Russian dolls in Chelsea

I was working in London back then so there was no need for me to take a day off to go to Chelsea and the army museum. Although it took something like half an hour to get there from the office, I reckoned that as I was the boss I could extend my lunch hour occasionally and stretch it to two hours. And that is what I did. And then my search became something like those Russian dolls: every time I thought I had answered one question I found that I had unwittingly posed another.

At the museum's library I discovered the Army List, a book published annually and containing lists of army officers and their regiments, the places that the regiments were stationed and so on. Now, the earlier sketchbook - which was apparently started in July 1826 and covers the years from then until 1832 - is inscribed "H Jervis 62nd Regt", while the later book is inscribed "H Jervis Lieut 62nd Regt" and was started in May 1833. But the Army List for the years 1826 to 1835 (the date of the last sketch) had no record of an officer named Jervis serving with the 62nd Regiment, although I did find him listed under the 72nd Regiment in the list for each of those years. And by the time he started on the second book, Lieut Jervis had been promoted to Major - yet he still inscribed the book as a Lieutenant.

So, I turned back to the first book and worked my way through them all again looking at where the 62nd and 72nd Regiments were posted in those years, thinking that this would confirm with which regiment he was serving. You've guessed it - neither regiment was stationed in any of the places shown in the sketchbooks at the time of the sketches!

(I should perhaps add that by now I was on my umpteenth visit to Chelsea.)

It was then that I spotted that another regiment (I think it was the 73rd, but I have mislaid my notes) appeared to have been stationed at the places sketched by Jervis at much the same time as he claimed to have been there.

So Henry Jervis seemed to think he was with the 62nd Regiment, while the Army thought he was with the 72nd, and yet he was in the same places as the 73rd! What's more, he seems to have overlooked his promotion - and he even overlooked a medal he was awarded while serving in Africa with the 72nd although at the time he earned the medal in Africa he was sketching in India!!