Army records help please
 

My 2xg-grandmother's sister, Abigail Allchin, nee Seaman, married a Richard Edwards on the 28th May 1856 in Madras. He was age 30, single, a corporal in the 1st M[adras] Fusiliers, and his father's name was James Edwards. The witnesses were all connected with Abigail.

The couple had three children and by the time the youngest, Fanny Jane, was baptised, 6 Nov 1861, he was a Colour Sergeant in the 102nd Regiment of Foot / Royal Madras Fusiliers (the same regiment which was previously the 1st Madras Fusiliers).

I have found him on FMP's "British Army Worldwide Index 1861" as no 2827, Sergeant 102nd Foot (Royal Madras Fusiliers), stationed Bangalore. But what happened to him after that? I'm out of practice at searching the army records on FMP!

On the 27th Jul 1865 at Kurnool / Kurnaul, a baby Mary Annie Edwards was baptised, the daughter of Abigail Edwards. I'm pretty sure that this is my Abigail because the next child, Edward Charles, had a witness at his wedding who was one of Richard and Abigail's children.

I found Abigail listed as receiving an army pension after her first husband's death, but have found nothing relating to Richard.

Can anyone find what happened to him, please?

Hmm, his medals were returned:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...&usePUBJs=true

Some people's entries give the reason for medals being returned, such as "Dead" or "Deserter", but not this one.

Looking at that last entry, I wasn't sure of the year?

I did look yesterday for anything helpful, but didn't find anything.

WO97 - the source for most army records - is for men in receipt of army pensions. If you left the army for other reasons you would not appear in those records. You'd need an army expert on this, but I suspect you need paylists to trace someone.
Did Abigail get that pension because her first husband died of wounds? Would the army look after a widow if a man died of fever?
I never understand why Navy records are wonderful and Army ones rubbish.

Thanks, both of you.

Maybe the British Newspaper Archive will add some more Madras papers - at the moment they only go up to 1849. If they could get up to the 1860's it might help.
Edit - just realised they actually only go up to 1819. Bother.

WO97, as mentioned by Phoenix is available on FMP. Indexing is useless, though, so you'd need to look through all of the hits for the name. If not discharged to pension, or died in service, though, his record is unlikely to have been retained. Muster Rolls (at Kew) is the way to go, to find out when discharged/died

Thanks, Ann. WO97 is the service records, right? I think I already checked those on FMP and didn't find him, but I will have another go tomorrow in case. I have his service number and regt and none of the records I saw matched those.

Yes, WO97 is service records

Ann has explained this much better than I did. My experience of muster rolls has not been positive - though hopefully a colour sergeant would stand out more than a private.