History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, Volume 1 (of 2): From the Formation of the Corps in March 1712 to the date when its designation was changed to that of Royal EngineersConnolly, T. W. J. (Thomas William John)
History
History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, Volume 1 (of 2): From the Formation of the Corps in March 1712 to the date when its designation was changed to that of Royal Engineers
Connolly, T. W. J. (Thomas William John)
Great Britain. Army. Royal Sappers and Miners
Chambers joined the company 21st September, 1772, from the 2nd
Regiment of Foot, in which he had served two years. In 1791 he was
promoted to be sergeant-major, on the discharge of Ince. In the summer
of 1796 he was sent to Woolwich in a deranged state of mind, and on
the 1st December of that year was discharged. Soon afterwards he was
domiciled in a madhouse, where, his malady increasing, he was—it has
been reported—smothered according to the cruel practice then in vogue
with regard to incurable cases.
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Footnote 29:
Woodhead joined the company 16th May, 1774, from the 12th Regiment, in
which he had served seven years and a quarter. In November, 1791, he
was promoted to be sergeant, and was discharged 17th July, 1807, on a
pension of 2_s._ 7_d._ a-day, after a service of upwards of forty
years. At Gibraltar he was found to be invaluable in the construction
and repairs of the sea-line wall. He possessed a good share of
intelligence; was a strong, portly, blustering mason, and well adapted
for the heavy and laborious duties for which he was always selected.
At Woolwich he was the military foreman of masons for many years, and
was intrusted by Captain Hayter, then Commanding Royal Engineer, with
the building of the wharf wall in the Royal Arsenal—a work highly
creditable to the Engineer Department, and to Woodhead as the
executive overseer.
Footnote 30:
Afterwards anglicised to Anthony Francis, was wounded by a shell at
Willis’s. He and his brother Dominick were natives of Portugal, and
the only foreigners in the company. Antonio was a Catholic; and as it
was desired to preserve the Protestant character of the corps, a
simple but effectual plan was taken to win his adherence to the Church
of England. He asked leave to be married. The indulgence was refused
unless he became a Protestant. _La Fiancée_ was also a Catholic; but
as a great event in their lives—which promised them no end of
happiness—was likely to be indefinitely postponed by a stubborn
acquiescence to a creed for which, probably, they felt but little
interest, both renounced the belief of their fathers, and were married
as members of the national faith. Their family were baptized and
educated as Protestants, but the old man on his death-bed, returned to
Mother-Church and died a Catholic. Three of his sons, now old men,
fill comfortable appointments at Gibraltar. Their cousins, merchants
at the Rock, own the plain called the “Spanish Race-course,” above a
mile beyond the Lines. One, Mr. Francis Francia, is British Consul at
San Roque. Midway between the village of Campo and the consulate
stands his farm, which is cultivated with enlightened taste, and
enriched with rare exotics in fruits and flowers.—Kelaart’s Botany and
Topography of Gibraltar and its neighbourhood, pp. 179, 183.
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1782-1783.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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