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Peter and Elizabeth came from very different backgrounds:-
- Peter's family were armourers and metal workers (although when Peter signed with the British German Legion he gave his occupation as Baker). Elizabeth's family, the Wash's, had been master bakers for at least two generations
- Elizabeth and many earlier generations of her family were from Colchester in Essex whilst Peter’s family for many generations had come from Kiedrich a small town near Frankfurt in Germany.
- Although we do not know for sure, Peter was probably a Catholic. He came from a Catholic area (the article from the Kiedrich choir's web page says that they still sing the mass in Latin today). A German cousin, Anton Fink, in 1960 described Peter as being destined for "a training college, but he had no disposition to study theologian". Elizabeth on the other hand, came from a line of non-conformists
- Peter was, one assumes, a little more "worldly wise" than Elizabeth. We don't know what attracted him to enlist with the British German Legion to fight in the Crimean War but whether he was a baker or a soldier in Germany it was certainly a very different background to that of the young English maiden.
We know something about our German background from a long letter written by a cousin from Germany 45 years ago, Anton Fink. That article is reproduced on the page "Finks in Germany" and an image of one page of the handwritten article appears in the Photo Album section.
Peter Fink was born in Kiedrich in southern Germany in 1828 from a long line of armourers and metalworkers. From the article by Anton Fink in 1960, it was believed he (or his parents) had planned a future for him in the church. However from the documents with the British German Legion (BGL), his occupation is listed as "Baker".
We also know from documents sighted at the National Archives by Barbara and Sharon that Peter's regiment number was 663 and that he was in the 4th Light Infantry of the BGL, Date of enlistment: 17th January 1856. His age is shown as 27 and height as 5 ft 5 ins. The documents also show bounty paid to recruit: £6, and to the Baron Von Stutterheim for levying: £9.15s, total of levy allowance: £15.15s. His attestation paper states, that Peter Finck was Born at Nassan Kiedrich, Occupation Baker, he had no disabilities, his limbs were fit for ordinary labour and that he was willing to serve in the BGL. He was described as having a fair complexion, brown eyes and hair, with no distinguishing marks. Pay Lists show him being paid from the date joined (17th January 1856) to 31st March 1856, again from 1st April 1856 to 30th June 1856 (91 days pay plus 1 hot meal!), 1st July 1856 to 30th September 1856 (92 days pay - 30 days in regimental / general hospital) and 1st October 1856 to 30th October 1856 (30 days - 4 days in regimental / general hospital) and then discharged. The papers also show address of nearest relation: Valentin Fink in Kiedrich.
The first German legionaries landed at Dover in May & June 1855 and went to Shorncliff Camp, Kent. They then proceeded to Aldershot for their training on the 10th July 1855 which was not extensive. The Queen and Prince Consort visited the camp at Shorncliff on the 10th August 1855 where there were 3,048 German recruits. She took exception to them being called 'Foreign Legion' and pressed successfully for them to be called the "British German Legion". In the course of the summer Cholera declared itself and was blamed on the troops themselves who threw filth into the wells from which they drew drinking water. The loss of life was limited to two officers and eleven men.
The formal termination of the Crimean war by the peace of Paris was on the 30th March 1856, so Peter just got in by the skin of his teeth!. By the 10th March they had increased the height regulations from 5 ft 2 ins to 5 ft 7 ins which immediately dropped the recruits by one half and five days later they stopped recruiting entirely 'on some pretext or another'. On the 11th/14th March 1856 the Queen urged Panmure to treat the legionaries with generosity. In April 1856 the German legion presented a petition asking for compensation on the premature disbandment as they had enlisted for five years. By 19th April 1856 it was announced that any legionary who would accept half a years pay, instead of the full years pay could be discharged at once. There was lots of fighting within the camps of Shorncliff and Colchester with many injuries because of them being idle on the streets and also in the barracks themselves between the Swiss and German legions.
Whilst at Colchester Peter met his wife-to-be Elizabeth Wash who was born in 1840 in Colchester, Essex, England, the daughter of a master baker. Peter and Elizabeth were married in Colchester in 1857 and during their married life, had twelve children. They lived mainly in and around the greater London area, although Elizabeth lived her latter years back in her home town of Colchester.
Over the last 150 years, their descendents have settled in many parts of England, Canada, New Zealand, Australia - in fact there are most likely descendents on every continent, and we would like to get to know a lot more of them!
We also know a little of Elizabeth's background. Her father, James Wash, was a baker in his own bakers shop in Colchester in Essex; that business continued apparently right up to the 1960's. There will be a photo of Elizabeth's brother, George, standing in front of the shop added to the Photo Album soon.
Peter and Elizabeth had at least twelve children, and brief details of them appear on the page "The Children"; for some of them, there are additional pages with more detailed information.
It appears that Peter and Elizabeth lived apart from at the latest 1891, as by the census of that year, Peter is living in as a "Bakery Assistant" to Charles Horwood at 2 Bolsover Street, Marylebone.
On the same census, Elizabeth is shown at 15 Henry Street in Clerkenwell, "wife" of James Henderson, Confectioner. After Peter's death at the Marylebone Infirmary in June 1913, Elizabeth married James Henderson; at the time she was 73 years old.
Elizabeth died in 1936 at Colchester, at the age of 96. An article in a Colchester newspaper written on the occasion of her 90th birthday is in the Photo Album section.
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