From St Domingo to Bedlam: Trumpeter Charles Girling of the 20th Light Dragoons

By John D Ellis

Charles Girling was born at St Marc, St Domingo c.1781 and was a labourer by occupation.^[1]For Charles Girling, (the surname was also rendered as Gerling), see: The National Archives (TNA) WO 23/136 and WO 25/284 and 285. WO 116. He was one of twenty-five Black soldiers to serve in the 20^th Light Dragoons between 1792 and 1818.^[2]TNA WO 25/284, 285 and 288. The 20th Light Dragoons were in service between 1792 and 1818. The 20th Hussars, 1858-1922, inherited the battle honours of the earlier regiment. It is an antecedent … Continue reading Enlisting in October 1798 (when the regiment was in Jamaica), he was 5 feet 4 and ¼” tall, with black eyes, black hair and a black complexion.

Whilst a Crown regiment, the 20^th were funded by the planters of the Jamaica Assembly for the defence of the island against threats both external and internal (French invasion and ‘rebellions’ by enslaved people respectively), and titled ‘20^th (Jamaica) Regiment of Light Dragoons’. Following the ‘Treaty of Amiens’, and with the Royal Navy capable of protecting Britain’s Caribbean territories from French invasion, the Jamaica Assembly asked Parliament to withdraw the 20^th from the island, its services being no longer required. In early 1802 the 20^th returned to England and in 1803 were stationed in Colchester. Its official strength was of ten troops, each of 90 officers and men, with troops usually quartered in detachments to aid the civil authorities in policing and anti-smuggling activities. Charles Girling appears to have been employed as both a troop trumpeter and as a private in the band. In 1803 he was serving as a private in Captain John Hunt’s F Troop, and therefore probably employed with the band.^[3]TNA WO 25/285.

On their return to Britain the 20^th, like other regiments, had to undergo standardisation training according to the new regulations authored by the Duke of York. For the regiment this meant learning how to manoeuvre by threes and in line, controlled by trumpet signals, with the sole objective of getting a cavalry regiment deployed in line in a favourable position to charge.^[4]Oatts, Lieut.Col., LB. DSO. “The Emperor’s Chambermaids: The story of the 14/20^th King’s Hussars”. (Ward Lock, London,1973). pp.66.

The Cap Badge of The 20^th (Jamaica) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons between 1792 and 1802, including the crocodile emblem of Jamaica. The first badge of the 20^th‘s Jamaica Light Dragoons was worn by the men on their hot-climate tin helmets. The badge was also made of tin, blackened but with the design and edging raised to appear silver. It measures four inches high, four and seven eighths wide. ^[5] www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/20thldbadge.htm

Between 1803 and 1805 the regiment served in the south of England, being quartered variously in Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Essex and Suffolk. The newspaper archives on findmypast.co.uk noted the key events in the lives of the 20^th’s officers: Commissions, promotions and transfers were detailed alongside marriages, baptisms and burials.  A parade of the regiment at Fordington Field, Dorchester in November 1803, was reported by the General Evening Post.^[6]General Evening Post, 5^th November 1803. findmypast.co.uk  Parades also served a social function, with the attendance of the ‘great and good’ being seen as a means of ingratiating the regiment with respectable civilian society. Updates on the current fashions worn by officers and their ladies were closely observed, with ‘Swabian Bonnets’ and ‘Mameluke Turbans’ being recommended for ladies and gentlemen respectively.^[7]Ibid. The regiment were reviewed on Wansted Flats by the Duke of York in May 1804.^[8]Morning Post, 20^th May 1804. findmypast.co.uk Following this, in August 1804, they participated in a “sham fight” on Boxsted Heath, near Colchester, performing their manoeuvres with “uncommon alertness and precision”.^[9]Bury and Norwich Post, 22^nd August 1804. findmypast.co.uk However, in common with most regiments, the 20^th were plagued by desertion, and in Ipswich in November 1804 three privates deserted with their horses and accoutrements. More worryingly for the readers of the Bury and Norwich Post, they had also retained their pistols.^[10]Bury and Norwich Post, 7^th November 1804. findmypast.co.uk There is no record of them being re-captured, but if they had been, then corporal punishment (in the form of flogging) was usually carried out by the regimental trumpeters and bandsmen – many of whom in 20^th were Black men like Charles Girling.

By 1805, the bulk of the regiment was quartered in England when it officially lost the link with Jamaica and was renamed ‘The 20^th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons’. Between 1805 and 1807 elements of the regiment deployed in detachments to South America, South Africa and the Mediterranean. Whereever the regiment served, the Black soldiers, be they trumpeters or private, accompanied them. However, Private Charles Girling remained in England, probably at the Depot in Maidstone. In May 1805, “Charles Girling, a musician in the 20^th Regiment of Light Dragoons” was admitted to Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, (the infamous ‘Bedlam’).^[11]London, Bethlem Hospital Patient Admission Registers And Casebooks, And Discharge Registers 1683-1932. ARA 07/Page 162. ARA-15/Page 30 and DDR 01/194. findmypast.co.uk

‘Bedlam’

The cause of his admittance was given as “lunacy”, an ambiguous term then and now. It could have been a pre-existing condition or perhaps what is now referred to as ‘Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ (PTSD). There would have been plenty of potentially traumatic incidents in Charles Girling’s life. Living in St Domingo, whether enslaved or free he would have experienced the revolts and subsequent military interventions by both French and British forces. Whilst the 20^th saw no conventional military action during his service (1798-1805), the mortality rate due to sickness and fever in the Caribbean was invariably high.^[12]An indicator of the ill effects on the health of serving in the Caribbean on the British soldier is clearly demonstrated in the obituary of Lieutenant-Colonel Carter, who had commanded the 20th in … Continue reading The death of so many comrades would have been exacerbated by the routine of patrolling in the jungle and mountains of Jamaica hunting runaway enslaved people, a duty that would have been monotonous and dangerous in equal measure, not to mention being emotionally and morally challenging for a Black soldier such as Charles Girling.

