Chelsea Out-Pensioners in Northern Ireland






Letter to the Manager, Belfast
Banking Company  5th Nov. 1844



We are all familiar with the picture of the Chelsea Pensioner in his, and very recently her, red tunic. Certainly in the past when all soldiers' pensions were administered by the Royal Hospital  these individuals should, strictly speaking, have been  referred to as In- Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The vast majority of pensioned soldiers were not housed in the Hospital. These latter individuals were called Out-Pensioners.

To the left is a copy of a stampless entire dated 5th November 1844  from the Provincial Bank of Ireland, Ballymena  to the manager of the Ballymoney branch of the Belfast Banking Company, who at that time was a gentleman by the name of James Thompson. It appraises the manager that the Staff Officer for the district comprising Ballymoney would be calling with a draft for encashment so that he might pay the District's Out-Pensioners of Chelsea Hospital. This Staff Officer went by the name and style of Lieutenant John Moore Tittle. These pensions were paid to the pensioners on a monthly basis.