The Final Letter – #13 – Transcript – 24 July 1798

#13 Addressed to Mr. Henry Hirst, Grocer, Heptonstalll, Halifax, Yorkshire, South Britain Gibraltar 24th July 1798 Honor’d Father & Mother I once more take the opportunity of writing to you but with great concern I do assure you, for I have writ to you several times and can never receive any answer to my letters,...

Gibraltar 1797 – “The worst place a soldier can lay in”

It is September, 1797. William Hirst has been stationed in Gibraltar for well over a year. He clearly hates being there. What kind of place is it really? Would it be any better with a wife at his side? Gibraltar I always thought Gibraltar was an island but it is actually an isthmus extending out...

Sailing immediately – William Hirst at sea on The Coverdale

Three months in England – without ever seeing his Wife, Child, or “Honour’d Father and Mother” – and William Hirst is once again aboard ship in Portsmouth “sailing immediately” to Gibraltar. He tells us the name of the vessel I am in is the Coverdale of London, and the other two belonging to out Regiment...

Procure me a [rich] Friend to lay down money for my Discharge

By Richard Simkin - Epochs of the British Army by Lt. Col. H. S. Spalding. London: W. H. Allen, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8863900 After 3 years in the Army poor William Hirst is now desperate to get out. Why? Is it even possible? I shall never be happy or content in my mind though I had...

William Hirst’s (Not So) Great Escape!

So “after being Prisoner 20 Months and 19 Days in France” William Hirst along with 49 others has escaped! How did this happen? We know from an earlier post on this blog that the French Revolutionary Wars have brought a shift in the conventions governing the detention, exchange, and classification of prisoners. The “cartel” system...

With Lord Darbouville at Present … but where is that for our Private William Hirst?

Things usually go from bad to worse for William Hirst. I am with Lord Darbouville at Present, Victualling in the house, etc. William Hirst – 2 July 1795 He is now a French Prisoner of War being held in the “house” of “Lord Darbouville” and working for him. But maybe he has not landed so...

I have been as well off as a Prisoner of War can expect

I would not have you be any way uneasy on my Account as I have been well of [sic] as a Prisoner of War can expect. William Hirst - 2 July 1795 William Hirst, who like Tiny Tim did NOT die, is now a Prisoner of War. What happened in the almost 20 months between...

Poor William Hirst – Sick and alone in the General Hospital of Tournay, 1793

In today's post, we look back from 2020, where we are in the midst of a pandemic crisis ourselves, to 1793 only to find our poor Private William Hirst sick and alone in the General Hospital of Tournay. https://www.statnews.com/2017/10/18/health-care-politics-aca/ I have been 6 Weeks in the General Hospital in this Town in the Fever and...

Ah, the twists and turns of trying to understand the motivations of our letter writer, William Hirst

In today's Guest Post Douglas Fyfe explores why William Hirst - or a young man of any century - might choose to go to war. In my last post I argued that William Hirst was likely an officer and not a member of the rank and file. He was literate, interested in mercantile matters, able...

You’re in the Army now, Mr Hirst!

Today's post is written by Douglas Fyfe, longtime friend and colleague, in response to William Hirst's Letter 2 - 12 March 1793. The more we know, the more we want to know - with the biggest question being why would he ever join? Mary Tivy’s useful link to the Flanders campaign does point to the...