"This book is intended to serve as an index to the Chelsea regimental pension registers of British veterans who settled abroad with an army pension. They are known as Chelsea pensioners because the Royal Hospital, Chelsea decided on the entitlement and amount of pension to be paid to discharged veterans with disabilities or long service. The hospital in Chelsea was established in 1692 and was generally similar to the earlier military hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin founded in 1679 for soldiers on the Irish establishment."--from introduction.