The 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, raised in 1705. Under the

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation was ...

it amalgamated with the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) to form the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1881.

History

Early years

The regiment was first raised by Colonel Sir John Guise as Sir John Guise's Regiment of Foot in 1688 and then disbanded in England in 1694. It was raised a second time by General

Luke Lillingston Luke Lillingstone or Lillingston (1653–1713) was a British Army general who accompanied William III of England, William of Orange to England in 1688. Early life Lillingstone's surname is variably spelled Lillingstone, Lillingston and Lillings ...

as Luke Lillingstone's Regiment of Foot with personnel from the previous regiment in 1694 and then disbanded in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

in 1696. The regiment was raised a third time at

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

by General Luke Lillingston as Luke Lillingstone's Regiment of Foot in March 1705. It was ranked as the 38th regiment in 1747. It was posted to Ireland later in the year and then sent to the

in 1707. On 1 July 1751 a royal warrant was issued which provided that in future regiments would no longer be known by their colonel's name, but would bear a regimental number based on their precedence: the regiment became the 38th Regiment of Foot. It returned to Ireland in 1764 and then went to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

in 1774. It fought at the

Battle of Bunker Hill The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved in ...

in June 1775 and at the

Battle of Brandywine The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the Ame ...

in September 1777 during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The regiment took a county title as the 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot in 1782 and returned to Ireland in 1790.Freer, p. 290

Napoleonic wars

Following the outbreak of war with France, the flank companies of the regiment sailed for the West Indies and in March 1794 took part in the capture of

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

. Meanwhile, the battalion companies of the 38th served in the Low Countries with the Duke of York. In 1796 the regiment was reunited in the West Indies and in May 1796 took part in the capture of

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindian ...

and the capture of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

in 1797. After taking part in the capture of the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

in January 1806, it embarked for South America where it fought under General William Beresford at the capture of Montevideo in January 1807 and at the attack on

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

in July 1807 during the British invasions of the River Plate. The 1st battalion embarked for the Peninsular in June 1808 and saw action at the

Battle of Roliça In the Battle of Roliça (17 August 1808) an Anglo-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated an outnumbered Imperial French division under General of Division Henri François Delaborde, near the village of Roliça in Portugal. The ...

in August 1808, the Battle of Vimeiro later in August 1808, and the retreat to Corunna under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore in June 1809.Freer, p. 291 The 1st battalion also took part in the disastrous Walcheren Campaign in autumn 1809. The 1st battalion returned to the Peninsular in spring 1812 and took part in the

Battle of Salamanca The Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of Arapiles) on 22July 1812 was a battle in which an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, so ...

in July 1812,Freer, p. 294 the

siege of Burgos At the siege of Burgos, from 19 September to 21 October 1812, the Anglo-Portuguese Army led by General Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington tried to capture the castle of Burgos from its French garrison under the command of General of ...

in September 1812,Freer, p. 298 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813Freer, p. 305 as well as the siege of San Sebastián in September 1813.Freer, p. 306 It then pursued the French Army into France and fought at the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813,Freer, p. 307 at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813 and at the

Battle of Orthez The Battle of Orthez (27 February 1814) saw the Anglo-Spanish-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington attack an Imperial French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France. The outnumbered Fr ...

in February 1814 as well as at the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814 and at the

Battle of Bayonne The Battle of Bayonne (14 April 1814) saw the French garrison of Bayonne led by General of Division Pierre Thouvenot launch a sortie against a besieging force of British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops commanded by Lieutenant General John Hop ...

later in April 1814. Meanwhile, the 2nd battalion took part in the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810 and the siege of Badajoz in March 1812.

The Victorian era

The regiment was sent to the

for service in the

Fifth Xhosa War The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The ...

in 1818 and then to India in 1822 from where it was deployed to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

for service in the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824.Freer, p. 308 It returned to England in May 1836 and proceeded to Ireland in May 1837 before embarking for Zante in the

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...

in September 1840. It went on to

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in March 1843 and to

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

in November 1845 before proceeding to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

in April 1848. After returning to England in August 1851, it was dispatched to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

for service in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

in April 1854. It took part in the Battle of the Alma in September 1854, Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and the siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854.Freer, p. 309 The regiment then embarked for India in August 1857 and saw action at the

Capture of Lucknow The Capture of Lucknow (Hindi: लखनऊ का क़ब्ज़ा, ur, ) was a battle of Indian rebellion of 1857. The British recaptured the city of Lucknow which they had abandoned in the previous winter after the relief of a besieg ...

in March 1858 during

Indian Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

. It also took part in the expedition against the Black Mountain tribes in 1868 before returning to England in 1871. As part of the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attention ...

of the 1870s, where single-battalion regiments were linked together to share a single depot and recruiting district in the United Kingdom, the 38th was linked with the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers), and assigned to district no. 19 at

Whittington Barracks DMS Whittington, otherwise known as Defence Medical Services Whittington (formerly Whittington Barracks), is a military base in Whittington, Staffordshire, near Lichfield in England. It is home to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum, the Headquarte ...

