Don Hagist is a prolific researcher and writer of many books that are worthy of anyone's home library. The next book is 'Noble Volunteers' and is due out Autumn 2020.

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Here is a summary of Don's talk, written by one of our members from memory shortly afterwards:

The 43rd were amongst the first to go to the States to 'maintain peace' in 1774. Needless to say, that was not a great success. They were part of the army that surrendered at Yorktown during the final major showdown of the war on October 19th, 1781.  Mostly they were stationed at Rhode Island; considered a sleepy backwater by many. Not to forget they had already suffered Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill by then of course. Don lives on Rhode Island and knows it well. A map of the Island as it would have been then, raised many questions in itself but the northern tip is, as Don says, literally a stone's throw away from the mainland. The British were vulnerable to attack from all around that island at any time. Don listed each of these sudden dramatic and bloody actions, taking a sample couple of months and listed the actions. Every few days something happened. It was eye opening how active the 'Rebels' were.

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Don has worked out the ages of the men that were distributed throughout the regiment, the numbers that altered over time, why that was the case, the experience of the troops in the regiment and their nationalities. He has looked through the muster rolls, pension returns, letters, dispatches etc to reveal the information and uncover individual stories. One thing we learnt was that men were drafted into the 43rd to add experience, not just numbers. As time progressed to '75 there was a need to increase the numbers of men. The 43rd had to go from around 350 to the ideal 500 somehow. There was no conscription at that time and substantial input was the draft. These were men drawn from regiments who were not actively engaged on oversees service.

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The draft to the 43rd was from several regiments and the first was for 19 men as I recall, including two experienced privates from the 33rd amongst the many others. These draftees wore the uniforms of their own regiments. Methods of augmenting the ranks were discussed and the 43rd seems to follow the demographic of most the English regiments in that they were about half English and the remainder made up mainly of Irish with Scots being the next. The ratio of Irish increases throughout the war - even Catholics!

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So, having shown the geographical position of the regiment and outlined the numbers of soldiers and their origins, Don went on to give personal details. From a sample of about 150, there were 7 tailors for example (possible indication of about 20 for the regiment or 2 per company). Many trades, dare I say, all trades were present in the ranks. The regiment was not only drawn from just about every county of the UK (including Ireland), it was a microcosm of the British skill base. Would you believe we even had two 'toy makers' in the ranks. Yes, that will be incorporated one way or another into our re-enactments!

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Next, we have the exploits of individual soldiers. Private Pickles who swam across the bay to burn one of the raiding boats, the private's wife who was also a tobacco Sutler who was taken around the main streets on a cart to receive her 100 lashes for receiving stolen goods and the poor sergeant who lost his firelock, only to find it again in a poor condition. His friend described the gun as more like a corporal's gun and the Serge, when inspecting the gun accidentally discharged it - killing his friend. He was cleared by the court martial as he had no idea the gun was loaded and had no intention of killing his good friend, but not before he was placed on suicide watch. Sergeant Hull carried that burden of responsibility all through the war and I can imagine his first knock would be on the door of the his friend's nearest and dearest. One of the very many heart wrenching stories.

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Don has a blog - https://redcoat76.blogspot.com/ he has been adding to for about two decades. It is full of these stories and he makes them free to all to look at but there is nothing quite like hearing his impassioned descriptions.

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Finally, we hear what happened to these soldiers, again on an individual basis. Why they left the army and where they went. Strangely enough, often into another regiment; perhaps on home service. The skills and experience of these 'worn out' men would not be lost.