The 76th Regiment of Foot was a
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 ...
regiment, raised in 1787. 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
33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment to form the
Duke of Wellington's Regiment
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division.
In 1702, Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he di ...
in 1881.
History
Formation
The regiment was raised by
Sir Thomas Musgrave, 7th Baronet
General Sir Thomas Musgrave, 7th Baronet (1737 – 1812) was an English soldier. He rose to the rank of general in the British Army and was noted for his service during the American Revolutionary War. He is one of the Musgrave baronets.
Famil ...
for service in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
as the 76th Regiment of Foot in October 1787.
In accordance with the Declaratory Act 1788 the cost of raising the regiment was recharged to
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
on the basis that the act required that expenses "should be defrayed out of the revenues" arising there.
[ The majority of recruits were raised from ]Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
and Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
, but many of them also came from the Musgrave family estates around Hayton Castle, near Aspatria, Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
.
The Royal Warrant for their raising was issued on 12 October 1787 and read:
GEORGE R.
''Whereas We have thought fit to order a Regt of Foot to be''
''forthwith raised under your Command, which is to consist of ten''
''Companies, with 3 Sergts, 4 Corpls, 2 Drumrs & 71 private Men''
''in each, with two Fifers to the Grenadier Compy and one''
''Compy, of 8 Sergts, 8 Corpls, 4 Drumrs & 30 private Men with''
''the usuals Comd. Officers, these are to authorise you by Beat of''
''Drum or otherwise to raise so many Men in any Country or part''
''of our Kingdom of Great Britain as shall be wanted to complete''
''the said Regt, to the above mentioned numbers. And all above''
''Given the 12th October. 1787 in the 27th Year of Our Reign.''
''By H.M.'s Command (Sd.) Geo. Yonge''
India
The regiment embarked for India in 1788 for service in the Third Anglo-Mysore War
The Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792) was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company, the Kingdom of Travancore, the Maratha Empire, and the Nizam of Hyderabad. It was the third of four Anglo- ...
and saw action at the Siege of Bangalore in February 1791 and the Siege of Seringapatam in February 1792. The regiment also saw service in the Second Anglo-Maratha War
}
The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) was the second conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India.
Background
The British had supported the "fugitive" Peshwa Raghunathrao in the First Anglo-Maratha War, ...
and fought at the Siege of Aligarh
The siege of Aligarh also known as the Battle of Aligarh was fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company during the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–1805) at Aligarh, India.
Aligarh Fort, one of the strongest forts ...
in September 1803.[Thackeray, chapter 2] The regiment laid siege to Aligarh Fort
Aligarh Fort (''Aligarh Qila'') is located in the patwari nagla city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. It is also called "Aligarh Qila". Most part of it is damaged and only ruins remain. The fort is situated near the Grand Trunk Road and consists of a ...
, a fort commanded by a French mercenary officer Pierre Perron
Pierre Perron (born March 14, 1959) is a Canadian econometrician at Boston University. Perron is known for the Phillips–Perron test of a unit root
In probability theory and statistics, a unit root is a feature of some stochastic processes ( ...
and captured it from the Maratha
The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...
s. The French prepared for the siege by lining 14 ditches around the fort with sword-blades and poisoned chevaux-de-frise
The ''cheval de frise'' (plural: ''chevaux de frise'' , " Frisian horses") is a defensive obstacle, which existed in a number of forms and were employed in various applications. These included underwater constructions used to prevent the pas ...
. The walls were reinforced with French artillery, and the French also used tigers and lions of Scindia
The Scindia dynasty (anglicized from Shinde) is a Hindu Maratha dynasty of maratha origin that ruled the erstwhile State of Gwalior. It had the Patil-ship of Kumberkerrab in Wai. It was founded by Ranoji Scindia, who started as a personal servan ...
's menagerie. During the battle, the British lost as many as 900 soldiers. The regiment went on to fight at the Battle of Delhi in September 1803, the Battle of Laswari
The Battle of Laswari took place on 1 November 1803 near Laswari village, Alwar. It was part of the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
The British under Gerard Lake were anxious to finish the war by neutralizing the last substantial force that the Marath ...
in November 1803, and the Battle of Deeg in November 1804.[ For their distinguished service in these actions, ]King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
authorized the regiment to have the word " Hindoostan" emblazoned upon the regimental colour
In military organizations, the practice of carrying colours (or colors), standards, flags, or guidons, both to act as a rallying point for troops and to mark the location of the commander, is thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt som ...
s, along with an elephant badge with a howdah
A howdah, or houdah (Hindi: हौदा ''haudā''), derived from the Arabic (hawdaj), which means "bed carried by a camel", also known as ''hathi howdah'' (''hāthī haudā'', हाथी हौदा), is a carriage which is positioned o ...
atop the elephant, also inscribed with the word "Hindoostan". The regiment returned to England and became the 76th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot in October 1806.[
]
Napoleonic Wars
In 1807, the regiment was deployed to Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
in the Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
for garrison duty, remaining there until 1808, when it was deployed to Spain to take part in the Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
.[ The regiment took part in the ]Battle of Corunna
The Battle of Corunna (or ''A Coruña'', ''La Corunna'', ''La Coruña'' or ''La Corogne''), in Spain known as Battle of Elviña, took place on 16 January 1809, when a French corps under Marshal of the Empire Jean de Dieu Soult attacked a Briti ...
