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BATTLE HONOURS OF THE BRITISH ARMY
BATTLE HONOURS OF THE BRITISH ARMY
Frontispiece. BATTLE HONOURS OF THE BRITISH ARMY FROM TANGIER, 1662, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF KING EDWARD VII BY C. B. NORMAN (LATE 90TH LIGHT INFANTRY AND INDIAN STAFF CORPS) AUTHOR OF "ARMENIA AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1877," "TONQUIN; OR, FRANCE IN THE FAR EAST," "COLONIAL FRANCE," "THE CORSAIRS OF FRANCE," ETC. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1911 TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN WHO HAVE FALLEN IN DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY...
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CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BATTLE HONOURS
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF BATTLE HONOURS
CHAPTER III BATTLE HONOURS FOR SERVICES IN NORTHERN EUROPE, 1743-1762 Dettingen—Minden—Emsdorff—Warburg—Wilhelmstahl 24-35 CHAPTER IV BATTLE HONOURS FOR SERVICES IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA Louisburg, 1758—Quebec, 1759—Monte Video, 1807—Detroit, August 12, 1812—Miami, April 23, 1813—Niagara, July 25, 1814—Bladensburg, October 24, 1814 36-48 CHAPTER V BATTLE HONOURS FOR SERVICES IN INDIA, 1751-1764 Arcot—Plassey—Condore—Masulipatam—Badara—Wandewash—Pondicherry—Buxar 49-65 CHAPTER VI BATTLE HONOURS
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
In the following pages I have endeavoured to give a brief description of the various actions the names of which are emblazoned on the colours and appointments of the regiments in the British army. So far as I have been able, I have shown the part that each individual corps has played in every engagement, by appending to the account a return of the losses suffered. Unfortunately, in some cases casualty rolls are not obtainable; in others, owing to the returns having been hurriedly prepared, and l
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Casualties in Action at Tangier, October 27, 1680. A few weeks after this action the King's Own (Lancaster Regiment), then commanded by Colonel Kirke, arrived as a reinforcement, and later in the year the Coldstream Guards. In 1684 the place was evacuated, having cost us many millions in money and many thousand valuable lives. To face page 2. This battle honour, which commemorates the capture of Gibraltar by the fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke, and the subsequent defence of the fortress und
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In the month of February, 1910, an Army Order was published announcing that His Majesty King Edward VII. had been graciously pleased to approve of the following regiments being permitted to bear the honorary distinction "Namur, 1695" upon their colours, in recognition of services rendered during the siege and capture of that city, 215 years previously: Grenadier Guards. Coldstream Guards. Scots Guards. Royal Scots. Queen's (Royal West Surrey). King's Own (Lancasters). Royal Warwicks. Royal Fusil
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This battle honour is now borne by the following regiments: 1st Life Guards. 2nd Life Guards. Royal Horse Guards. 1st King's Dragoon Guards. 7th Dragoon Guards. 1st Royal Dragoons. Scots Greys. 3rd Hussars. 4th Hussars. 6th Inniskillings. 7th Hussars. Grenadier Guards. Coldstream Guards. Scots Guards. Buffs. King's Liverpool Regiment. Devons. Suffolk. Somerset Light Infantry. Lancashire Fusiliers. Royal Scots Fusiliers. Royal Welsh Fusiliers. East Surrey. Cornwall Light Infantry. West Riding Reg
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The following regiments are authorized to bear this honour: Royal Scots. East Yorkshire. Leicester. Cheshire. Gloucester. Royal Sussex. South Lancashire. Sherwood Foresters. North Lancashire. Northampton. King's Royal Rifles. Wiltshire. It commemorates the siege and capture of the fortress of Louisburg (Cape Breton's Island, North America) from the French in July, 1758. The army, which was under the command of General the Lord Amherst, numbered 12,000 of all ranks, and was distributed as follows
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NORTH AMERICA, 1812-1814.
NORTH AMERICA, 1812-1814.
