Lieutenant Colonel Macleod leading the 43rd Light Infantry in the Storming of Badajoz on 6th April 1812 in the Peninsular War. By John Augustus Atkinson
More incredible work by super sleuth John Ellis has now identified 500 individual Black soldiers serving in the British and Irish regiments of the Crown between 1715 and 1860. Among them, two individuals who, had they lived to receive the retrospectively awarded Military General Service Medal 1793-1814 in the late 1840s, would have been two of the most decorated veterans of the Light Division. These men and others like them led incredible lives in the service of the British Crown and yet their names are virtually unknown. Read John’s latest article to find out the full story:
John Ellis has written another article for us, this time about the remarkable life of Thomas Wells.
Thomas was born in Trincomalee, in modern day Sri Lanka. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t until I Googled it), Trincomalee is on the North East coast of Sri Lanka. Now (in pre-Covid times), it largely relies on tourism and modern day visitors are advised that among the ‘awesome’ things to do are: visit the nearby beaches; go whale watching; visit Fort Frederik; or visit the Hindu temple, Koneswaram. But in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries it was a major port and naval base and was occupied at various times by competing colonial powers, the Portuguese, the Dutch (from 1619), and British, with the French hovering menacingly too.
Thomas was born in about 1755, a time when the Dutch were in town. The Army records that John used to piece together Thomas’s remarkable story, describe him as ‘a black’ and having a ‘black’ complexion. This strongly suggests that neither parent was white.
“Nearly blind” and “Labourer … black”, one of the references to Thomas Wells’ complexion
We can’t know for sure the circumstances that led Thomas to enlist in the British Army but the records show that he served from 1774 and was still on active service in 1809 (in Nova Scotia!). The regiments Thomas was in saw service in Ireland, North America (during the War of Independence), Bermuda, the Bahamas and Canada. Even after he had been pensioned off from the Army and described as ‘nearly blind’ he still managed to enlist on an East India Company ship for a voyage to China.
Regular contributor, John Ellis, has taken a break from discovering Black sailors at the Battle of Trafalgar, to unearth the sad story of Richard Umhala, the son of an African Prince, who died, aged just 8, in Bradford in 1848. Read John’s article to find out how Richard came to be in Bradford http://historycalroots.com/a-great-favourite-with-both-officers-and-men-richard-umhala-an-african-prince-in-victorian-bradford and why he is buried over 6,000 miles from his birthplace (and, given that Richard would have made much of his journey by sea, the actual distance he traveled would have been far greater).
