Note 81 — 1787—1788.

John Drew was one of the sergeant-majors. He was the first soldier that entered the English corps of military artificers. On May 1st, 1795, he was commissioned to be second lieutenant in the invalid artillery, from which he retired in March, 1819, and died at Woolwich November 9, 1830. One of his daughters married the late Richard Byham, Esq., secretary to the honourable Board of Ordnance. A son—Richard Robinson Drew—attained the rank of Major in the royal artillery, and married Geriloma Barona, daughter of the late Marquis di Montebello. This lady died on the 4th September, 1854, and the Major survived her only four months. Both were interred in the family mausoleum at Messina. Though springing from a stock without any remarkable antecedents, good fortune seems to have attended the career of the offspring of the worthy sergeant-major; and much as his son may have added distinction to his race by his matrimonial alliance with a lady of high birth, it was still more honoured in the person of his granddaughter, who was wedded to the noble Prince di Castelcicala, the late Minister Plenipotentiary for Sicily.

Another of the sergeant-majors was Alexander Spence. He was born in 1726, and enlisted into the 20th Foot, January 16, 1756. After a service of 19 years in that regiment, and 14 as sergeant in the North Hants Militia, he joined the corps at the age of 61!! This is the period when men usually think of retiring from active employment and preparing for the end of life. Not so Spence. He was still a recruit, hale and hearty, and served his country for a further period of 21 years! If nature had taken her course, he might have lived to a great age, but disappointed in his expectation of receiving a sub-lieutenancy in the corps, he committed suicide January 11, 1809, at the age of 83.