The remarkable life of Thomas Wells

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.

Read John’s article to find out more about Thomas Wells’s remarkable story and where his journey ended: http://historycalroots.com/a-black-soldier-in-scarlet-private-thomas-wells