NDFHS

The former seamen mentioned in this index have been extracted from the Report of The Committee Appointed to Inquire into The Present System of Management of Greenwich Hospital and Schools, which was presented to the House of Commons in 1868 and published the same year. The Committee sat for twenty days between 11 July 1867 and 7 January 1868, and received evidence from 25 individuals (see page ii). These were mainly responsible for the management of Greenwich Hospital and the estates which provided its income, but they included senior officers from the Admiralty and clerics and doctors responsible for the spiritual and earthly welfare of all Royal Navy seamen.

The report mentions almost 1,500 individuals who underwent a medical examination and who were found to be unfit for service in the year 1866. These medicals (or surveys as they are referred to in the report) took place at Haslar Hospital, Woolwich Marine Infirmary, Chatham Marine Infirmary, Plymouth Hospital, and Haulbowline Hospital. The index notes the name of the patient, their rating (AB - Able Bodied, Ordinary, Gunner, etc.), name of the ship last served on (or last land posting), pension number, period of service in years and days, the date of the medical, the nature of the complaint, and a page reference to the report. Additional details included in the report note the amount of the pension, the term for which it was granted, the occasional remark on character, and sometimes date of death. What the report does not tell us is the place or county of origin of the seamen, but I assume that they came from all four corners of the British Isles.

Among the many appendices to the report are a few which list personnel connected with Greenwich Hospital and its schools in 1868, only one of which, appendix 21, has been indexed here as a supplement to the main index.

Three more supplementary indexes from the appendices follow this. Appendix 31 is a list of all the pensioners resident at Greenwich Hospital on 3 January 1868. In addition to the name of the pensioner, this includes the date of admission to Greenwich Hospital, age on 1 October next (1868), pension number, and length of service in years, months and days. Page references to appendix 31 lead back to the report itself where additional details given are; the amount of out-pension surrendered upon admission to Greenwich Hospital, the amount of the Greenwich Hospital pension, together with the married allowance on 6 April, the money allowance on 6 April, and the total pension granted. (At 82 years of age Joseph Scott was the longest resident pensioner in Greenwich Hospital, having been admitted on 3 July 1830.)

Appendix 33 lists the men who were admitted to Greenwich Hospital in 1866 from Naval hospitals at the ports; and appendix 34 lists those men who were refused admission to Greenwich Hospital in 1866, giving the reason why they were refused.