. On 1 July 1881 the

came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) to form the South Staffordshire Regiment.

Battle honours

The battle honours of the regiment were as follows: * ''South America'': Monte Video * ''Peninsular War'':

Roliça Bombarral () is a municipality in the District of Leiria in Central Portugal. The population in 2011 was 13,193, in an area of . It includes four civil parishes ( pt, freguesia) that provide local services. History It is known that the area of ...

, Vimiera, Corunna, Busaco,

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The population ...

, Salamanca,

Vitoria Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

Nive The Nive (; eu, Errobi; oc, Niva) is a French river that flows through the French Basque Country. It is a left tributary of the river Adour. It is long. The river's source in the Pyrenees in Lower Navarre. The river Nive was made famous by th ...

, Peninsula * ''First Anglo-Burmese War'': Ava * ''Crimean War'':

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...

, Inkerman,

Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

* ''Indian Mutiny'':

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

* ''West Indies'':

Guadeloupe 1759 Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label= Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands— Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and th ...

, Martinique 1762 (''awarded 1909 to successor regiment'')

Regimental colonels

The colonels of the regiment were as follows: ;First raising *1688–1689: Sir John Guise *1689–1693: Jonathan Foulkes *1693-1694: Brig-Gen.

* ''disbanded 1694'' ;Second raising *1694–1696: Brig-Gen.

* ''disbanded 1696'' ;Third raising *1702–1705: ''vacant?'' *1705–1708: Brig-Gen.

*1708–1711: Col. James Jones *1711–1717: Col. Francis Alexander *1717–1729: Col. Richard Lucas *1729–1735: Brig-Gen. Edward Jones *1735–1738: Brig-Gen. Hon. Robert Murray *1738–1739: Gen. Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, KG *1739–1750: Lt-Gen. Robert Dalzell *1750–October 1750: Lt-Gen. Richard Philipps ;38th Regiment of Foot *1751–1756: Lt-Gen.

Alexander Duroure Lieutenant General Alexander Duroure ( – 1 February 1765) was a British Army officer who served as colonel of the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot. He was of Huguenot extraction, the son of Francis Du Roure, a French immigrant who had served ...

*1756–1760: Maj-Gen. Sir James Ross, Bt. *1760–1761: Maj-Gen. David Watson *1761–1762: Maj-Gen. Andrew Robinson *1762–1766: Maj-Gen. Hon. Sharrington Talbot *1766–1775: Lt-Gen.

Cadwallader Blayney, 9th Baron Blayney Lord Blayney, Baron of Monaghan, in the County of Monaghan, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1621 for the soldier Sir Edward Blayney. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He was killed at the Battle of Benburb i ...

*1775–1796: Gen. Sir Robert Pigot, Bt. ;38th (the 1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot - (1782) *1796–1805: Gen.

James Rooke James Rooke or Rook may refer to: * James Rooke (British Army general) (1742–1805), English general and politician * James Rooke (British Legion officer) (1770–1819), British soldier in the Napoleonic wars * James Rook (rowing) (born 1997), Au ...

*1805–1836: Gen. George James Ludlow, 3rd Earl Ludlow, GCB *1836–1836: Maj-Gen. Hon. Sir Charles James Greville, KCB *1836–1840: Gen. Sir

Henry Pigot General Sir Henry Pigot GCMG (1750 – 7 June 1840) was a British Army officer. Military career Born the son of Admiral Hugh Pigot, Pigot was commissioned as a cornet in 1769. He served in the Netherlands in 1793 and, following the Siege of Mal ...

, GCMG *1840–1843: Lt-Gen. Sir

Jasper Nicolls Lieutenant General Sir Jasper Nicolls KCB (15 July 1778 – 4 May 1849) was Commander-in-Chief, India. Military career Born at East Farleigh in Kent and educated at a private school in Ballygall and at Trinity College, Dublin, Nicolls was com ...

, KCB *1843–1862: Gen. Hon. Sir Hugh Arbuthnot, KCB *1862–1876: Gen. Sir

William Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst General William Rose Mansfield, 1st Baron Sandhurst (21 June 1819 – 23 June 1876) was a British military commander who served as Commander-in-Chief of India from 1865 to 1870. In Bombay now Mumbai, there is local train station named after B ...

, GCB, GCSI *1876–1881: Gen. James Pattoun Sparks, CB

History

Early years

Napoleonic wars

The Victorian era

Battle honours

Regimental colonels

References

Sources

Further reading