Robert Ginn was born to John and Susannah Ginn (John a Labourer) at Wood Newton Northants in 1833.
Bob here enlisted with the 3rd Foot ("the Buffs") on 16th January 1855 on "short service" for 10 years, ie not for life. None of this is on Findmypast or Ancestry. His is a "lost life" as I call them - he deserves a memorial. On enlistment, Robert was 5ft 5ins tall, a labourer and aged 22.
The 3rd were sent to fight in the Crimean War, Bob was a late arrival, sailing weeks after the main regiment, but in time for repeated assaults on the Sebastapol defences during which the regiment sustained casualties, including heavy casualties on 8th September 1855 where they took part in the major assault on the Great Redan at Sebastapol. Robert was lucky to walk away from that one.
Robert survived the Crimean War intact, and was accordingly awarded the Crimean War medal with Sebastapol clasp - below.
Private Ginn was not to have a quiet time in the army. The 1st Battalion of the Buffs were involved in the Second of the China or "Opium" Wars, a duo of wars involving the French, British and other western powers fighting the Chinese to impose the opium trade upon them so that the British and other western powers could trade opium grown in India and elsewhere for luxury Chinese goods.
It was a shameful exploitation of imperial power, which gave the British Hong Kong and Canton by treaty.
In 1860 the British and French sent a force to southern China to impose their will - the Buffs and therefore Robert Ginn among them. The Taku Forts (below in 1860 and now) were an obstacle
The British assisted by the French launched an attack (below) which succeeded quite easily after some initial resistance from the Chinese.
The Buffs took part in the battle, part of the British force of some 11,000 men. But although they remained in China, they took no further part in the War itself, remaining to garrison Taku or Tientsin and did not march with the main army to Peking (as was) where the Chinese surrendered, after the British and French had rather badly looted and largely destroyed the Emperor's Summer Palace.
Bob was awarded the China War medal with Taku Forts clasp, I copy one awarded to a Sergeant in his battalion below.
The Regiment subsequently returned to Dover, where you will find Robert in the 1861 census. But by accident or design, perhaps he had had enough of travelling around, in November 1861 he volunteered to join the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot, where, the bagpipes excepted, he lead a quiet life before his ten years was up and he was discharged from the army in November 1865 "life service excepted" ie he would not get a pension which is why he is not in any online record.
Robert clearly went home to Northants. He never married, has no descendants to research him and died too early in 1869 aged 35.
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