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Have just discovered that a fellow researcher has a medal for William Sanders Davis showing he was an armoury sergent 98th Foot in China in 1842.He was born in Birmingham 30.11.1820 & was back there in 1847 when he married Sarah Ann Cook.
He died Coleshill Warwicks 1902.
Would be grateful for any info about his army career.
Marion

Nothing showing yet.
Just for quick info:
98th Regiment of Foot
Stations:1837 England
1841 4th November - Regiment to proceed to China in lieu of relieving the 87th Regt. at Mauritius.
1842 China Arrived Hong Kong 5th June 1842.
Embarked for Calcutta 21st July 1846.
1846 India
1848 Sikh War

Thanks for that Patchem.
Don´t think he went to India with his regiment because he married in Birmingham in Sept 1847 & it would have been a long way to come on leave.
The other info is great.
tried googling the regiment, but couldn´t find anything very helpful. Have looked on the medals awards on Ancestry too, but there are dozens of William Davis´s so difficult to pinpoint him without a middle name or initial.

If his service records have survived they should be on FindmyPast.

Also, you can restrict the search for the medal on Ancestry by Campaign and/or Regiment, although there are lots of mistakes!

Thanks Ann
Don´t have access to FMP.
Perhaps some kind person could have a look for me.,
Have looked on Ancestry, but even stating the regiment, there´s no real way of identifying him & I have a picture of his medal so the info from Ancestry wouldn´t really help.
Marion

There is this one: ??

British Army Service Records 1760-1915

First name(s): William
Last name: DAVIS
Calculated year of birth: 1821
Parish of birth: Birmingham
Town of birth: Birmingham
County of birth: Warwickshire
Age at attestation: 17 years 9 months
Attestation date: 5 March 1838
Attestation corps:
Attestation soldier number:
Discharge rank: Private
Discharge corps: 24th Foot
Discharge soldier number: 1615

The National Archives reference: WO97 / 435 / 15

I will see if I can find anything useful in the images.

Dea x

Don't think this is him - he stayed in the Army until 1844, spent most of his time imprisoned for Burglary, Larceny etc and was of 'Bad Character'.

No mention of serving abroad, and he appeared to stay in the 24th Foot.

Dea x

Thanks Dea.
No he was definitely an armoury sergeant with the 98th & came from a long line of soldiers.
Un fortunately the picture of his badge is not very clear & there´s no service number on it.
Marion

Just found William on the 1841 at the Army barracks, Chatham.
His brother George is with him, but presumably didn´t go to China as he married in London in 1844.

Please can anyone with FMP access have a look for me?

Marion

If you've had no offers to search FMP you can also search the National Archives online catalogue to see if there are any discharge papers for him. Surviving records for those discharged up to 1854, as he apparently was, are name indexed in their catalogue. You can see if he's there, and if so, hopefully you can pinpoint the actual record on FMP. Just put his name into the TNA Catalogue search and use WO97 as the record to be searched. You can narrow down results by entering Davis AND 98th into the search (the word AND must be in capitals).

I doubt whether his service records have survived as at this time they were only really kept for those discharged to pension. Sounds as though he wasn't in the Army for long enough to be eligible for a pension for length of service, although if he was invalided out he may have got a pension. Not all service records, even for those with pensions have survived anyway!

I wondered why I couldn't find him in the Medal Rolls on Ancestry. Whilst I was at the National Archives today I had a look at a book about Medals/Medal rolls and found out that there are very few medal rolls for this medal, and none for the 98th Foot.

Muster Rolls at the National Archives would be the best way to find out about where he was and when. They're not online though - you would need to go there or get someone to go for you.

Thanks Annielaurie.
Will have a look when I have a bit of me time.
Searching from abroad is never easy. When I lived in England I managed a trip to Kew & was lucky enough to find the discharge papers for William´s father after the Napoleonic Wars. Brilliant.
Looks like all the sons were in the army at some point & were gunmakers by trade, although William, after 3 wives & about 10 kids ended up as a publican. Not much difference!!