The war in North America in the early years of the nineteenth century gave rise to much hard fighting, and though at the close of the campaign in the Iberian Peninsula we were enabled to send a number of our seasoned regiments as reinforcements, the operations were by no means creditable to our arms. On the institution of the Land General Service Medal in 1847 (commonly called the Peninsular Medal), a certain number of engagements which had taken place in North America were included in the list
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The names at the head of the chapter commemorate a number of long-forgotten Indian campaigns, waged against desperate odds and extending over many years. The Colar Goldfields, Dindigul Cigars, and the Nundy Droog Mine are names of pleasant memories to the fortunate shareholders in those concerns. Little did soldier or sepoy think that those fields on which he shed his blood in order to maintain British supremacy in India would thus become familiarized to British speculators. For us, their succes
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This honorary distinction was awarded to the 2nd European Regiment of the Bengal army for its services in the campaign undertaken in that year to defend our ally, the King of Oude, against the incursions of the Mahrattas. It is now borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers. The campaign of 1774 was under the personal command of Colonel Champion, the Commander-in-Chief in Bengal. There was a good deal of hard work, of privations little to be understood by the soldier who serves in India in these days,
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These seven names record engagements between the allied forces of Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain, with the French at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1793 and 1794. Our army, which was composed of British, Hanoverians, and Hessians, was under the command of the Duke of York. His Royal Highness, who was but eight-and-twenty, had studied his profession in Berlin, and was a thorough partisan of the red-tape and pipe-clay system of the Prussian army. He possessed undeniable courage, wit
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The battle honours conferred for services in the West Indies cover the half-century from the capture of Guadeloupe in 1759 to the third capture of the same island in the year 1810. The appended tables of casualties show that our losses in action were by no means contemptible, but these did not represent one-tenth of those we suffered from disease or from neglect of the most elementary precautions against the effects of the climate on our troops. In the event of our being at war with those nation
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On July 6, 1802, this distinction was conferred by King George III. on the regiments named below, "as a distinguished mark of His Majesty's royal approbation, and as a lasting memorial of the glory acquired to His Majesty's arms by the zeal, discipline, and intrepidity of his troops in that arduous and important campaign." So ran the Gazette . Five-and-forty years later, after much discussion and not a little opposition, the grant of the Peninsular medal was extended to the survivors of the camp
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FIRST MAHRATTA WAR, 1803-04.
FIRST MAHRATTA WAR, 1803-04.
In the London Gazette of February 28, 1851, appeared a notification that Her Majesty the Queen had been graciously pleased to sanction the bestowal of a medal on the survivors of the First Mahratta War of 1803-04. The following clasps were issued with this medal, now generally known as the First Indian General Service Medal. It was also bestowed on the survivors—few, indeed, in numbers—of (1) the siege and capture of Seringapatam, by the force under Lord Harris; (2) the Second Mahratta War, 1817
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The campaign was entered upon with a view of preventing the Iberian Peninsula from falling under the domination of Napoleon, who, prior to the landing of our troops in Portugal in August, 1808, had brought about the abdication of the King of Spain, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Madrid. Portugal had been invaded also by the French. The King, taking refuge on an English squadron, had sailed to Brazil, and Lisbon was at the moment in possession of the French Army, commanded by Mars
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MOORE'S CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN.
MOORE'S CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN.
When the three Generals responsible for the Convention of Cintra were recalled to England, Sir John Moore was nominated to the chief command in Spain. The appointment was a popular one, for Moore had greatly distinguished himself in command of a brigade at the capture of the Island of St. Lucia, and later still at the Battle of Egmont-op-Zee and in Egypt. His masterly advance from Lisbon to the relief of Madrid, and his still more masterly retreat from Salamanca to Corunna, are ably recounted in
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THE PENINSULAR WAR (SECOND PHASE), 1809-1814.
THE PENINSULAR WAR (SECOND PHASE), 1809-1814.
To give even a summary of the campaign would be beyond the limits of this work. It is the campaign which more than any other has formed the theme for countless books, and is more or less known to every schoolboy. My scheme is merely to bring before the regimental officer and those interested in the "price of blood" the losses sustained by each corps in each action, and so to bring home to the army the anomalies that exist in the system under which battle honours have been awarded. We have seen t
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This victory, generally considered the most glorious ever gained by British troops, was commemorated in divers manner. The first regiments of Guards were allowed to assume the title of Grenadiers; all who participated were granted a medal bearing the effigy of the Prince Regent—the first medal ever given to all ranks by the British Government—and were permitted to count two years' service towards pension; and the word "Waterloo" was inscribed on the colours and appointments of the following regi
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THE SECOND MAHRATTA WAR, 1817-18.
THE SECOND MAHRATTA WAR, 1817-18.