in January 1809 and was evacuated from the Peninsula later that month.[ The regiment took part in the disastrous ]Walcheren Campaign
The Walcheren Campaign ( ) was an unsuccessful British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Sir John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham ...
in autumn 1809 and, having reverted to the title of 76th Regiment of Foot in 1812,[ returned to the Peninsula in 1813 seeing action at the ]Battle of Nivelle
The Battle of Nivelle (10 November 1813) took place in front of the river Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War (1808–1814). After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops (20,0 ...
in November 1813 and the Battle of the Nive
The Battles of the Nive (9–13 December 1813) were fought towards the end of the Peninsular War. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army on French soil ...
in December 1813. It then embarked for North America for service in the War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
and saw action at the Battle of Plattsburgh
The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final British invasion of the northern states of the United States during the War of 1812. An army under Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadro ...
in September 1814.
The Victorian era
The regiment did not return from North America until 1827.[ It was garrisoned in ]Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
until 1834 when it departed for 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 ...
.[Hayden, p. 112] It went to the Bermuda Garrison
The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British Army and its local militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The garrison evolved fr ...
(part of the Nova Scotia Command until 1868, when Bermuda was made an independent command), and on to Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in 1841 before returning home in 1842. The regiment were deployed to South Wales later in the year to help suppress the Rebecca Riots
The Rebecca Riots (Welsh: ''Terfysgoedd Beca'') took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often me ...
. After that the regiment went to Corfu
Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...
in 1848 and on to Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
in 1850 before sailing for Saint John, New Brunswick
Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...
in March 1853. It was garrisoned at Fredericton
Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...
in New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
[ before embarking for home again in September 1857. It embarked for India in September 1863 and was stationed in Fort St. George, Madras][ before moving on 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 ...
in January 1868, returning to India again in 1870 and sailing for England in 1876.[Hayden, p. 130]
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 76th was linked with the 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment, and assigned to district no. 9 at Wellesley Barracks
Wellesley Barracks is a military installation in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.
History
The barracks was built in the Fortress Gothic Revival Style as a depot for the 33rd and 76th Regiment's. On 1 April 1873 the depot was established, w ...
in Halifax. On 1 July 1881 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 ...
came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment to form the Duke of Wellington's Regiment
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division.
In 1702, Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he di ...
.[
]
Battle honours
The regiment's battle honours were:[
*Hindoostan
*Peninsular War: ]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 t ...
, Peninsula
Colonels
Colonels of the Regiments were:[
;76th Regiment of Foot (1787) ;76th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot (1806)
*1787–1812: Gen. ]Sir Thomas Musgrave, 7th Baronet
General Sir Thomas Musgrave, 7th Baronet (1737 – 1812) was an English soldier. He rose to the rank of general in the British Army and was noted for his service during the American Revolutionary War. He is one of the Musgrave baronets.
Famil ...
;76th Regiment of Foot (1812)
*1813–1814: Lt.-Gen. Sir George Prévost
Sir George Prévost, 1st Baronet (19 May 1767 – 5 January 1816) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who is most well known as the "Defender of Canada" during the War of 1812. Born in New Jersey, the eldest son of Genevan Augu ...
*1814–1834: Lt-Gen Christopher Chowne
General Christopher Chowne (1771–15 July 1834), born Christopher Tilson and also known as Christopher Tilson-Chowne, was a British Army officer most notable for his service in the Peninsular War. He joined the army in 1788 and after periods of ...
*1834–1836: Gen. Sir Peregrine Maitland
General Sir Peregrine Maitland, GCB (6 July 1777 – 30 May 1854) was a British soldier and colonial administrator. He also was a first-class cricketer from 1798 to 1808 and an early advocate for the establishment of what would become the Canad ...
, GCB
*1843: Lt-Gen. George Middlemore
Lieutenant-General George Middlemore (died 18 November 1850, Tunbridge Wells) was a British Army officer and the first Governor of Saint Helena.
Originally commissioned in the 86th Regiment of Foot, he rose to command the 48th Regiment of Fo ...
, CB
*1843–1853: Lt-Gen. Sir Robert Arbuthnot, KCB
*1853–1862: Gen. William Jervois
Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (10 September 1821 – 17 August 1897) was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 18 ...
, KH
*1862–1871: Lt-Gen. Joseph Clarke
*1871–1875: Lt-Gen. Matthew Smith
*1875–1881: Gen. Frederick Darley George, CB
*''1881: Regiment amalgamated with 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment of Foot as the second battalion''
References
Sources
*
*
*
Further reading
*
{{Regiments of Foot
76 Regiment of Foot
Regiments of the British Army in the American Revolutionary War
British military units and formations of the War of 1812
The Duke of Wellington's Regiment
Military units and formations established in 1787
Military units and formations disestablished in 1881
1787 establishments in Great Britain
1881 disestablishments in the United Kingdom