Enrolled Military
Pensioners Force
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- The
Regiments
- Known as
(nickname)...................................................
- Facings..........................................................................
- Braided
Lace................................................................
- Service in
Australia
.................................................... 1850 - 1880
- This unit served in Western Australia 1850 - 1880 and Tasmania.
The unit was made up of men from, Serving Military units,
who had retired or had been pensioned out of service. Many had served in
Australia as convict guards in the past and had returned to serve within
this force. The Pensioner force took over many of the rolls of the line
Regiments which allowed them to be transferred out of Australia
NOTE : This unit is not
to be confused with the Enrolled Pensioner Guard of Western Australia nor
the Veteran Corps . They
are very different units and served at different times.
- In 1849, the British Government and the Western Australian
Legislative Council agreed to send convicts to the Swan River Colony. The
introduction of convicts was opposed by the majority of colonists but the
Legislative Council of the late 1840s was weighted in the pastoralists'
favour and their view carried. The introduction of convicts also meant the
introduction of members of the Enrolled Pensioner Force who acted as guards
on the convict ships. The Enrolled Pensioner Force was made up of British
army veterans who had completed their period of service, or been retrenched
or wounded, and had been placed on a small pension and were enrolled under
the command of a half-pay officer in their own locality.
-
- Military records of the Military
Pensioners Unit , Pay
rolls, Pay Musters, Cemetery Records, Church Records
& General Muster Records. Reference:Records
of the Military Pensioners Unit ,Mitchell Library
,Sydney,Australia
- Wellington's Military Machine
(Philip J. Haythornthaite) published 1995
-
- © Copyright B & M Chapman
(QLD) Australia
- Last revised: August 17, 2007.
-
