The Puddester Collection (Part I)

East India Company, Bengal Presidency, East India Company, brass Recruiting Ticket [1817-33], lion rampant within wreath, wanted fine young men around, rev. east india recruiting departt. around no. 35 soho square london within wreath, edge straight-grained, 24mm, 4.62g/6h (Prid. 397 [Sale, lot 698]). About very fine, scarce £90-£120

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Puddester Collection.

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Collection

P. Snartt (Bristol, UK) Collection
SNC (London) April 1980 (3163), ticket.

Owner’s ticket.

Company recruiting in Great Britain was confined to private soldiers for its artillery and infantry units, apart from a short period during the Mutiny when special European cavalry regiments were raised. Recruiting methods were amongst the first subjects discussed between the Company and the newly created Board of Control in 1784. The Company's efforts had long been hampered by Parliamentary feeling against standing armies and an Act of 1781 had limited the number of recruits who could be held in England awaiting embarkation to 2,000 in time of war and 1,000 in peace time. Although such recruits as were obtained were inspected by a Company's officer and surgeon, and then by a Crown officer, there were frequent complaints from India about the quality of the men provided. After a long agitation, it was agreed that the Company ought to be allowed to follow the same pattern as the Crown's forces. An Act passed in 1799 permitted the Company to train, array, exercise and discipline recruits in England, and to subject them to martial law prior to embarkation and during the voyage to India. As a result, full-time recruiting officers, each with a staff of NCOs, were stationed in London, Liverpool, Dublin and Edinburgh, with additional officers at Cork from 1822, and at Bristol and Newry from 1846. The actual numbers of recruiting sergeants employed varied according to the urgency of the demand. Considering the parallel needs of the British army, it is hardly surprising that the Company always had great difficulty in obtaining sufficient men. For instance, during the season 1819-20, in the wake of the Third Maratha War, 1,354 were embarked, against an estimated deficiency of 4,009, and a good proportion of those who initially enlisted in the various districts were either rejected at the depot on medical grounds, deserted before joining the depot, or bought themselves out. A permanent training depot was first established at Newport, Isle of Wight, in 1801; it moved to Brompton Barracks, Chatham, in March 1815 and then to Warley, near Brentwood in Essex, in May 1843. The London office was located at 35 Soho square between 1817 and 1833 (incidentally, the former home of Gabriel Roberts, governor of Fort William, Calcutta, from 1712 to 1733), when it removed to 28 Soho square; a similar ticket for Liverpool (not in this collection) names a recruiting office located in London road (Withers 2140; Pridmore Sale, lot 698)