There has been a ‘Bethlem Hospital’ in London since the thirteenth century, although it has not always been on the same site. Specialising in psychiatry for over 400 years, by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries conditions were such that the word ‘bedlam’ has passed into the English language as a synonym for uproar, confusion, chaos and ‘madness’. This was even though the ‘Madhouses Act’ (1774) established a commission of the Royal College of Physicians to grant licenses to and inspect London asylums annually. In the late eighteenth century Parliament had established a fund to provide permanent accommodation at Bethlem for ‘lunatic’ soldiers and sailors, and this is likely to be why Charles Girling was placed there.

There is nothing in the records to indicate the specific cause of the admission, but whatever illness plagued Charles Girling it could not be cured by Bethlem Royal Hospital. He was discharged in May 1806 “declared incurable and not fit”.^[13]London, Bethlem Hospital Patient Admission Registers And Casebooks, And Discharge Registers 1683-1932. ARA 07/Page 162. ARA-15/Page 30 and DDR 01/194. findmypast.co.uk He then appears to have been returned to the 20^th, but only for as long as it took to process his discharge from the regiment, “…being a lunatic and having been discharged (incurable) from Bethlehem Hospital”.^[14]TNA WO 121/78.

Ordinarily, being considered unfit to serve would result in the soldier being sent for examination to either of the Royal Hospitals at Chelsea or Kilmainham, and indeed there is an entry for Charles Girling in the admission registers of the RH Chelsea for the 4^th of August 1806.^[15]TNA WO 120/9 and 21. However, there are neither service details or a physical description – suggesting that Charles Girling did not personally attend the examination. Instead, there was the brief annotation “Discharged – Lunatic – King’s Order”.^[16]Ibid.

Hoxton House

So where was Charles Girling between May and August 1805 and leaving Bethlem and then the 20^th Light Dragoons and his non-appearance at the RH Chelsea, and what subsequently happened to him? There is a reference in the records of the RH Chelsea to “Hoxton”.^[18]TNA WO 120/9 and 21. Hoxton House was a private lunatic asylum in Hackney. It admitted both private patients and pauper lunatics from the city of London.^[19]Lost_Hospitals_of_London (myzen.co.uk) By 1784 it covered a site of two acres. From 1792, Hoxton House had admitted officers and ratings from the Royal Navy, who had become ‘insane’ during their service.

These men had their treatment paid for by the Royal Navy, augmented by the War Office, and were regularly visited by naval surgeons, with the ‘Inspector of Naval Hospitals’ also undertaking regular inspections. By 1805, the year Charles Girling was admitted, and following the Battle of Trafalgar, Hoxton House contained 80 naval patients (10 officers and 70 ratings).^[20]Ibid.

So why was Charles Girling admitted to Hoxton House? Whilst the RH Chelsea did admit in-patients and veterans requiring end of life care, it is unlikely that they had the capacity to treat Charles Girling. It is also likely that, as a “lunatic”, he could not simply be discharged as an out-pensioner to take his chances on the streets.^[21]TNA WO 120/9 and 21.

There are no references in his records to Charles Girling’s capacity to harm either himself or others, or as to how vulnerable he was. Indeed, a search of the newspaper archives held by findmypast.co.uk, using variations on name, ethnicity, regiment and appropriate/relevant key words and phrases has drawn a complete blank. The ‘1800 Criminal Lunacy Act’ allowed the incarceration of individuals charged with treason, murder or a serious offence. However, there are no references in contemporary newspapers to a Charles Girling being involved in any such incident. Whatever Charles Girling did, or had the capacity to do, appears to have been kept firmly within the regiment – or remains somewhere in the archives of the Royal Hospital Bethlem or Hoxton House. Nevertheless, a duty of care does seem to have been extended to him by either the regiment, Chelsea or the War Office: A place at Hoxton House was identified and solicited. It is likely that any pension he may have received, augmented by War Office funding, paid for his upkeep and treatment. The fact that he was considered a military patient may well have spared him from some of the more notorious deprivations that inspections of Hoxton House subsequently uncovered: In 1808 inmates were found to be wandering the exercise yard, naked apart from wearing blankets. In 1815, conditions had deteriorated, with neglect and ill treatment being identified and reported by the ‘Guardians of the Poor’ and the ‘Inspector of Naval Hospitals’. One naval surgeon reported “…floors soaked with urine…” and “bedrooms close, crowded and unventilated…”^[22]Lost_Hospitals_of_London (myzen.co.uk)

Charles Girling died at Hoxton House on the 26th of November 1807.^[23]TNA WO 120/9 and 21. He was buried at St Leonard’s, Hackney on the 30^th of November 1807.^[24]According to Transcriptions © Society of Genealogists findmypast.co.uk: Charles Girling, aged 42 years (therefore born 1765), was buried on the 30th of November 1807 at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, … Continue reading

Post Script

Hoxton House remained the ‘Naval Lunatic Asylum’ until 1818, when part of the Royal Hospital Haslar, Gosport took responsibility for treating ‘insane’ officers and ratings. Part of the extensive site of Hoxton House has been converted into apartments. The rest of the site is now part of Hackney Community College.