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Note N200
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Believed to have served as a member of the Queen's 2nd Royal Regiment of Foot (West Surrey); the Regiment is known to have been stationed in Dublin, Ireland, Bombay (Poona and Colobah) in/around 1832 and also Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1839.
h5834b
Entries: 6046 Updated: Sat Aug 25 10:54:23 2001 Contact: Unknown
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# ID: I5641
# Name: James Bird (HILL)
# Sex: M
# Birth: 1 MAR 1800 in Tur Langton,Leicesler,England
# Christening: 8 MAR 1801 Tutlangton,Lester,England
# Death: 31 JUL 1839 in Ghazni,Afghanistan,India
# LDS Baptism: 12 APR 1892
# Endowment: 14 APR 1892
# Reference Number: 1K3M-Z4
# Note:
Submitted by James A. Meason, 65 E. 3 S., Spanish Fork, Utah - 4 gen. sheet. 1.
Tur Langton Civil Records.
2.Gen. Register of birth and deaths in India (British Army).
3.Military record of husband.
4.Brighton register.
5.Death cert. of wife from Somerset House.
6.Burton Overy Branch record.
Husband went by the name of BIRD in Military.
#3,4,5,6 went by name of HILL as adults.
#1,7,8 died in Poona, India.
#2 died in Brighten England.
Decendants go by the name of HILL.
#1,2,7,8 go by the name of BIRD>
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http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/short_history/sh02.html
Campaigns in India and South Africa
With peace restored, in 1816 The Queen’s returned to the West Indies, and within three months 200 officers and men and half the women and children had died of dysentery and yellow fever. They spent five years in the Caribbean, returned to Ireland for two years, and in 1825 sailed for India where they fought in the Afghanistan Campaign of 1839, subsequently being awarded the Battle Honours of ‘Afghanistan’, ‘Ghuznee’ and ‘Khelat’. After five more years in England and Ireland the next overseas station was South Africa where they were engaged in the long series of Kaffir Wars that had begun in 1799. In February 1852, a year after the Regiment had arrived in South Africa, there were very few survivors of a draft of one corporal and 50 men under command of Lt Boylan, when the troopship BIRKENHEAD struck a rock and sank 50 miles West of Simon’s Bay. The account of the perfect calm and discipline of the troops on board the sinking ship, written by a survivor, was ordered by the King of Prussia to be read out as an example to every regiment of his Army.
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Sue Holloway
2 March 2009 13:30
To: megan.tilley@gmail.com
Hi Megan,
Don't think you will be disappointed with this email. Here is the full story of James Bird HILL.................
[Note: this is taken from Scott and Amy Jensen Ancestry website http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~amyandscottancestry/ index_files/JamesBirdHill.htm]
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF JAMES BIRD HILL
Born: March 1, 1801
Died: July 31, 1839
James Bird Hill was born March 1, 1801 (although his army record says he was born March 1, 1800). He was born at Tur Langton, Parish of Church Langton, Leicestershire, England. His parents were James and Catherine Bird Hill. James Bird Hill was the first of 12 children. As a youth he worked as a woolcoomber.
On January 4, 1819, when James was almost 19 years old, he enlisted for unlimited service (for life) in the Queen’s 2nd Royal Regiment of Foot at Birmingham, England. He was 5 foot, 8 inches tall and had grey eyes, light brown hair, oval face, and a fresh complexion. He had had no previous service. By the time he was 24 years of age his height had increased to 5 foot, 8 3/4 inches tall.
James Bird Hill was called James Bird while in the army. When his family returned to England after his death they were called Hill.
On May 3, 1819, James Bird joined the 2nd Regiment Depot at Albany Barracks from Birmington Hospital. He was in the military hospital in June 1819.
On November 25, 1819 he marched for Birmingham on the recruiting service and remained until September 1821. In October and November of 1821 he was in he recruiting service at Towcaster.
