Eileen,

You note that William expressed his regrets at "listing" which probably means that he "enlisted" into the Army rather than being commissioned. If it was the latter, he would be relatively easy to find - just check the Army List for that period - available from most large libraries. However, the enlisted soldiers' records were not published in the same format and the records for the period were amongst those which were damaged in WW2. If you search on here for "burnt" you will find the discussion which noted that the Mormons have filmed the index to those few records that survived. The remaining records in the PRO in Kew are being filmed, although they should be close to finishing. If he is in there - bingo - a lot of important information!

As for the regiment, hmm. Previous discussions on this board have identified the Kings Regiment and the Royal Scots as being the Island's favourite recruiters in the 19th & 20th centuries, but I do not know if either of them had battalions in India. Try checking those two regiments in the Army List for 1883 (assuming that 1893 was a typo) to see if they did. If you don't have any success, the question "which regiments were deployed to Quetta, India in 1883?" should be aimed at soc.genealogy.britain.

My last thought is that the India Office Library in London (part of the British Museum, I think) will know which regiments were deployed there and when. As the Indian Civil Service was then at its peak, it is more than likely your man will be somewhere in the archives. Once you know the regiment, you can approach the regimental museum for help.

Good luck (and if you trip over a Manx John Boyde or a Scottish James McMenemy, please let me know).

James