Extract from the pages of GENUKI

What do you think? Private Francis Ward, No. 1486 C Company, 2-24 Regiment meant by this statement.

Dear Aunt, I wish I had listened to your good advice and give up the drink, I would not be where I am at present.

Were drunks picked up in the street and given the queens shilling? Or could it have been that he got drunk and join up.

hi ctsg.
There is no doubt about both points you have raised , many would have had to many drinks and decided to
enlist , because it seemed a good idea at the time , especially if they were in the pub and recruiting sgt"s
were painting a life of glory, 3 meals a day and the drink ration. Once you had signed up , You could escape enlistment if you could
pay the penalty fee , which was known as " smart money ". The old days of the " press- gang " were a
thing of the past with the army , not sure about the navy , once they had you on-board there wasnt much
you could do about the situation
cheers 90th.

90th have you got anymore information on (Smart Money) I have never heard of this. And do you know how much it cost to buy yourself out.

Dave.

Now, an enlistment sergeant put 1s. into a man's hand and said—" I enlist you to serve the Queen," at the same time giving: him notice where he would have to meet him to go before the magistrate. The recruit had to hang about wherever he could until that time came. Under the old system, when a man was enlisted for a service which might be for 21 years, and latterly was 12, the law rightly interposed to prevent a man making that bargain hurriedly and without due notice, and enacted that he should not be brought before the magistrate to confirm his bargain within less than 24 hours after he made it; nor was he to be kept waiting about for longer than 96. In that time a man could get off his bargain by paying smart-money, as it was called. It was found, however—for there were bad recruiters as well as good ones—that men were sometimes enlisted merely for the sake of the smart-money. Bad recruiters hung about houses which, to say the least, were not of the best character, and took men who were more or less in a state of intoxication. He wanted to sweep all that away, and to make the contract of service a distinct contract. He wanted that a man should go at once before the magistrate, and there make his contract. He took it for granted?— and, indeed, a magistrate would not be doing his duty if he did otherwise—that a magistrate would not enlist a man when suffering from the effects of drink. Under the new system the affirmation was made the first process. A sergeant might give a man, when he enlisted him, anything he liked; but he did it at his own risk: and if the man chose to disappear before the time of attestation came, nobody in the world would interfere with him; but when he had presented himself and made the bargain, then he had entered into a distinct contract, by the terms of which he would be bound. A man, at present, had the privilege of buying himself out 768 by a payment varying from £21 downwards. But this was an indulgence, not a right, and depended upon a variety of circumstances—such as that the regiment was up to its full strength, that the exigencies of the Service permitted it, and so on; the result being that many men had to wait for the permission until long after their money was gone.

hi dave.
I think 1879graves covered it and then some :lol!: . well done :)
cheers 90th.

With refrence to the Navy.

Impressment (colloquially, "the Press") was the act of compelling men to serve in a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to the time of Edward I of England. The Royal Navy impressed many British merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other nations. People liable to impressment were eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 45 years, though, albeit rarely, non-seamen were impressed as well.
Impressment was strongly criticized by those who believed it to be contrary to the British constitution; unlike many of its continental rivals, Britain did not conscript its subjects for any other military service, aside from a brief experiment with army impressment in 1778 to 1780. Though the public opposed conscription in general, impressment was repeatedly upheld by the courts, as it was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the realm.
British impressment ended, in practice, after 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars — the Royal Navy fought no major naval actions again until World War I, a century later, when conscription was used for all the military services.