A ‘trifling punishment’: Australian redcoats as convicts
Journal: Australian Journal of Biography and History
Year: 2023

Misbehaving troops were an enduring problem throughout the British Army in the nineteenth century.Boredom, poor living conditions and harsh discipline quickly dispelled any ideas recruits held of adventure and glory.Some 6,500 soldiers or former soldiers were transported to the Australian colonies, while about 426 soldiers were sentenced within the colonies to death, transportation or 'penal servitude'-the Imperial replacement for transportation-from 1788 to 1868.This number included soldiers se