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===== Thomas (Murray) Prior's army career =====
|Date	|Rank	|Regiment	|Notes|
|6 August 1803	|Cornet 	|{{http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishcavalry/11thltdragoons.htm|11th Light Dragoons}} ((in c. 1840 renamed 11th Hussars, Prince Alberts own. Dragoons and Hussars were light cavalry regiments. Thomas Prior's career in the 11th is recorded at the regimental history, see {{https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/units/3561/11th-hussars-prince-alberts-own/}}))((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))| 
|22 August 1805	or in 1806((Online record says 1806, just after 16th birthday. Need to subscribe to see full record, https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records/1085480/lieutenant-thomas-prior-british-army-light-dragoons-hussars))|Lieutenant|11th Light Dragoons((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))|
|30 September 1813| Lieutenant|{{http://www.theroyalscots.co.uk/history|1st of Foot, Royal Scots}}(('Foot' means an infantry regiment))| An exchange with Lt. T.B. Wall.((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.)) His daughter Jemima stated that he exchanged into this regiment but never served with them.((TLM-P, Diary, 4 June 1882))|\\
|6 January 1814| Lieutenant| [[wp>13th/18th_Royal_Hussars|18th Hussars]]((confirmed by Thomas Prior’s copy of //A List of all the Officers …// in which he has written that he was a ‘Lieutenant 18th Hussars, London 1815’. On p.133 it lists ‘Thomas Prior’ as Lieutenant in the 18th Regiment from this date.))((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))| Jemima believed that he had to lobby the [[wp>Prince_Edward,_Duke_of_Kent_and_Strathearn|Duke of Kent]] (the future Queen Victoria's father) to obtain the exchange.((TLM-P, Diary, 4 June 1882))|\\
|25 March 1817|Lieutenant |18th Hussars((further evidence is his prayer book in which he's written ‘Thomas Prior, Lt. 18th Hussars, London November 27th 1824.’ Provenance: J. Godden)) |On 23 April 1817, peace means that he and others were put on half-pay, ie. not on active service, and receives half his usual pay as a form of pension.((//The United Service Gazette// c.1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))|\\
| 9 August 1831	| Lieutenant|[[wp>59th_(2nd_Nottinghamshire)_Regiment_of_Foot|59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot]]|An exchange with Lt Robert McGregor means that, after previous unsuccessful applications, Thomas Prior was back on full pay((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))|\\
| 'soon' after August 1831| Lieutenant?| [[wp>Grenadiers|Grenadiers]]|until September 1834 when the Grenadiers 'departed for Gibraltar’((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))|\\
|28 November 1834| Captain|Unattached (to any regiment)|Back on half pay.((Thomas Prior's copy of //A List of all the Officers …// with his hand-written note that he was a “Captain unattached 28th November 1834”))|\\
|9 November 1834 |Brevet Major((Brevet refers to a promotion without a corresponding pay rise. In this instance, Thomas Prior retained his army rank of Captain (half-pay, unattached) while being a Brevet Major.)) | unattached|\\ 
|2 October 1849 |Captain |[[wp>73rd_(Perthshire)_Regiment_of_Foot|73rd of Foot (Perthshire) Regiment]]|Restored to full pay((Andrew Darbyshire, //A fair slice of St Lucia//, St Lucia History group Research paper no.8))((Major Prior's army manuals confirm this appointment, see under [[Books]]))|\\
|25 October 1850|Captain|[[wp>Royal_Northumberland_Fusiliers|5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot]]| back to half-pay|((Andrew Darbyshire, //A fair slice of St Lucia//, St Lucia History group Research paper no.8))\\
|20 June 1854|Brevet Lieutenant Colonel| 5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot((Andrew Darbyshire, //A fair slice of St Lucia//, St Lucia History Group Research paper no.8.)) |On 3 July 1858, the //Belfast News-Letter// reported that 'Colonel Murray Prior arrived at the Curragh Camp from Cork.'|\\
|20 February 1859| Brevet Colonel| 5th (Northumberland Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot?|((Andrew Darbyshire, //A fair slice of St Lucia//, St Lucia History group Research paper no.8))\\
\\
TLM-P recorded his step-sister's story about his father Thomas's difficulty obtaining a transfer into the 18th Hussars. Thomas first went to his friend the Duke of York who was no longer Commander-in-Chief (due to corrupt conduct); he referred him to the new Commander-in-Chief the Duke of Kent. The Duke agreed but then, as Thomas was backing out of the royal presence, 'his spurs caught in the carpet and when stumbling let out a fierce oath'. He apologised saying, 'I beg your Royal Highness ten thousand pardons, but I was never taught to walk backwards'. The Duke laughed, but Thomas thought that he had ruined his chance of a transfer. When he told the Duke of York what had happened, the response was 'Well my boy, make up your mind now, you're booked for the West Indies'. Fortunately, the Duke of Kent was not so unforgiving as his brother suggested: Thomas was not sent to the West Indies, but was allowed to exchange into the 18th.((TLM-P, Diary, 4 June 1882)) 

===== Service during the Napoleonic Wars =====

|3 May 1811| ‘sailed for Portugal … under Lt. General Sir H.J. Cumming, Colonel of the 12th Lancers’((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.)) |
|25 September 1811| in the [[wp>Battle_of_El_Bod%C3%B3n|Battle of El Bodon]], Portugal|
|22 July 1812| awarded the 'War medal with clasp’ for service during the 1812 [[wp>Battle_of_Salamanca|Battle of Salamanca]]|
|Spring (March-June) 1815| arrived in Flanders|
|17 June 1815| Commanded skirmishes as officer of the 18th Hussars, and receiving 'the first fire of the enemy’ on Namur Road|
|18 June 1815| In [[wp>Battle_of_Waterloo|Battle of Waterloo]], Belgium, when Napoleon was irrevocably defeated. Awarded the Waterloo medal ((https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/records/1085480/lieutenant-thomas-prior-british-army-light-dragoons-hussars/))((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a. The Waterloo Medal was the first official service medal ever issued by the British Government; they are now quite valuable. Steve Brown, 'An Australian at Waterloo', //History. Magazine of the Royal Australian Historical Society// September 2015, p.9. The location of Thomas Prior's medal now is unknown.))|
|18 June-3 July 1815| Took part in the capture of Paris, receiving another medal|
|23 September 1815| found guilty by a military court after a fight with an anti-English French actor at the Boulogne Theatre, losing 6 months Army and Regimental rank((//The United Service Gazette// c. 1846, QJO, Praed papers 10/7/1a.))|