Looking across the haugh land by the River Ythan to Steinman Hill, with North Camalynes farm at centre, and Loop on the skyline to the left (Loop Wood, the dense group of trees on the skyline, is all conifers and as such probably a modern addition) © Ann Burgess at Geograph
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He appears in the census of 7th April 1861 aged six (which in fact can't be right - he was five and a half), living with his mother and his siblings Adam, Jessie and James at Shandscross [Census 1861 247/00 004/00 011]. At fifteen he is probably the William Shirren, born in Turiff, who in April 1871 was working as a farm servant at South Loop Farm, Fyvie, a sixty-seven acre farm owned by a John Black just east of Mains of Towie. [Census 1871 197/00 008/00 009] This is probably the farm now just called Loop, as there is an Upper Loop to the north of it.
Much of what we know about William's later life comes from his army pension records [National Archives, Piece reference PIN 71/5247], which contain part of his army records and information on his health and his working life. Included are his army medical history, including his postings, and various forms relating to his medical discharge, as well as a series of documents from the 1920s in which he requests an increase in his pension owing to his worsening health and his income is stated year by year, and papers relating to the rates he was paying at that time.
His army documents confirm that he was working as a farm servant when he joined up. On 28th May 1878 he applied at Aberdeen to join the 92nd Regiment of Foot, a.k.a. the Gordon Highlanders (who in 1881 would merge with the 75th Stirlingshire Regiment of Foot but keep the name Gordon Highlanders). In joining the Gordons he de facto also joined the 56th Brigade, which comprised the 92nd (Gordon) and 93rd (Sutherland) Highlanders. His Medical History form W.O. 1143 shows him as born in Turriff, twenty years old (he was twenty-two), a farm servant, 6'7½" (probably an error as he is elsewhere described as 5'7½", and his brother George was 5'6¾") with a chest measurement of 37½". His physical development is good, he has no pox marks, and one vaccination mark on his left arm, from a vaccination in childhood. He was re-vaccinated on 15th July 1878, on his left arm, twice, both failures.
The army would later treat 28th May 1878 as his twentieth birthday and calculate from that. Unlike his brother George, who would claim on enlistment to be two years older than he actually was, there seems to be no profit for William in lying to the army about his age and claiming to be two years younger than he was. His discharge documents would later state that he had no Certificate of Education. The forms he would fill in in the 1920s regarding his income show a nice clear handwriting but a tendency to get numbers wrong, so it is possible he was so disnumerate he genuinely didn't know how old he was. However, the fact that their father's name was Alexander Shirran of Ewebrae, Hill of Greeness, and yet the army records of William and George's younger brother Alexander Cowie Shirran claim that his father is called Alexander Hilgreness, suggests to me that the Shirran boys probably had impenetrably thick Doric accents and the army clerk had to take a best guess at what they'd said.
There seems to have been some complication regarding William's recruitment. On the 29th May a letter was sent regarding it, and then on 1st June a typed letter addressed to Horse Guards, War Office saying: "Sir, I am directed by the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief to acquaint you that His Royal Highness approves of the man named in the margin [William Shirran], alluded to in your communication of the 29th ult., being enlisted for the 56th Brigade, as a special case, the Brigade being very much in excess of its establishment. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant Squiggle, Officer Commanding 56th Brigade Depôt, Aberdeen, N.B." N.B. I suppose is "North Britain", the 18th C alternative name for Scotland.
William finally enlisted as a Private in the 92nd Foot on 4th June 1878 and Attested on the 7th June, which became the date from which his service was reckoned. His Regimental Number was 1853. He remained as a soldier at Aberdeen until some time in December 1878 when he set sail for India, where his regiment was based at Sitapur but with its left wing in Benares [Varanasi].
His discharge document later referred to him spending thirty-eight days "to date of disembarkation" which suggests he set sail on or about 8th December: however, the fact that he landed in India on 15th January 1879 suggests that he came in to Bombay on HMS Jumna which had sailed from Portsmouth on 17th December 1878, with her flags at half-mast to mark the death of Princess Alice on the 14th. The Jumna was carrying the 8th Hussars, along with officers and draughts for other units including the 92nd. That means William was only at sea for twenty-nine days: perhaps the figure of thirty-eight days includes time spent getting from Aberdeen to the South Coast and then cooling his heels in Portsmouth, waiting to board.
According to Charles Greenhill Gardyne's The Life of a Regiment: the History of the Gordon Highlanders Vol. II 1816-1898 the 92nd set out from Sitapur to Afghanistan on 18th December 1878. They passed through Lucknow on the 23rd and paused at Jelhum [Jhelum] on the 28th-29th where they were joined by a half-battalion from Benares. They then swung north and reached Lawrencepore [Lawrencepur], about eight miles east of Kamra, on 8th January 1879.
On 15th January the Jumna made port carrying a draught of a hundred and eight men of the 92nd under Captain DF Gordon, who were immediately "taken on the strength". Gardyne does not record the date on which these men, William amongst them, physically joined up with the rest of the regiment, but on 21st January the body of the regiment reached Kohat, where it was inspected and the men were complimented on their "smart and soldier-like bearing" and their good conduct. They were still in Kohat late in February, when Lord Roberts described visiting them there (Forty-One Years in India), so the men of the draught had probably caught up with the regiment by then.