The conclusion of the First Mahratta War of 1803-04 left us nominally at peace with all the ruling Sovereigns in Central and Southern India. At the same time, the result of that campaign had in no way impaired their power for evil. Their armies were, so far as numbers went, enormously powerful, and in a measure well organized and equipped. In most cases they had been drilled by European instructors, and certainly for irregular warfare they constituted a very formidable foe. Although they had acc
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This distinction is borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, as the lineal descendants of that most distinguished corps the 1st Madras European Regiment, which certainly has the right to bear with the Dorsets the title of "Primus in Indus." From the earliest days of our association with the East Indies there had been mutual jealousies between the English and the Dutch merchants with regard to commerce in the Moluccas. So far back as the year 1623 the summary execution by the Dutch Governor of A
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This distinction is borne by the following regiments: Royal Scots. South Staffords. Somerset Light Infantry. Essex. Welsh. North Lancashire. Sherwood Foresters. Royal Irish Fusiliers. Dorsets. Governor-General's Bodyguard. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. 2nd Queen's Own Sappers and Miners. 26th Light Cavalry. 61st Pioneers. 63rd Light Infantry. 67th Punjabis. 69th Punjabis. 72nd Punjabis. 76th Punjabis. 82nd Punjabis. 86th Carnatic Infantry. 88th Carnatic Infantry. 90th Punjabis. 92nd Punjabis. It recog
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This distinction is borne by the 4th Hussars. Somerset Light Infantry. The Queen's. Royal Munster Fusiliers. Leicesters. 31st D.C.O. Lancers. 3rd Skinner's Horse. 3rd Sappers and Miners. 34th Poona Horse. 2nd Q.O. Light Infantry. 5th Light Infantry. 6th Light Infantry. 16th Lancers. 119th Multan Regiment. It commemorates their share in the ill-judged campaign which had for its object the forcible imposition of an unpopular Sovereign on an unwilling people. Many of the oldest and most experienced
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This distinction was accorded to the Cheshire Regiment for its services in Scinde—services which brought to the regiment the two battle honours "Meeanee" and "Hyderabad." The distinction has not been conferred on the Bombay native regiments which fought side by side with the Cheshires in the brilliant and hardly-contested campaign on the banks of the Indus. This battle honour, which commemorates the victory gained by the army commanded by General Sir Charles Napier over the Amirs of Scinde, is b
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THE GWALIOR CAMPAIGN.
THE GWALIOR CAMPAIGN.
These two general actions, fought on the same day, recall one of the shortest campaigns on record—a campaign forced unwillingly on the Government of India by the truculent conduct of the military oligarchy in the Mahratta State of Gwalior. This spirit was no doubt intensified by the feeling—or, rather, by the hope—that, owing to our recent disasters in Afghanistan, the British would be unwilling to trust to the arbitrament of the sword. "Maharajpore" is borne on the colours of the 16th Lancers.
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In those far-off days our frontier stations were Ferozepore and Ludhiana, with Umballa in support. Ferozepore was the headquarters of a division, commanded by a sterling soldier, who had done good service in the Gwalior Campaign—Sir John Littler. It consisted of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment, two batteries of horse, and two of field artillery, two regiments of native cavalry, and seven battalions of native infantry. At Ludhiana, some eighty miles to the east, lay another division, under Brigadie
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The perennial quarrel between Russia and Turkey entered on a new phase in the year 1854, when England and France, espousing the Ottoman cause, despatched their fleets into the Baltic and a combined naval and military expedition to the Crimea. The command of the British army was entrusted to General Lord Raglan—a veteran officer, who had served on the Duke of Wellington's Staff in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, where he lost an arm, and who for many years had held the important post of Military S
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INDIA, 1857-1859.
INDIA, 1857-1859.
For some inscrutable reason, the colours of those regiments which were employed in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny bear no record of their services unless they happened to have been employed at the Siege of Delhi or in the operations at Lucknow or in Central India. There is, indeed, one notable exception. A group of Sikhs, but fifty in number, aided Mr. Wake in his determined defence of Arrah, and subsequently the regiment was engaged in maintaining peace in the province of Behar. For these
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This distinction was conferred on the regiments which participated in the first China War, under Sir Hugh (afterwards Lord) Gough, and is borne by the Royal Irish. Cameronians. Border Regiment. Royal Berkshires. North Staffords. 2nd Queen's Own Sappers and Miners. 62nd Punjabis. 66th Punjabis. 74th Punjabis. The first China War, generally known as the "Opium War," while not entailing any very severe fighting, cost us many hundred lives, owing to the neglect of the most elementary precautions on
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This distinction has been conferred on the following regiments: South Wales Borderers. East Lancashire. Highland Light Infantry. Seaforth Highlanders. Royal Irish Rifles. Sutherland Highlanders. Before touching on the capture of the Cape in 1804, it will be advisable briefly to allude to the previous capture in 1795. When Holland threw in her lot with revolutionary France, the Cape became a subsidiary base for the French fleets, which put in there for provisions and water, as well as for refit.
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This distinction is borne on the colours of the 1st Royal Jersey Light Infantry. 2nd Royal Jersey Light Infantry. 3rd Royal Jersey Light Infantry. It commemorates the gallant conduct of these three regiments in repelling the French attack on that island in the year 1781. In the early dawn of January 6 a French force, under the command of the Baron de Rullecourt, made a sudden descent on the island of Jersey, landing a short distance to the east of St. Helier, the capital. Entering the town, they
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NEW ZEALAND.
