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THE REGIMENTS

OF

THE BRITISH ARMY

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED.

COMPILED BY

RICHARD TRIMEN,

LATE CAPTAIN, 35TH ROYAL SUSSEX;
AUTHOR OF AN HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF THE 35TH
ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT OF FOOT."

LONDON:

WILLIAM H. ALLEN AND CO.,

13 WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL, S.W.

1878.

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PREFACE.

THE object of the following pages is to bring under one head the information that is scattered through Despatches, Army Lists, Gazettes, Books, Magazines, &c. concerning the History of the different Regiments of the British Army; and to enable anyone at a glance to ascertain whether a certain Regiment served during a certain campaign, or was at a certain action, or what its Title or Uniform was at a certain date.

The histories of many Regiments have been published separately, some by authority, and a few through, and by, the esprit de corps of some officer, but this is intended to show every existing Regiment's services, &c. in a small condensed form, and in one volume.

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Since the year 1870, much has been seen, and more heard, about organization and localization,

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but we have also seen the Regiments (which were the admiration of soldiers of every country in Europe), "meddled and muddled" with till they are only a wretched likeness of what they

were.

We have seen esprit de corps sapped to its foundations, and attempted to be destroyed by the abolition of every Regimental tradition, badge, and even button, that our civilian Army reformers could do away with.

Where are the old Regimental officers who were proud to serve the Crown for nothing?

Where are the magnificent old non-commissioned officers and men that would follow their

officers wherever they led?

What is the answer?

The officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, have all but disappeared, and the ranks are filled by over-educated boys, who consequently think they are as competent to lead their comrades as their officers.

Moreover, we now see all ranks looking forward to the time when they shall be turned out of the Regiment, instead of, as formerly, looking on it as their home for the best part of their lives.

Then, as another blow to the old constitution of

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Regiments, and a reduction of their fighting power, we have the new Brigade Depôts," and "Linked Battalions."

Do not the pages of the Army List, with this last heading, betray the fact that the Regiments must have been "linked" together by some one who was incompetent to do so?

Take the 27th Inniskilling, a Regiment essentially Irish in its character and composition, "linked" to the 108th Madras Infantry. What connection the person entrusted with a matter of such vital importance could see in these two Regiments is quite beyond the imagination of a soldier, and gives rise to the idea that he must have drawn them out of a hat. The 27th has a glorious history of two centuries; the 108th was only raised by the East India Company in 1854, and has no more to do with Ireland than the Russian Guards.

Look at the 31st Huntingdonshire and the 70th Surrey "linked " together at Kingston. Is every Huntingdonshire man who wishes to join. his county Regiment to walk all the way to Kingston to enlist? and when he does so, be uncertain whether he is to wear the Huntingdon buff or the Surrey black?

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