Joseph Greenock's Military Career

Joseph Greenock (1790-?), my fourth great-grandfather, had a long and distinguished military career in the Napoleonic era, the time of Richard Sharpe and Horatio Hornblower. My great-grandfather John Greenock believed that the official records somehow omitted 15 years of Joseph's service, not to mention four missing engagements that Joseph himself complained about.

Quoting The Greenock Record:

I never learned anything of our Great Grandfathers private life but am reasonable sure that there was a separation or as you term it a skeleton in the closet. On receiving his medal and bars he in anger returned it to the medal department saying if you cannot give me the four bars for other engagements I do not want it he never saw it again for on its return he had passed on 1848. The medal and its bars are of silver and is known as The “Victoria,” inscribed on the rim Joseph Greenock 94th Foot, time of service 1793-1814. The bars are inscribed as follows. Toulouse. Orthes. Nive. Nivelle. Pyrennes. Vittoria. Ciudad Rodrico. Salamanca. Badajoz. Fuentes D’oner. Historians record that Badajoz was the bloodiest battle Britain ever fought. It seems miraculous fourteen major engagements and no injuries suffered as far as I know. A search was made through the medal department for a record of his enlistments. The following was received from The Public Record Office under date of June 12th 1934. Reference No. 1561. Private Joseph Greenock joined with the 94th Foot during April, 1808, date not shown. He embarked for Spain and Portugal, Jan 1810. To France July 1813. To Ireland, 1814. Discharged at Wexford, Feb 3rd 1815, no other enlistment. No information regarding his birth, parentage, relatives, marriage or children can be found. The regiment only took part in the engagements for which he was awarded the ten bars to his Peninsular War Medal. He did say the last few years of his army service was the hardest. There may be a reason for this you will note fifteen years of service missing 1793-1808-1814. What has become of the fifteen years the four other engagements.

A little later, John Greenock indulges in a little conspiracy theorizing:

Great Grandmother Greenock, nee Baird. To the best of my knowledge I never heard Grandfather, Uncle Joseph, Father or Aunt Jemima, mention her name. As I am still of the opinion that a separation has taken place and did she later marry the Army officer who afterwards became The Adjutant of the British Army. Did he in his official capacity remove or cause to be erased all records relative to the fifteen years of service. The four other engagements the record of Grandfathers birth. Also her marriage and all records relative to the Greenock family prior to 1808.

As far as I can tell Joseph Greenock's wife was Elizabeth Callandar (1791-?), not Baird. There was an Elizabeth Baird in the family, but she's John's great-grandmother on the maternal side (i.e. the mother of his grandmother, not the mother of his grandfather). It is also perhaps worth noting that the widow of a shoemaker marrying the Adjutant of the British Army would be a spectacular change in fortunes.

If I understand it correctly, John Greenock was under the impression that Joseph Greenock had served from 1793-1814, but for some reason all the records only show service from 1808 onwards. If that were correct, then Joseph would have been born around 1775. His oldest son William was born in 1817, so that would mean that Joseph was about 42 when he started having kids. Not impossible, but definitely unusual. Clearly his wife would likely have been much younger than him, especially since more children came afterward.

I'm not sure where John Greenock got the idea that Joseph served 1793-1814, but there are two possibilities. First, the medal Joseph received for his service (more below) had that date range embossed on it, because it covered conflicts over that entire period. In addition, 1793-1814 is approximately the period that this incarnation of the 94th Regiment existed as a unit.

Let's review the documents we have concerning Joseph Greenock's service. First is the Register of Service.

From the Canada & British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900
94th Foot Soldiers, 1815-1820

The facing page. Joseph Greenock is the last line.

Name: Greenock, Joseph
Size

• At Enlistment: 5' 7"
• At 24 years of age: 5' 7 1/2"

Age at Enlistment: 18
Description

• Complexion: Fresh
• Eyes: Hazel
• Hair: Black
• Form of Visage: Oval

Where Born

• County, City or Town: Linlithgow
• Parish: Linlithgow

Trade or Occupation: Shoemaker
Date of Promotion:None
Discharged

• Date: 3 Feb 1815
• At what Place: Wexford
• On what Account: First period of service having expired

Observations: 131 days under Age

From the discharge papers below, it appears that a soldier's pension was based on the time served after the age of 18, which is I suppose why they noted the days served under age. But given that, and the enlistment date of January 31, 1808 (also noted below), it looks like Joseph's birthday might be around June 10, 1790.

Next we have a record of Campaign Medals, which includes the engagements in which Joseph Greenock was officially recorded as having participated.

Military Campaign Medals and Award Rolls, 1793-1949
Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815

Name and Rank: Greenock, Joseph, Private
Regiment in which the Claimants formerly served: 94th Foot
Battles and Sieges at which the presence of each Claimant has been verified by the board: Fuentes d'Onoro, Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse.

