It was indeed a stroke of great luck that Saria, the Zante Magazine Editor, contacted me while researching the headstones from the British cemetery, after finding my blog entry related to William Gutridge of the 11th (North Devonshire) Regiment of Foot.

I am descended from five members of that battalion, which was stationed in Australia in the 1840’s and 1850’s, and several stayed there. While knowing little of the 11th Regiment I learned from a death certificate of an ancestor Sebastian Hodge that he was a soldier born ‘off the Isle of Zante, Mediterranean’. Regiments were tight knit; Sebastian’s father William had served in the 11th, and he in turn married the daughter of yet another member of the 11th, William Gutridge. To reinforce the intimate nature of a Regiment, Sebastian ultimately married the daughter of another member William Smith, whose wife was also the daughter of a member of the regiment, Robert Morrison!

One of the reasons that headstones are so important is that there are few other records available for deceased members of British regiments. Only a few birth, death and marriage records for members of regiments stationed in the Mediterranean exist, and records of regimental troops are mainly tied to those who obtained a pension on leaving the service. So if they died in service, no such record was created for them.

Given that it is so hard to trace these globetrotting regimental men, I knew very little of William Gutridge.  All I knew was that his daughter Mary had married William Hodge on Levkas (Santa Maura)  in 1832, and when Mary died in remote Gundagai NSW in 1877 her second husband gave her father’s name as William Gutteridge (note the incorrect spelling), a soldier. More information than this I could not track down until Saria contacted me with a picture of William’s headstone on Zante.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

SERT WILLIAM GUTRIDGE

LATE OF THE 11TH REGT OF FOOT

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON

19TH DAY OF DECR 1833 AGED 51 YEARS

THIS STONE WAS ERECTED BY THE

NON COMMISSIONED OFFICERS OF

THE ABOVE REGT AS A TOKEN OF TH

EIR ESTEEM FOR A COMRADE WHO

HAD SERVED A PERIOD OF 27 YEARS

MOSTLY ON THE CONTINANT WITH

THE REGT AND WAS ENGAGED WITH

THEM AT THE UNDERMENTIONED

PLACED VIZ.-

AT SALAMANCA PIRENEES NIVELLE

NIVE ORTHES TOULOUSE

Note the small ‘GE’ appended to ‘GUTRID’ – the mason clearly ran out of room! It is remarkable that the headstone exists at all. The dates on the headstone suggest that William was born about 1782 and joined the 11th Regiment of Foot in 1806.

Saria pointed out to me “…Gutridge died in December and here on the island it feels bitterly cold with the damp, some days there's no let-up, it rains heavily and continuously.  No doubt, they lived in town near the castle close to the sea, which, in winter takes a battering from storms.  A deep mist can sit for days over the flat plains viewed easily from the castle perimeter." It is easy to imagine how disease could spread readily, and sickness could linger, under such conditions.

Of the 11th Regiment’s activities in the Mediterranean, I know that they were stationed in Portugal from mid 1827.  The following year on 11th March 1828, they were ordered to Corfu, arriving eleven days later.  In 1829, the companies were constructing the road from Corfu Town.  According to a contemporary report ‘Twelve kilometers out of town, the troops carved an inscription on the rock to register the fact that it was the work of the men of the Eleventh Regiment of Foot’.

The Regiment moved to Levkas on January 10th 1831, staying one year before the headquarters and three companies moved to Zante.  On New Year’s Day 1835, the Regimental strength was reported at 11 officers, 33 senior NCOs and 279 regular forces on Zante, along with 14 women and 33 children. Most members of a regiment were not married, and few were given permission for their wives and family to accompany them.  It was also noted that the regiment was under-strength. Of the total roll, 498 regular forces in the 11th had between 7 and 21 years’ service – reflected in the headstone of Gutridge who fought in the Peninsular war. A summary of nationalities from the same report is also interesting - 60 Privates were English, 18 were Scottish and 339 were Irish. Given that the 11th was the North Devonshire Regiment, this may seem surprising; however, British regiments relied heavily on recruitment in Ireland.

The history of the 11th also notes that ‘an average of twenty hospital admissions each month took place on Zante’ and that in December 1834 about forty people from the Regiment were dispatched to England for a ‘change of climate’.

The Regiment remained in Zante until June 1835, when they returned to Corfu, and left Corfu in January 1838 for Gibraltar (thence Canada for almost two years).

I think this cemetery is very important, both as a monument for those who served, and as a historical record to those who gave their lives in the line of their duties.

Matthew Hall

http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/