Madras. Mrs Waddy came on the female convict transport Lady Rowena, reputedly as a wardress and settled in New South Wales.

In 1811 an order was issued for a sergeant to be added to the establishment of each regiment to act as Schoolmaster. His duties were to provide the boys with sufficient education to fit them for NCO rank should they later enlist. Girls could also be instructed if accommodation `and other circumstances' permit. As well the girls were to be taught `Plain Work and Knitting' by the best qualified and best behaved women of the regiment while the boys should be instructed by the regimental tailors and shoemakers.

A soldier could not marry without the permission of his commanding officer. In the event of the death of her husband a wife was unsupported and not entitled to rations but because of the restricted number of wives allowed to the regiment, widows usually quickly remarried; in some cases women were bespoke even before the death of the husband. Regulations from 1816, the earliest available to the writer, provided that a Book of Registry should be maintained by every Regiment and Battalion in which marriages of all NCOs and privates be recorded, and also the age and baptism of soldiers' children. The Certificate of Marriage was to be submitted to the Adjutant for entry in the Register. Similarly, an account of the baptism of children was to be recorded. The Regulations observed that in many cases `--the Regimental Register may prove the only Record in existance--' of marriages and births. Because they were Regimental records not Army ones, many have not survived; some may be found in Regimental museums. (6)

(1) HRA I, XVII, pp. 396, 728.

(2) Geoff Blackman, Conquest and Settlement, Carlisle, WA, 1999, Appx 7, gives biographical details of the members of the 21 st Regiment who served in Australia.

(3) John St Pierre, Moreton Bay Detachment 1824-25. Redcliffe, 1994, pp. 12-14.

(4) WO 12/8483, f3, I April--30 June 1841.

(5) G A Mawer, Most Perfectly Safe. St Leonards, 1997, p. 63-8.