Thank you to Peter and Patrick for your suggestions. I'd never heard of the Royal Sailors' Home, but it makes perfect sense. Do you think they might have kept records of residents? I have tried googling it, but so far without any success (other than confirming that it exists, of course!). Patrick, your suggestion regarding "band transfers" is very interesting. The band master on HMS Inconstant was Andrea Teseo and I thought that such an unusual name would be easy to track down and might give me a lead. However, it turns out he died in 1883. I haven't yet managed to establish whether or not he had gone to the army before that, but I suspect not given that his (Teseo's) medal roll records are annotated "D.D." with an '83 date, suggesting to me that he died in service. I have often wondered what William Oliver played. (There is a lot of music, much of it brass, in the family.) Does anybody know what a naval band would have consisted of at that time? I don't suppose there's any way of finding out what instrument he actually played, but does anybody have any suggestions of where I might try looking? Regards, Sian.