95th foot soldier

[Peter Goodey]

should I have looked somewhere else for his attestation record?

As he died in service, his attestation document is probably lost. You've looked in WO 12 and it appears that you now have his date and place of enlistment.

The only other place that comes to mind is the collection of Description Books which are mostly in series WO 25. It's usual to find information such as physical description, trade, age and place of birth. This is about as much as you'd find in the actual attestation.

I haven't checked the availability of records for your man's regiment.

Edit: I have now looked at the catalogue and unfortunately it doesn't look very hopeful Sorry.

[geoffct]

Thanks for your help. For the present time I shall leave him and move onto his father, which will probably be in a different forum, so thanks once again for your interest.

[Geoffers]

Before you move there is one other place you might try from the comfort of home with a cuppa in hand. It's a slim chance, but as it's free, worth a try.

As you mention your chap was from Newtownards, you might look to see if he was educated at the Royal Military Hibernian School (RHMS), Handily someone has transcribed the admissions (originals commence 1847-ish and are held at TNA in document class WO143) and put them online. Use a search engine to look for 'RMA searcher'

You'll get a hit which has links to the RHMS and also the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea. The site is simple to use.

It's only a slim chance that he was educated there, but worth a look if only for the purposes of elimination. Information in the admissions includes when a pupil enlisted in the army and the regiment.

[Lawrence W. Crider]

Just a little note on your question about sometimes being absent from the Musters. Men did transfer between regiments, which would show up during the respective muster on the form 20 or form 24 (they were used somewhat interchangably, depending on the regiment). Regiments were also divided into "service troops" (those on deployment somewhere) and "depot troops" (the troops remaining at home). If they haven't been lost or destroyed, there should be copies of both the depot and service musters at the NA.