A soldier's family living away from home

Garrison Church, Valletta

 Life as a soldier's wife was not for the faint of heart. It was even more difficult for those posted overseas. Away in a foreign land; their lives were tied to the fortunes of the unit with which their husbands served. So it was for Henrietta, the wife of a Royal Engineer. According to the Regiments

of the Malta Garrison of the Royal Engineers the 32nd company of the Royal Engineers arrived at the garrison on Malta in September of 1869. It appears that they joined another company in the St. Francis Barracks, with the married soldiers' quarters being in St. Francis Ravelin.

William McKay's records show that he was in Malta from 1869 while those of Henrietta McKay indicate that she was still in England but she joined him later as their first daughter was born in Malta at the end of 1871. Did they occupy the married quarters in St. Francis Ravelin once William's wife joined him?

The Regiments of the Malta Garrison described the living quarters of the Royal Engineers in the following way: "St Francis Barracks Floriana was a two storied building with four large rooms, two on each floor and two small ones. There were no night urinals, urine tubs being still used by the men. These were not only offensive, but it was also impossible to keep the floor around the tubs clean. The married quarters at St Francis Ravelin were situated in a block of buildings which was well lit and ventilated. At each end of the block, was a quarter for a non-commissioned officer: each of the other quarters only had one room. These were too crowded for large families, who were often granted a second quarter, when these became available. NCOs had larger quarters in St. Francis Barracks."

The barracks didn't sound like great surroundings in which to bring up a family especially considering a prior entry in the same source about the health of the engineers. Out of 170 men 6 had been admitted to hospital for Delirium tremens in 1869. Even the married quarters sounded like a tight squeeze. But where were William and Henrietta and their growing young family housed during the time that he was posted to Malta?

The 1872 baptismal record for Florence Annie McKay gave the family's abode as Floriana, not the married quarters of Ravelin. Even the 1874 baptism of Henrietta Maud didn't see them moved to the married quarters. It seems that the marriage had to be acknowledged by the army before access to those quarters could occur. At least William was a corporal so they would have been in the larger NCO quarters. Not ideal, but maybe livable as it was the norm for that place and time. The later 1870s would bring more trying times. 

Sources:

Find My Past – British Armed Forces and Overseas Browse - Garrison Church, Malta: Baptism Register 1860-1886 WO 156/596

Regiments of the Malta Garrison – The Royal Engineers https://www.maltaramc.com/regmltgar/royalen.html 

Images:

By Continentaleurope at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47520458

 

 

Finding the unexpected in Malta

A Maltese Calese, a form of transportation unique to Malta

Malta must have been a strange and exotic sight to Henrietta McKay when she disembarked from her ship sometime in 1870 or early 1871. The picture up above is of a Maltese Calese, a vehicle unique to Malta. Was that her mode of transportation from the ship? Did she have the infant William with her or was she travelling on her own to join her husband at the Malta Garrison? For join him she did.

It doesn't pay to make assumptions. When William McKay's military record stated that his marriage was not recognized until he was sent to India, I thought that meant that Henrietta wouldn't have been with him in Malta. Malta was William McKay's first overseas posting. He wasn't sent to India until 1879, which can be seen in the chart below. 

On the off chance, I checked Family Search to see what was available for Malta. There were online genealogy records, one of which was the Index of Baptisms by Army Chaplains 1800 - 1900. Helpfully the chaplain had included the father's regiment in the entry, if not his name. There was an impressive bunch of McKay and MacKay baptisms to the Royal Engineers.

Further checking on Find My Past brought to light more databases to check for births and baptisms of the McKay children in Malta. The first entry I found was for Florence Annie McKay who was baptized at the Garrison of Malta on January 28, 1872. It also noted her birth date which was December 29, 1871. 

The baptismal entry for William Henry McKay had also noted his date of birth which was July 27, 1870, about 17 months prior to the birth of Florence Annie, but a whole world away in Weymouth, Dorset. How did Henrietta feel giving birth to her second child so far from her family? What other changes would life in an army garrison bring to Henrietta McKay?

Sources:

Find My Past – British armed forces and overseas birth and baptisms images

Find My Past – British Armed Forces and Overseas Browse - Garrison Church, Malta: Baptism Register 1860-1886 WO 156/596

Malta Family History, Index of baptisms by Army Chaplains 1800-1900, accessed through Family Search Wiki, Malta Online Genealogy Records

Images:

By Calvert Richard Jones - Bodleian, Public Domain, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86141656 

 

Clues and Surprises in a Military Record

Part of William McKay's Military Record

Sometimes documents I've had for years throw up some real surprises. When I started looking into the Chubb family and, more specifically, the family of Henrietta Chubb/McKay, I saw that I had printed out the military record of her husband William McKay, which I had found on Find My Past. The record is eight pages long so there's lots of info but when I found it, I just printed it out, stuck it in a plastic sleeve and put it in a binder. Now that I'm searching for clues about the birth of Henrietta and William's children, I decided to extract information from the record. That information should tell me the couple's moves and give me locations to search for birth records.

During the extraction process, I was reminded that the chronicled moves were not necessarily those of both members of the couple. Concerning the marriage, under the heading, "To whom married place and time" the military record states: "Henrietta Chubb at Weymouth on 18th Sept 1869 without leave. Recognized from date of embarkation for India". As you can see from the chart below, that wasn't until 10 years after the marriage when William was sent to Madras. So, if Henrietta wasn't acknowledged as William's wife by the military she would not have been able to join him in his travels until he was in India in 1879.

Finding Henrietta's whereabouts and the births of her children may be more complicated than I thought. It really would have been helpful if Harold Chambers' family tree had included dates. But I can only work with what I have and there are some really good clues in William McKay's military record. Besides the information in the military history sheet as above, more detail of his whereabouts can be seen in his medical records. It seems that he sought medical attention on a regular basis; which is only to be expected for someone who had a disease for most of his life. I was surprised by the notation made on his record when he was at Chatham in 1866 when he was 18 years old. He had been suffering from the affects of syphilis at what, at that time, was thought to be the contagious stage of the disease. There was no cure for syphilis at that time. I found that concerning as he married just three years later. 

There was another unexpected item on William McKay's military record. He was tried for desertion in 1876. Between William's disease and desertion, it looks like I have a few more things to research.

Sources:

Find My Past – British Army Service Records 1760-1915 Records of William McKay enlisted 23^rd July, 1863

Images:

Part of military record - Find My Past – British Army Service Records 1760-1915 Records of William McKay enlisted 23^rd July, 1863