Redcoats transported: British soldiers transported to the Australian colonies 1788-1868

My project investigates the experience of about 6,500 serving British soldiers transported to the Australian colonies from 1788 to 1868. While this is less than 5 per cent of the total convicts transported, it is nevertheless a distinctive group, numerically greater than either the Scottish convicts or the much-discussed political convicts, both of whom have been studied extensively. Moreover, most soldiers were transported for military offences and, unlike the other convicts, did not break the criminal law. A third difference was their place of trial; they came from all over the Empire and had a range of imperial experiences before their arrival in Australia. Nineteenth-century soldiers generally have suffered from a poor reputation, most famously articulated in the Duke of Wellington’s misquoted statement that they were the ‘scum of the earth’. Yet little has been done to justify the reputation or dispel the myth. The convict soldiers formed only a tiny proportion of an army of neverless than 100,000 throughout the nineteenth  century. My project is a social history of these soldiers, using quantitative methods  to illuminate the whole cohort, and profiles of individuals to demonstrate the diversity  of their skills and experiences in early colonial Australia.

Trish Downes is a retired naval communications officer who commenced her history studies in retirement. During her enjoyable academic journey she has spoken at national and overseas conferences and received generous encouragement from many academics and others who claim to ‘know nothing about the military convicts’.