Chelsea Pensioners' records

I've also puzzled over the administrative details implied by the records of out-pensions found in the Chelsea lists, like Peter in the mid-December newsletter.

They must have received their money from a pay office, and I think these were part of the army's territorial structure. I presume this would also deal with reserves, recruitment, and other interactions with the home population (e.g. billeting and transport).

I have a record with a column headed "district 1865", in which are entries such as:
1 No London
2 West London
1 Belfast
2 Plymouth
1 East London
1 E[squiggle] London

From that I conclude that the numbers are for places with more than one district office, and abbreviating East London to 1 E and L each with a vague squiggle after it produces what is in Peter's example.

 

I've never found a guide to the meaning of these pension records. One thing I was puzzled about in the list I quoted is that these pensions have a fixed term of two years or less (though some have no duration entered). I asked an expert I found at an FH fair about that, and he didn't know either. It makes the pension look more like a grant for resettlement back in civilian life, even for someone who was assessed as disabled.

For example, poor old private Walter Davey - for whom I have the discharge board papers as well as the payment ledger - was assessed thus (his primary affliction was scrofula):

He is at present totally unfit for military service. His disability will interfere materially with his capability of earning a livelihood. It has to a certain extent been aggravated by venereal disease.

He got 7d a day for 21 months - but I don't know what happened to him after discharge.

On rates of payment, having checked up on service pay, that was 12d a day for a private in 1800 and still only 14d in 1914. Pay rates and service were always reckoned per day. Half the pensions on that list were 6d, 7d, or 8d, which sounds about right per day. The rest were higher, which would be for those of higher rank when discharged, I think.

 

there is a Chelsea Pensioners website. As yet I haven't looked beyond the first page where it explains where they were /are paid from and where records can be found.