THE DIARY OF COLOUR SERGEANT GEORGE CALLADINE 19TH FOOT 1793-1837

Green cloth covers with totle in gilt to the spine.210 pages. An old water mark darkened the front lower cover. This copy is in very good condition.

Sailing from Ceylon 1814 on the Arniston (wrecked later on the 30th May 1815 on L' Agullas Reef), Calladine landed at Table Bay. Calladine describes in ten pages the week they spent in and around Cape Town.

The diary of George Calladine provides a unique insight into the life of the common soldier in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. Calladine, of Wimeswould, Leicester, was the son of a gardener. His father died when he was young and in his teens he became apprenticed to a framework knitter. Tiring of that he joined the Derbyshire Militia in 1810, where his two brothers had formerly enlisted, and quickly progressed to the 19th Foot, a regiment of the line. His regiment was posted to Ceylon in 1814 and after a six month sea voyage disembarked at Colombo, where they assisted in the suppression of a revolt. Returning to England the regiment was ordered to Ireland in 1821. Calladine, accompanied by his wife and children, was stationed in army barracks mainly in the south of Ireland. The regiment marched regularly from one depôt to another and in this way Calladine got to know the country well. He had the opportunity of travelling to the West Indies in 1826 but preferred to remain in Ireland as a hospital sergeant. (https://www.clarelibrary.ie/)

This is a diary for George Calladine, who served as a Colour-Serjeant for the 19th Foot Infantry. These diary entries are dated from 1793 to 1837, with chapters detailing events from 'Birth' to 'Marches to Hull via Canterbury', 'Sails for Ceylon', and other military escapades. Edited by Major Michael Lloyd Ferrar (1876-1971), who was a British Indian army officer, civil servant, and chief commissioner for the Penal Settlement at Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.