So what do we know of William’s service?

A description of the 28^th Regiment of the Foot can be found here.

It would appear that William served with the 2^nd Battalion the North Gloucestershire which became known as the Glorious Glosters. They were formed on 25^th December 1804 (the year he enlisted) in Plymouth. 

In 1805 they served in Ireland and in 1809 onwards in Portugal and Spain and details can be found in the attached 

The battle at Barrosa which is just outside Cadiz in Spain where they defeated the French is well explained and as you can see it was on the day (5^th March 1811) that William was shot. Details of this battle can be found here and here . 

So I am not the first member of the family to be in Spain. I was beaten by William who was here nearly 200 years ago! 

So what of his second smaller service with the Eighth Royal Veteran Battalion ? 

This had been disbanded on 10^th July 1814 and reformed as the Second Royal Veteran Battalion. However in May 1815 the Eighth was re-formed from out-pensioners under 55 years who had served less than 24 years in the cavalry or 21 years in the infantry, and who had been discharged as privates.  More detailed information can be found on this link .   

It is recorded that on 5th June 1815 (the date he re-enlisted) the Battalion embarked at Deptford and went to Jersey in the Channel Islands. Not sure why but presumably to do with the Napoleonic War and as stated they were disbanded a year later. 

As will be described later two of his sons, John and James, followed their father into the army, where John was a bit of a handful as you will see.