The 1831 and 1832 Army Lists
The War Office
This is the War Office’s own copy of the Army List for 1831 and 1832. These lists were produced by the government to help the British Army’s huge administration needs and they have become invaluable to researchers who wish to trace regimental movements, officers’ careers and far more besides.
I have digitised this particular Army List because it has a large number of handwritten notes within it and is marked to Sir John Hobhouse himself, the Secretary at War. These notes show things that I believe might have been hitherto lost so I present them here for further research.
Hobhouse was a reformer and he set about tackling the Army’s pensions and sinecures, the infamous ‘dead list’ and flogging.
The extensive, handwritten notes and codes are to be found on many of the pages, along with full counts of the cavalry, the Foot Guards, the infantry of the line (and so on) for Great Britain, Ireland, the East Indies and all of the other foreign stations. There are also pasted-in sections with further information, references to officers’ pay at the close of what is presumed to be the First Anglo-Ashanti War, and notes regarding deceased, promoted and retired officers.
This is clearly a comprehensive record of administrative concerns for the British Army and the handwritten additions perfectly tie in with the nature of Sir John Hobhouse’s tenure as Secretary at War.
I hope this gallery proves useful.
If you’d to know more about Army Lists and Hart’s Lists then I wrote an article for Patreon which is available here and if you need further details or images of the book then please get in touch.
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