Ilmington is a charming north Cotswold village just 10 kilometres
from the Shakespearean town of Stratford-on-Avon. The International
Genealogical Index records that Archers were living around Illmington
as far back as the 1500s.[3] Our ancestor,
Thomas Archer was born there, near the town of
Shipston-on-Stour, in the Parish of Ilmington in 1778.
The life of a labourer there in the late 18th century would have been
a relatively quiet one, unlike the years that followed for Thomas
after he joined the Army.
(above)The
old schoolhouse at Ilmington. If Thomas went to school, as
seems likely since he worked later as a clerk in an Army office,
it may well have been in this charming stone building.
As a youth, Tom worked as a farm labourer,
but by the time he was 23, decided life in the Army had better
prospects, and he enlisted in the 52nd Regiment at Coventry
in 1800.
During Thomas’ first period of service,
the 52nd Regiment was based mainly on the Continent, with
years spent fighting the Napoleonic and Peninsula wars, and manning
garrisons in France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal and Spain. In
1812, one of the battles Thomas was involved in was the siege of Badajos
in Spain, where English troops, with allied Portuguese soldiers, forced
the surrender of French troops stationed there. The siege was one of the
bloodiest of the Napoleonic Wars, and was considered a costly victory by
the British, with some 4,800 Allied soldiers killed or wounded.
Thomas was one of the wounded, suffering an injury to his left thigh.
left: a graphic painting showing some of the action at the
Badajoz castle during the siege, and (above) the fort in recent,
more peaceful times.
In 1814, in one of the Regiment’s fairly rare periods in England, the
52nd was stationed at Plymouth, in Devon. It’s pure
speculation, but it seems likely that this is when Tom met and married
Grace, a woman from the Devon village of Ottery St. Mary. As was the
custom of the time, some wives and families were able to accompany
soldiers behind the lines, and covered the costs of their care by
carrying out domestic duties for the regiment.
In 1817-18, his battalion’s Pay and Muster
lists show Thomas was with the 6th Company of his regiment
when it was based in France at Therounne, Valenciennes and near St.
Omar. (100 years later, all these places were in World War 1
battle areas). During the period his unit was camped near St.
Omar, Grace gave birth to their son, Samuel. A second son
Frederick was born a year later, at Blandeques, also in northern France.
Perhaps family and fatherhood didn’t combine well with Army life, for
Thomas left the Army in 1820, a year after the regiment returned to
England. His discharge papers refer to an allowance for his wife and two
children to travel to Coventry, Warwickshire, where Thomas had enlisted
20 years earlier. It's this note of two children which confirms a
second child was born to the couple, and Army birth records show that a
Frederick Archer was born to a serving soldier's wife when the 52nd
Regiment of Foot was stationed at Blandeques in 1818..
Where the Archers spent the next 12 years
is uncertain, but it was probably in Warwickshire, near Coventry, as son
Samuel regarded himself as a native, not of France where he was born,
but of Warwickshire, where he grew up. By the end of 1830, Thomas
had decided to return to the Army, serving as a Staff Sergeant in the
Coventry Recruiting District from 10th January 1831 to the 31st January
1849. On his final discharge papers, Thomas was recorded as being
5' 8" tall, with grey hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion.
In recognition of his service at Waterloo, he qualified for a 'bonus' of
two extra years pensionable service. Then, as now, retrenchments
and cutbacks saw many retire – although, in Thomas’ case, it was not an
early retirement (he was 72!). However, the Army cited as the
reason for his discharge, “Reduction of the staff of the Coventry
District”.
The Army Discharge Board, after testimony by his commanding officer,
Col. James Campbell, gave him a very good reference:
"Thomas Archer is a
most meritorious, correct and trustworthy non-commissioned officer and
deserves of any indulgence that can be extended to him. His
previous character appears to have been equally good".
In 1841, Thomas and Grace
had been living in Little Park Street, Coventry, but within a year, they
had moved a couple of kilometres away to Hillfield, in northern
Coventry. According to the Coventry Standard 2 December
1842, he was called as a witness (and a victim) in a case again two men,
one a rag-and-bone man, accused of of a series of minor thefts from
a number of premises there. The newspaper account of the court
proceedings cited Thomas' occupation as a "Staff Sergeant". The case
didn't inspire continuing coverage, so we don't know the verdict, or
sentence.
Both of Thomas' sons
enlisted in the Army. Samuel joined the 6th Regiment of Foot in
1838, while Frederick, as a 15 year old joined his father's old Regiment
in 1833, before being discharged five years later with a "chronic
pulmonary disease". We don't know what happened to Frederick, but
Samuel went on to serve for15 years, before being discharged in Mauritius
to emigrate to Australia at the time of the Victorian gold rushes.
In retirement, Thomas and
Grace settled for a time 20 kilometres away in the historic market town of
Solihull, between Coventry and Birmingham. The 1851 UK Census
says that Thomas, then aged 73, was a "Chelsea Pensioner" a term applied
to former soldiers who received an Army pension from the Chelsea hospital
registers (this was simply where the records were kept, and didn't denote
necessarily that a soldier has been admitted to the hospital).
There was at least one
more move for the couple - the 1861 Census records them living at
Gilbert's Green, a farming area in Tanworth, a village 10km south of
Solihull.
Despite his age, Thomas returned to work after leaving the Army, and
laboured as a farm hand even into his eighties. (On the death
certificate of his son Samuel, Thomas' occupation was listed as
"farmer", while the death certificate of his wife Grace in 1863 gives
Thomas’ occupation as “husbandman”, an archaic term meaning one who
looks after animals.
Thomas survived Grace by only 18 months. Like her, he died in
Ilmington, just six kilometres from his birthplace of Shipston-on-Stour,
in Back Street[4] probably
in the home of his brother James.
right: A 2002 view of Back Street, Ilmington, in the
Cotswolds - the street where Thomas’ brother James
lived, and where his wife Grace died
[1] Baptism Record
Transcription/ England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 |
findmypast.com.au
[3] IGI, batch no.: C700101 [4] The witness who certified Thomas’ death
was a Mary Newman, who, at the time of the 1851 census, lived in Back
Street, Ilmington, as did James Archer
(above)The
old schoolhouse at Ilmington. If Thomas went to school, as
seems likely since he worked later as a clerk in an Army office,
it may well have been in this charming stone building.
