As an example of why it’s worth checking these pension documents, this is what I found out from the John Boels discharge papers: John Bowles, Private, 5 foot, 5 ¾ inches tall, fair hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, by trade a labourer, born Carlow. He first enlisted in the 83 Foot Regiment on July 26, 1808 at age 19 and served for 4 years and 276 days until he was discharged at Danbury on April 28, 1813 “due to a fractured right leg and is considered unfit for further service”. A separate note added to the paper states that he fractured his leg by a fall from a horse while on furlough. He was on pension from Apr. 29, 1813 to Oct. 2, 1815 when he enlisted in the 2nd Royal Veterans Battery in which he served for 128 days until he was discharged at Harwich barracks Jan. 31, 1816. This added 3 pence per year to his pension. After discharge he was to reside in Leicester. On Aug. 25, 1819 in Cork he enlisted in the 4th Royal Veterans as a Drummer and served until Nov. 25, 1820. On the same day as his discharge he was “paid 1 pound, 13 shillings and 7 pence for a 31 day march from Ayr in North Britain to Leicester.” If the details about his life were not interesting enough, the fact that he ended up in Leicester after his service could lead to a whole new profitable line of research. Tom