NEW ZEALAND.
This distinction has been conferred for three separate campaigns, but no attempt has been made by the addition of dates, as in the case of the wars in South Africa, to differentiate between the various operations. The first campaign took place in the years 1846-47, and the regiments which obtained the honour for these operations are the Northamptons. Manchesters. Wiltshires. The regiments which earned this distinction are the Suffolk. West Yorkshire. South Lancashire. Middlesex. York and Lancast
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WEST AFRICA.[28]
WEST AFRICA.[28]
The above distinction is borne on the colours of the West India Regiment, and has been conferred on that hard-working corps for a series of arduous campaigns on the West Coast of Africa. The campaign of 1887 was under the command of Major-General Sir Francis de Winton, the troops being accompanied by a naval brigade furnished by H.M.S. Icarus and Royalist . It was undertaken for the subjugation of a powerful tribe called the Yonnies, who had carried fire, sword, and rapine through the hinterland
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This battle honour was granted to all regiments which took part in any of the operations during the course of the war in Afghanistan between the years 1878 and 1880. In the two campaigns there were no less than thirty-one regiments of cavalry and eighty battalions employed, and though few of these were actually under fire, yet all were accorded the distinction. It is borne on the colours of the following regiments: Carabiniers. 8th Hussars. 9th Lancers. 10th Hussars. 11th Hussars. 15th Hussars.
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This battle honour is borne by one regiment—the 14th Prince of Wales's Own Ferozepore Sikhs. It commemorates one of those gallant but little-remembered occurrences where a handful of British officers, at the head of sepoys no less brave than themselves, have upheld the honour of our flag against overwhelming odds, and thus belied the oft-repeated cry of the decadence of the present generation of Englishmen. There are few episodes in our military history which can vie with the defence of Chitral,
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This battle honour is borne on the colours and appointments of practically every infantry regiment in the army, in the cavalry the only regiments which were so unfortunate as not to participate in the campaign being the 4th Dragoon Guards, the 4th, 11th, and 15th Hussars, which were in India, and the 21st Lancers, which were at home. The following long list of regiments shows those which are authorized to bear this honour: 1st Life Guards. 2nd Life Guards. Royal Horse Guards. King's Dragoon Guar
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Until some thirty years ago, the names inscribed on the colours and appointments of our regiments were mainly in recognition of services between the years 1793 and 1815, or for campaigns in India. It so happened that many regiments which had done good service in the wars of the Austrian or Spanish Succession were debarred from sharing in the honours so generously distributed for the Peninsular campaign, owing to the fact that they were at the time employed in garrisoning our distant dependencies
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APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I
EGYPT, 1884 This distinction has been conferred on the 10th Hussars. 19th Hussars. Royal Highlanders. King's Royal Rifles. York and Lancaster Regiment. Royal Irish Fusiliers. Gordon Highlanders. It commemorates a short campaign which entailed some hard fighting in the neighbourhood of Suakin, on the Red Sea, in the early part of the year 1884. The campaign of 1884 in Egypt was primarily due to the action of the mutinous Egyptian army, but it was soon found that the evil was far more deeply seate
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APPENDIX II
APPENDIX II
DEFENCE OF KIMBERLEY, 1899-1900 This battle honour is borne only by the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. The importance of holding fast to Kimberley, the headquarters of the diamond industry in South Africa, was, of course, early recognized by the authorities at the Cape; but, owing to the extent of territory we had to guard and the paucity of the troops at his disposal, Sir Forestier Walker was only able to spare a half-battalion of regulars for the garrison of this extremely valuable centre. I
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APPENDIX III
APPENDIX III
AMBOOR The distinction commemorates the gallant defence of the Fort of Amboor, in the Carnatic, by a force under the command of Captain Calvert, of the Madras army, when closely besieged by Hyder Ali's army in the year 1767. Calvert's garrison consisted of a sergeant's party of the old 1st Madras European Regiment, now the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, one company of the 4th Madras Infantry, and the headquarters of the 10th Madras Infantry, some 500 strong. On November 15, five days after Hyder Ali's
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APPENDIX IV
APPENDIX IV
WAR MEDALS In the reign of Queen Anne medals were struck to commemorate military operations, though it does not appear that these were actually bestowed on the officers who assisted at them. In Boyer's "History of the Reign of Queen Anne" excellent facsimiles are given of the medals enumerated below: 1. The Capture of Kaiserwart, Venloo, and Liège, 1702. 2. The Destruction of the Spanish Fleet in Vigo, 1702. 3. The Battle of Blenheim, 1704. 4. The Capture of Gibraltar, 1704. 5. The Battle of Ram
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