CHELSEA PENSIONERS’ RECORDS
Completed in 1692, the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, West London, was built as a home for ex-soldiers “broken by age or war”. A similar institution opened in Ireland in 1684, the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin.
The Royal Hospital Chelsea was the administrative centre for British army pensions until 1955, hence the term ‘Chelsea Pensioner’. If this phrase appears on a census entry, or a marriage or death certificate, it means that your