While in Birmingham, James Bird Hill Married Ann Jarvis on September 18, 1820. Ann was born June 2, 1803 at Birmingham, Warwick, England to James and Sarah Bullock Jarvis.
Apparently Ann was able to go where James was assigned most of the time because it seems that the children were born where James was stationed.
On December 4, 1821, James Bird rejoined the Regiment at Brighton where he joined Captain J. R. Kells co., no. 8. While at Brighton, England their first baby, Ann Bird Hill, was born. She died shortly after, on March 6, 1822.
On April 25, 1822 James Bird Marched with the regiment to Liverpool and from there sailed to Dublin, Ireland where he remained in garrison until October 3, 1823.
On August 11, 1822 James wrote a letter to his parents in England. This more than [180] year old letter is a treasured keepsake in the Measom family.
On October 3, 1823 he marched for 4 days o Athlone where he stayed for 7 months to May 1824, and then her returned to Dublin. I don’t know whether Ann went with him to Athlone or remained in Dublin until his return; but 2 months after James left Dublin, Ann gave birth to another baby girl, Catherine Bird Hill, who died December 12, 1823. Twenty days after the regiment returned to Dublin they returned to England.
In August 1824, they sailed for Chatham and stayed there on leave for 5-6 months. On February 5, 1825 they sailed for India on board the ship Inglis and landed in Bombay (Colaba) on June 5, 1825. They remained in Garrison there until December 1825.
Their first son was born at Colaba (Bombay) on June 5, 1825. They named him John.
From Bombay, Pvt. Bird moved with the regiment to a camp near Poona, India and remained in garrison there until December 1830. While living in Poona, two more children were born: a boy named James, born August 2, 1827; and a girl named Sarah, born August 19, 1829.
In February 1829, James Bird Hill was in the hospital for a short time, but otherwise was present and fit for duty the rest of the time.
In December 1830, they moved from the camp near Poonah to Fort George, Bombay and from there to Colaba, Bombay and stayed there most of the time until 1833. Here baby Esther was born March 4, 1832.
From Colaba they moved again to a camp near Poona and remained until may 1836. Here another son, David, was born on November 4, 1834. He died in 1836.
Pvt. Bird moved with the regiment from Poona to Ft. George, Bombay, and remained there until December 1836 when the regiment moved to Belgium and remained there until October 1838. Their last son Thomas was born December 27, 1836 at Bombay.
In October 1838 Private Bird moved with the regiment from Belgium to Bombay and from thence (by sea to the mouth of the river Indus), moved northward to the First Afghan War. From there there were several moves of the regiment until Private James Bird was at Khelat-i-Ghilzai on July 7, 1839. When the regiment left Ghazni, Pvt. James Bird was left behind sick. He died at Ghazni, Afghanistan on July 31, 1839 of a disease (probably dysentery). He had taken part in the famous storming of Ghazni and was entitled to his share of the Ghazni Prize money, which was given to his widow, Ann Bird Hill, who was residing at Poona.
One month later Ann once again suffered heartache when her son Thomas died on August 21, 1839, at Poona. Ann had given birth to eight children, four of whom had died.
Surely Ann’s life as the wife of a soldier must have been very difficult. But now she must look ahead, and she longed for her native England. The army sent her and the four children to Burton Overy, England to live with James’ parents. They were four months and fourteen days on their tedious, worrisome ocean voyage.
Anne never remarried. She reared her family and made a living by serving as a midwife for many years.
Her daughter Sarah married Thomas Measom in December of 1847, and they lived only a short distance from Ann’s house in Burton Overy. In later life Ann became blind and Sarah’s family helped her. One of the nice things they did was to take a special meal to her each Sunday.
Thomas and Sarah heard the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the Mormon Elders and Joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In September 1870 they immigrated to America. They wanted Ann to go with them but she had so disliked the ocean voyages to and from India that she said she never wanted to sail the ocean again.
