This 84-page volume contains orders, muster rolls, and supplementary material concerning the operations of the British Army's 15th Regiment of Foot in June 1841. The volume originally belonged to an officer stationed with the regiment, and it contains 8 pages of orders issued by Lieutenant Colonel Lord Charles Wellesley in June 1841. Wellesley's orders pertain to the division of the regiment's companies into smaller squads, specify requirements for personnel records, and provide a list of drill movements to be performed by each squad. The orders are followed by a roster of members of the 2nd Squad of the regiment's 1st Company: a 22-page printed chart filled out in manuscript, followed by a 15-page roster with the same format, written entirely in manuscript. The roster includes information about each member of the unit, including his name, age at enlistment, height and weight, birthplace, trade, level of literacy, religion (Catholic or Protestant), and marital status; it also provides space for additional remarks, often used to record promotions, discharges, deaths, transfers, or the number and ages of children. The next 8 pages (bound into the volume) contain printed instructions for non-commissioned officers, including discussions of officers' duties, procedures and regulations concerning the formation of companies, and information about guards and barracks.
Other portions of the book record specific orders for the regiment to proceed to Fareham, blank handwritten grids for the names of men to be disciplined or promoted, and lists of duties for orderly sergeants and orderly corporals. The volume also contains a list of daily drill procedures, a diagram of a "Complete Kit laid out," and the light marching order.
Lord Charles Wellesley was born in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, on January 16, 1808, the second son of Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) and Catherine Pakenham. He joined the British Army in 1824 and served with the 15th Regiment of Foot, of which he became Lieutenant Colonel on July 13, 1838. After spending time in Canada in the early 1840s, the regiment returned to England, where it was stationed in the summer of 1841. Wellesley served with the regiment until March 1845, and ascended to the rank of major general in 1856. He served in the House of Commons as MP for Hampshire from 1842-1852, and as MP for Windsor from 1852-1855. He married Augusta Sophia Anne Pierrepont (b. 1820) on July 9, 1844; they had two daughters and two sons. Lord Charles Wellesley died on October 9, 1858.
