German

Article German Voices from India : Officers of the Hanoverian Regiments in East India Company Service by Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, South Asia, 32:2 (2009), 189-211. Publisher: University of Western Australia Press; Carfax; Routledge. ISSN 00856401. ISSN (electronic) 14790270 from RHS Bibliography

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

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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• This India List postadvises that an ancestor came from East Prussia, now Lithuania . Many Germans were Lutherans who did not use the Episcpalian Churches and records were found in Presbyterian registers. Refer Missionary and Non-Conformist Church records. 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. Apart from this possible source,it appears Presbyterian records which have not been included in the India Office Ecclesiastical records, are only available at the church in India.