Is this unusual?

[uksearch]

I recently came upon a couple of soldiers from the 1st Batt of the 17th Reg of Foot. They were "lodging" at the New Bailey Prison, Salford in 1863. One was Egward Hogan, who was sentenced to 365 days hard labour, and the other was William Phelan who was sentenced to 730 days. In addition both of them were odered to be marked with the letters BC. These same letters were included in the column for marks on body etc... in the Prison Register. Any clues...

UK

[ChristineR]

BC means Bad Character

Wikipedia says in part...

"Such cases led to branding becoming obsolete, and it was abolished in 1829 except in the case of deserters from the army, which were marked with the letter D, not with hot irons but by tattooing with ink or gunpowder. Notoriously bad soldiers were also branded with BC (bad character). The British Mutiny Act of 1858 provided that the court-martial, in addition to any other penalty, may order deserters to be marked on the left side, 2 inch below the armpit, with the letter ii), such letter to be not less than an inch long. In 1879 this was abolished"

[uksearch]

Thank you. That was quick...must say I rarely think of using Wikipedia.

UK

[MarkJ]

A pretty harsh treatment! All that and a year or two in prison.

Mark

[ChristineR]

Thank you. That was quick...must say I rarely think of using Wikipedia.

UK

It came up when I googled - I never think of it either |biggrin|

[uksearch]

It came up when I googled - I never think of it either |biggrin|

Hhhaa...but I should have googled before posting:o>

UK