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Article "German Voices from India : Officers of the Hanoverian Regiments in East India Company Service" by Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Volume 32, Issue 2 August 2009 , pages 189 - 211.Details. Available at the British Library
German soldiers from Dutch East India Company Regiments were recruited into the 1st Madras (European) Fusiliers
Records
Some Catalogue entries for the India Office Records at the British Library are:
- Deputation of Lieutenant John Owen to the Cape of Good Hope to enlist German, Austrian and Polish recruits for the Company's European Regiments IOR/F/4/3/634 Nov 1787-Sep 1796
- Additional allowance granted to Lieutenant John Owen for enlisting German, Austrian and Polish recruits at the Cape of Good Hope in 1796-97. IOR/F/4/74/1609 Aug 1795-Aug 1799
- Complaint of Baron de Reiger alleging ill-treatment of the prisoners of war of the Wurttemberg Regiment at Madras not upheld by the Court of Directors. IOR/F/4/53/1182 Oct 1793-Feb 1798
- Papers regarding the disbandment of the Wurttemberg Company, (includes a Muster Roll of the Company). Memorial of Lieutenant Paul Kellner requesting permission to transfer to the Madras Army. IOR/F/4/183/3685 Jul 1804-Mar 1805
- Question of the pensions and allowances to be granted to the officers of the Swiss Regiment De Meuron (includes lists of officers of the regiment and a copy of the Capitulation of 25 September 1798) IOR/F/4/78/1728 Sep 1798-Apr 1800
- Six months' advance of pay is made to Captain N.J. De Bergeon and Captain Francois Louis Lenn, two officers of the Regiment De Meuron who remained behind in India when the regiment left for Europe. IOR/F/4/234/5396 Jul-Oct 1806
- British Army in India: Nominal and Casualty Rolls of Jager Corps Volunteers IOR/L/MIL/15/31-36 1860-1866
Also see External Links, below
External Links
- This India List thread advises that there were lots of German Regiments in India especially during the 18th Century and until about 1820, including captured Wurttenburgers from the Dutch service who were brought in from South Africa to fight for the EIC. Many references in the India Office records are listed, including the raising of Swiss and Hanoverian Regiments. This India List thread is on similar matters.
- This India List thread mentions the Hanoverian Regiments and this post mentions Swiss regiments
- Hanoverians are mentioned in this link (Archives.org) in 1783.
- This India List thread mentions the Swiss mercenary regiment of De Meuron largely manned by Germans, who were working for the Dutch but who switched sides when the British took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795
- The Wurttemberg Regiment’s German name was the Württembergisches Kapregiment or Cape Regiment Kapregiment Wikipedia written in German and associated Wikimedia.This Rootsweb List post says: Wuerttemberg Kapregiment (the regiment of the Cape of Good Hope) from 1786 to 1808. Duke Carl Eugen of Wuerttemberg formed a regiment of soldiers and sold it to the Dutch to fight as their mercenaries at the Cape. Of the 3,200 men only about 100 men returned home!. This Wikipedia map showing where the Regiment was based, includes Madras.
- In 1860 the 109th Regiment of Foot in India was joined by 500 men of the Jaeger Corps who had volunteered from the Cape Colony (part of South Africa under British Occupation until 1910) for service in India on the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny according to this India List thread. See India Office Records at the British Library, above.
- This India list thread is about Germans in Dutch East India Company regiments in India or the East Indies and advises they were often taken over by the EIC
- The following reference to Germans in the Dutch East Indies is quoted in Janssen’s Indisch Repertorium: Die Deutschen in Niederländisch Indien, door Mr. P.C. Bloys van Treslong Prins, Vortrag gehalten in der Ortsgruppe Batavia am 30. Sept. 1935, Tokyo/Leipzig 1937 (Mitteilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Band XXIX, Teil D).
- This India List post advises that an ancestor came from East Prussia, now Lithuania . Many Germans were Lutherans who did not use the Episcopalian Churches and records were found in Presbyterian registers. Refer Missionary and Non-Conformist Church records. Some Church of Scotland Bombay church records and records for St Andrew's Church of Scotland, Madras may be found in LDS Microfilms of Church registers in India, but it seems the records for St Andrew's Church of Scotland in Calcutta have not been filmed and are only obtainable from the church. Contact the Church of North India, refer Calcutta-Churches and missions. There is a LDS film catalogue entry: 'Parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals, burials, correspondence, etc.), Church of South India, Diocese of Madras, 1743-1990'. The Church of South India (CSI) includes Presbyterians but no specific Presbyterian Registers are listed in the film notes.
- This India List post suggests Lutheran missions as a source of German names. Refer Missionary-Other External Links
- British Library Blog Untold Lives:Missionaries and madams 31 October 2011 and 'Unfortunate' women 7 November 2011. Repatriation of Germans and Austrians during World War 1
- The Swiss in India (German/French language) Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz
- Germany includes German Language and Languages which in turn includes German Word List and Germany Handwriting Guide Family Search (LDS) Wiki