John has come to London to meet military historian Andy Robert Shaw
not all because we do some research yeah into my there are my relatives
Charles Bishop mother found is that he was a late vicar in the census in 1861
right but prior to that he was in the army yeah and I can't make out what
happened in me to him well what we can do is use this material
here these are the quarterly pay lists for an infantry regiment and your
relative Charles Bishop joins as a boy soldier
and there he is and he's been paid at basically four
pence a day not a full rate of pay because he's actually only 14 years old
and he is also only four foot 11 inches high means the 450 11 inches well that's
his high 4 foot 11 and a half inches tall it is a foot small yeah isn't it
when I mean that's fine records of him it was getting married in 1852 in Quebec
is the only thing that fills in the gap between 1838 and 52 well by 1841 the
regiment's moved to Bermuda neither so he's got to be metre and look
at this one Ian to pay act one penny extra from the 30th of June why's he
getting a penny extra and then band yeah he's in the van he's in the band he's in
the band in Bermuda yeah yeah so what he's done he's now not just an
infantryman he's now in the band and obviously the music's really important
for regiment ceremonials parades marching he's now getting extra pay
cause he's in the band did we know when he played in the band would we be able
to find that out that's what we don't know we just don't know what he's doing
in the van it's probably the triangle no is it that
say for sure what I'm gonna giggles if your development I don't was still about
that but then what happens is that it gets better from there because he does
so well that by 18-49 I thought tell me is deleting ah no he
goes to corporal okay in the band yeah which again he's even more money then
the unit then moves round Canada into Ontario are eventually up to Montreal
and at that point he marries a girl who was the daughter of a soldier he then
comes back from Canada yeah back to the UK the last one gives some useful
information abbreviation sergeant Nathan if the band yep he's actually the band
sergeants he is now in charge of the band no longer just a musician he's the
band sergeant there he is again 1st of July to 30th of September but you'll see
his name's crossed out in red he's charged yep 35th September on
payments of five pounds it's the equivalent of today between 8 and 10,000
pounds he paced the paymaster to leave the army now he bought himself oh he
bought himself out and the critical thing about that is that he would have
been entitled within six years to a pension so he's if you're more of an
incentive to stay in there there must have been something that said there's
time to get out now it's a hell of a risk but there's a must be a reason for
that and as to what his wife thought I don't know she's heavily pregnant on
that voyage all the way back so it so he left the army yeah just when he needed
the security most yeah and he actually paid a bounty to do that correct but we
don't know why