Gunner and Driver James McLeish
By Morag T Fyfe
There were two burials in the Necropolis on 22nd December 1846 the second of which was that of James McLeish who died from inflammation at the age of 41 and was buried by his son in a common grave in compartment Iota. In the burial register he is described as “late of the 4th Battn Royal Artillery, out pensioner @ 6d per diem”. No likely candidate could be found for James in the 1841 census of Glasgow but the information from the burial register was sufficient to allow his surviving service record (TNA WO97/1248/93) to be identified and the following is based on that.
James McLeish Burial Register
His service record shows James as being born in the parish of Larbert, Stirlingshire 1805/6 though it seems likely that he was already working in Glasgow as a farrier when he enlisted there in the Royal Regiment of Artillery (RA) on 25th June 1823 aged 18. He served in the 4th Battalion, RA for 123/4 years as a gunner and driver until discharged in January 1836. Almost half of his service was spent on the Ile de France (Mauritius) but his records do not say when that was.
Prior to his discharge James went before a medical board of four surgeons at the Royal Ordnance Hospital, Woolwich on 7th December 1835 and as a result was declared to be permanently disqualified for military duty by reason of diseased enlargement of the testicles and permanent injury of the left thumb.
The report of the board survives and relates how he was injured in a riding accident near Dublin in May 1833 and sent to the hospital attached to the artillery barracks at Islandbridge, Dublin. He continued to perform his normal duties but by August 1834 he was unable to ride due to enlarged testicles. Later in 1834 an accidental explosion of a gun resulted in him dislocating his left thumb and a year later he had not regained full use of it.
On his discharge he seems to have returned to Glasgow while he was enrolled as an out pensioner of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea on 13th January 1836 at a rate of 6d per day, as stated in the burial register. Thanks to the hospital records we know that James died on 20th December 1846.
Islandbridge Barracks were renamed Clancy Barracks after independence and sold off in 2001 after almost 200 years in military use. Below (on the right) is the existing Artillery Stores as photographed in 2010 before redevelopment.
Islandbridge Barracks were renamed Clancy Barracks after independence
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