Ann Jarvis Hill died December 21, 1878 at the age of 76 years at the Union Workhouse, Billesdon Dist, Leicestershire, England. The cause of death was Senectus.
LETTER FROM JAMES BIRD HILL TO HIS PARENTS IN ENGLAND
Dublin, 11 August 1822
Dear Father and Mother,
This comes with our love to you, hoping to find you all in good health, as this leaves us at this time. Thank God for that. Dear mother, Ann was very sick coming over the water, for we had a very rough passage, but very quick, for we were only twenty-four hours on board ship. We landed safe but very wet for it rained all the time we were on board and all the day after we landed and then we had to march 10 miles in the wet.
But we like Dublin very well, for everything is very cheap indeed, for we can get the very best of beef and mutton at 2d (pence) per pound and a quarter loaf for 3d, eggs for 6d, butter for 4d per pound and everything accordingly, and as many potatoes as you can carry away for 2d.
But the worst of all is we have such very hard duty and so many field days before the General. There are twelve regiments of us live all in one barracks, and we have hardly one moment to call our own, for we have only one night in bed at a time. That is all we dislike Dublin for. If it was not for that I would like Ireland very well, as well as England. In regard to the people all you need in Ireland is a civil tongue, and that will carry anyone through the world. I do not care where I go for that, for I know I have a tongue in my head that will carry me through the world for good behavior. As we have to go to the East Indies very soon, I am not afraid but I have behaved very well. Before I go I will have a furlough as soon as we get the orders to meet the regiment at Ch---.
The Captain is a very good friend to me and Ann and we will go with them to wait on his lady. I will have all my victuals with them. They have been very good to us indeed, for everything we want, we have it. Dear mother, I had a letter from my brother Henry yesterday morning. He is very well dear mother. I saw Wm. Smith in the First Dragoons the Sunday after we came. We had a fine talk with him and he desired to be remembered to you all and to his father and mother. They went on board ship the Wednesday after for England.
So I conclude your loving son and dtr.,
James and Ann, Direct Js. Bird Hill
Private Soldier, Captain Kell’s co.
200 Queen’s Royal Barracks
Dublin or elsewhere
James included a drawing of himself and Ann which included the verse:
Art thou not dear unto my heart, O search thy heart and see,
And from thy bosom tear that part that beats not true to thee
But to my bosom thou art dear, more dear than tongue can tell
And if a fault is cherished there tis loving thee too well.
Had I the wings of yonder dove I’d soon fly o’er the sea
Once more behold the friend I love who is so dear to me.
**--**
James and his wife apparently left Ireland shortly after writing this letter. They were later stationed in India when their daughter Sarah was born at Poona, India where they were when later James Hill died. Upon his death Ann and children were sent to Burton Overy, Leicestershire, England to stay with his parents.
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Believed to have served as a member of the First 17th Leicestershire Foot Regiment; the Regiment is known to have been stationed at Australia, NSW, Sydney, Parramatta in 1832, and also Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1839. http://www.regiments.org/wars/19thcent/39afghan.htm 1839 July 21-23 Ghuznee 1839 EIC award 1839; British award 1840; date added 1907 Cav: LD4 L16 Inf: F2 F13 F17 Cav: BLC2 BLC3 2/Skinner ByLC1 Poona Engr: BySM Inf: BE1 B16 B35 B48 By19
Believed to have served as a member of the First 17th Leicestershire Foot Regiment; the Regiment is known to have been stationed at Australia, NSW, Sydney, Parramatta in 1832, and also Ghazni, Afghanistan in 1839.
http://www.regiments.org/wars/19thcent/39afghan.htm
1839 July 21-23 Ghuznee 1839 EIC award 1839; British award 1840; date added 1907
Cav: LD4 L16 Inf: F2 F13 F17
Cav: BLC2 BLC3 2/Skinner ByLC1 Poona Engr: BySM Inf: BE1 B16 B35 B48 By19
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