William was an Irish labourer. Like so many other Irishmen he was unable to find work locally, so he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps & joined the army. In 1831, William had sailed over to Liverpool and at just 21, enlisted in the East India Company army as a gunner. On 3rd June he embarked on the Thomas Grenville and arrived at Fort William in Calcutta on 16th October. He was to be attached to No. 1 Troop, 3 Brigade of the Bengal Artillery at Dum Dum, Calcutta. By 1839, he was a corporal and in that year married Isabella the daugther of Thomas & Elizabeth Johnson on 19th February at St Stephens Church in Dum Dum. Although Isabella was just 15 at the time, this was not unusual in India. She was to have six surviving children.

By 1843 William was a Sergeant and by 1847 was the Sergeant Overseer of the Government stud, maintaining horses for the Artillery, Before 1846, William & Elizabeth (typo should be Isabella?) were stationed at the Honourable East India Company horse stud on the Bungarribee estate. The estate itself was situated at Eastern Creek, in the Blacktown district, west of Sydney in NSW Australia. It was there that Isabella Bunagarribee was probably born. (The name ‘Bungarribee’ is derived after the burial place of an Aboriginal king - ‘resting place of a king, Bungaroo’). In 1846 Sgt & Mrs Waters with two children & 8 grooms returned to Calcutta travelling on the Emily Jane, which departed Sydney on 11th September and arrived in Calcutta in November (as reported in the Bengal Direcotyr 1847). In 1852, William had completed 21 years service and was “pensioned to the General Orders by the Commander-in-Chief” attached to Hauper Stud in Bengal. His only surviving son Jospeh Henry (Harry was boirn in August 1854 in Calcutta.

In 1856 a new settlement ‘Hopetown’ (now Kurseong, near Darjeeling) was established in Sikkim. Here William became a tea planter assistant on 1500 acres on a spur of the Sanchall Range, where his two youngest children were brought up: Alice Mima (1858) whio might have been born in Calcutta while Catherine Hope (1861) was baptized at Darjeeling. In 1859 Willaim had written his last will & testament with his wife Isabella as sole executrix and made provision for the children’s education. He was to die on his way from Hope Town to Calcutta in December 1861. The surviving children at home were, Isabella (aged 16), Leah (aged 8), Harry (aged 3) and Catherine (aged 6 months). William’s widow Isabella survived him for another 27 years until 1888 when she was buried in the Lower Circular Road Cemetery in Calcutta.6327

1824. On this twenty sixth of December 1824 Isabella Ann daughter of Thomas Johnson, Sergeant of Artillery and Elizabeth his wife was baptized by me John Young, ? Chaplain

1888. Burial record - 9 September 1888 Waters, Isabella Ann, 6o yrs 10 mths 14days. (Gravestone has her death date as 9th Sept)

1839 marriages within the Chaplaincy Station or District of Dum Dum in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Calcutta. 1839 February 19th, William Waters, Capt H. Arty & Isabella Ann Johnson of age in the presence of Wm Hilton and Elizabeth peassath by license.