Does RV mean Royal Veteran Battalion ?

[Nando]

Hi ,

I hope someone can possibly help with info on the following .

I'm researching family history and have found a reference in Irish  Baptism record 1822 which states the father's occupation as  " 3rd RV Battalion "-

(parish Templemore  Co Tipperary) 

Does  RV  indicate  "Royal Veteran" Batalion - and would anybody have any knowledge about this subject ?

I found a website detailing the Veteran & Garrison  Reg's in the Napoleonic era but the problem is it states the 3rd Bn was disbanded in 1816 - yet i have this baptism record circ 1822 which would indicate the father as still in this Bn .

Strangely i cannot find ( yet ) any record of this soldiers name in the  British Army records - does anyone know of any records of this Regiment /Bn  which i could search ?

Any help or advice  greatly  appreciated

Thanks

[Trooper_D]

Nando

The Royal Veteran battalions lasted longer than some of the sources suggest. For instance, the copy of the London Gazette dated 25 October 1825 (no. 18189), linked to below, has numerous references to transfers into and out of Royal Veteran battalions, including the 3rd (see, for example, Ensign Freame, second page [1974], half way down first column).

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IhBKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1973

[peter monahan]

The other possibility is that he was a member of the Volunteer Corps.  Thought they weren't technically 'Royal', he term may have been used in the document because that's how it was supplied by your ancestor.  I'm not sure whether this is more or less likely than that he was a Veteran, and doesn't help with the dating issue either, as the Volunteers were supposed to have been disbanded well before 1822, but again, he may have referred to past service.  perhaps worth exploring alongside the Veterans.

[Nando]

Thanks  Peter  &  Trooper_D  for your helpful thoughts and advice i will look into that .

Unfortunately the 1822 Baptism record is a transcription so i can't access the original - as i would very much like to check on the accuracy of the details  myself .

Taking it at face value it would seem to be 3rd Rv Battalion  so i can only presume it was a Veteran Reg but this would surely imply the soldier  had served in other Reg/s previously ? I've looked in WO 97 records and can find no one fitting his name or similar  in that era .

For the record  the name was  William Menheneck  ( variants Menhenick / Menhenet / Menheniet or similar) which is very much a Cornish /Devon  name -  with an assumed age  of between 20-40yrs giving bdate 1782-1802  .

Do all British army service records of this era survive ?