John Greenock notes that the regiment had ten official engagements during the period, two of which are not included among Joseph's engagements: Pyrenees and Battle of the Nive. The regiment's Wikipedia page shows a total of four additional engagements, all during Joseph's time in the unit: the defense of Cadiz, the Battle of Sabugal, the Siege of Burgos, and the Battle of the Nive. "Pyrenees" might refer to one of the first three battles. Perhaps these were the four engagements Joseph felt were missing from his medal? Looking around the award roll, I found some other members of the 94th Foot Regiment who had been recognized for Pyrenees and Nive, so at least those engagements were missing from Joseph's record.

The Military General Service Medal,
in this case with five bars. Image courtesy of
The Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0.

Based on what John Greenock wrote, it appears that after Joseph Greenock refused his medal, it was returned in 1848. At that point it had 10 bars, but only 8 were listed in the record of Campaign Medals above. So perhaps the Army did ultimately compromise.

Like anything else, you can find these Military General Service Medals for sale online. As I write this, it appears that medals with 5 or 6 clasps are asking $5,000 or more, so Joseph Greenock's 10-clasp medal must be quite valuable.

Joseph would later re-enlist in the 25th Regiment. His service was summarized in his discharge.

Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920

His Majesty's Own Borderers
Depot 25th Regiment of Infantry
Whereof General the Honorable Charles FitzRoy is Colonel.
These are to Certify,

I. Age and Enlistment

THAT Private Joseph Greenock born in the parish of Linlithgow in or near the Town of Linlithgow in the County of Linlithgow was enlisted for the aforesaid Regiment at Edinburgh in the County of Edinburgh on the 1st day of April 1815 at the Age of Twenty-Six years for Unlimited Service.

II. Service

THAT he hath served in the Army for the space of 18 Years and 225 Days, after the Age of Eighteen, according to the subjoined.

In What Corps	Period of Service		Private
	From	To
94th Regiment	31st January 1808	3rd Feb 1815	7 years 4 days
25th Regiment	1st April 1815	7 Nov 1826	11 years 221 days
Total of Service			18 years 225 days

III. Authority and Cause of Discharge.
THAT by Authority of His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief dated 3rd October 1826 HE IS HEREBY DISCHARGED in consequence of Varicose Veins + (illegible).

IV. Not disqualified for Pension.
THAT he is not, to my knowledge, incapacitated by the Sentence of a General Court-Martial from receiving Pension.

V. Character, etc, etc, etc.
THAT his General Conduct as a Soldier has been good.

VI. Settlement of all Demands.
THAT he has received all just Demands of Pay, Clothing, etc, from his Entry into the Service to the date of his discharge, as appears by his Receipt underneath.

VII. Acknowledgement of the Receipt of all Demands.
I Joseph Greenock do hereby acknowledge that I have received all my Clothing, Pay, Appears of Pay, and all just Demands whatsoever from the time of my Entry into the Service to the time of this discharge.

Certified by (unreadable) lieut, Commanding the Troop or Company.
Signature of the soldier Joseph Greenock

VIII. Description, etc, etc, etc.
TO prevent any improper use being made of this Discharge, by its falling into other Hands, the following is a Description of the said Private Joseph Greenock. He is about thirty seven Years of Age, is 5 Feet 7 3/4 Inches in height, Brown Hair, Hazel Eyes, Fresh Complexion, and by Trade or Occupation a Shoemaker.

Given under my Hand, and the Seal of the Regiment, etc, etc, etc.

So after 18 years of military service he had varicose veins, but at least retained his fresh complexion.

This document, executed in 1826, is clear about his age being about 37, which puts his birth year around 1790.

Joseph Greenock and Elizabeth Callandar were married in Glasgow in February 1816, shortly after he enlisted in the 25th Regiment. Their first child William was baptized in Weedon Bec in 1817. The couple is listed as living in the barracks, and Joseph's "Trade or Profession" is listed as "Corporal 25th Reg of Foot".

John Greenock thought that his grandfather, Joseph and Elizabeth's son John, was born around 1814 in Ireland. That would be roughly consistent with Joseph being discharged in Ireland in 1815, but it's before the marriage. This John appeared in at least five census reports, and always reported a birth year of around 1819 (calculated from his reported age), but a birthplace of Ireland. I can find several reports indicating that the 25th Regiment was quartered in Ireland around this time, but nothing with specific years. Surely that exists somewhere online? In any case, the rough outline of events appears plausible.


All of this appears consistent, so I think it's reasonable to conclude that Joseph was born around 1790, enlisted in 1808, and might have had a legitimate grievance about not being recognized for some of the engagements in which he served. But there was, alas, no grand conspiracy to erase his records prior to 1808, and most likely no sinister but lucrative second marriage for Elizabeth.