The 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot (The Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line

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 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 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) in 1881.

History

Formation

The storming of Seringapatam - John Vendramini, 1802 - BL P779

The regiment was raised by General James Marsh 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 ...

due to fears that war with France was imminent as the 77th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot in October 1787. In accordance with the Declaratory Act 1788 the cost of raising the regiment was recharged to the British

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. First assembled in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

in early 1788, the regiment arrived in India in August 1788, and saw action at the siege of Seringapatam in February 1792 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 the capture of the Dutch settlements in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1795. It also saw action at the

Battle of Seedaseer The Battle of Seedaseer was a battle of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War on 6 March 1799 at Seedaseer (near present-day Siddapura, Karnataka), a hill and pass on the border of the Coorg and Mysore country seven miles from Piriyapatna and with a view ...

in March 1799 and formed part of the storming part at the siege of Seringapatam in April 1799 during the

Fourth Anglo-Mysore War The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99. This was the final conflict of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. The British captured ...

. The regiment also took part in skirmishes at Panjalamcoorchy in March 1801 and Caliarcoil in October 1801 during the

Polygar Wars The Polygar Wars or Palaiyakkarar Wars were wars fought between the Polygars ('' Palaiyakkarars'') of the former Tirunelveli Kingdom in Tamil Nadu, India and the British East India Company forces between March 1799 to May 1802 or July 1805. T ...

. The regiment then embarked for England in February 1807. On 29 May 1807 one of the ships carrying the soldiers home, the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

'', was off 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 ...

when she sprang a leak. She sank almost due south of

Cape Agulhas Cape Agulhas (; pt, Cabo das Agulhas , "Cape of the Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of the African continent and the beginning of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian ...

. There was no loss of life; the East Indiaman ''St Vincent'', which was in company, managed to get all 203 or 209 persons on board ''Ganges'' off, including a number of soldiers from the regiment.

Napoleonic Wars

The regiment was given a county designation, becoming the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot in 1807. It 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 been granted permission to bear the plumes and motto of the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

as a badge in commemoration of twenty years service in India in February 1810, it embarked for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in June 1811 for service 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 ...

. It saw action at the

Battle of El Bodón The Battle of El Bodón was a successful rearguard action fought on 25 September 1811 by elements of the Anglo-Portuguese army against waves of French cavalry, supported by a division of infantry of the French army during the Peninsular W ...

in September 1811, the

siege of Ciudad Rodrigo Sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo are a series of sieges of the Spanish town Ciudad Rodrigo. Specific sieges are: * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1370) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1707) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1810) * Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) ...

in January 1812 and the siege of Badajoz in March 1812. The regiment then fought 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 ...

in April 1814 before returning home in August 1814.

The Victorian era

The regiment embarked for

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 February 1824 and lost many men to

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a body temperature, temperature above the human body temperature, normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, set point. There is not a single ...

there before returning home in June 1834. It embarked for

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 November 1837 and for

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 February 1842. It then embarked for Jamaica again in January 1843 and went on to Halifax in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) 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. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in January 1846 before embarking for home in May 1848. It sailed for Malta in March 1854 and, having landed at Scutari in April 1854, saw action at the

Battle of Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septem ...

in September 1854, the

Battle of Inkerman The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, an ...

in November 1854 and at the siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854. Sergeant John Park and Private Alexander Wright were awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

for their actions during the war. The regiment returned home in July 1856. The regiment embarked for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in June 1857 and then sailed for India in April 1858 to help suppress the

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 ...

before embarking for home again in April 1870. The regiment became 77th (the East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot (The Duke of Cambridge's Own) in June 1876 and were permitted to bear the coronet and cypher of

Prince George, Duke of Cambridge Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (George William Frederick Charles; 26 March 1819 – 17 March 1904) was a member of the British royal family, a grandson of King George III and cousin of Queen Victoria. The Duke was an army officer by professio ...

on its colours and badges from December 1876. It embarked for India again in August 1880.Woollright, p. 121 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 77th was linked with the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot, and assigned to district no. 50 at

Hounslow Barracks Cavalry Barracks is a former British Army installation located north of Hounslow Heath in Hounslow, west London. Hounslow was one of 40 new barracks established around the country in the wake of the French Revolution, to guard against the dual t ...

. On 1 July 1881 the

came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment).

Battle honours

Battle honours won by the regiment were: * Fourth Anglo-Mysore War:

Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...

* Peninsular War:

Ciudad Rodrigo Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district. The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky rise on the right bank ...

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 ...

, Peninsula * 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 Inkerman ( uk, Інкерман, russian: Инкерман, crh, İnkerman) is a city in the Crimean peninsula. It is '' de facto'' within the federal city of Sevastopol within the Russian Federation, but '' de jure'' within Ukraine. It li ...

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 ...

Victoria Cross recipients

*Sergeant John Park,

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 ...

(19 April 1855) *Private Alexander Wright, Crimean War (22 March 1855 and 19 April 1855)

Colonels of the Regiment

Colonels of the Regiment were:

77th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot

*1787–1804: Gen. James Marsh *1804–1808: Gen. Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey

77th (the East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot - (1807)

*1808–1811: Gen.

Richard Lambart, 7th Earl of Cavan Richard Ford William Lambart, 7th Earl of Cavan (10 September 1763 – 21 November 1837), styled Viscount Kilcoursie from 1772 to 1778, was a British military commander throughout the Napoleonic era and beyond. He became head of the British Army ...

, KC *1811: Gen. Sir Charles Hastings, Bt. *1811–1815: Lt-Gen. Sir

Thomas Picton Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton (24 August 175818 June 1815) was a British Army officer who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero, Picton was "respected for his courage and feared for his irascible t ...

, GCB *1815–1834: Lt-Gen. Sir George Cooke, KCB *1834–1840: Lt-Gen. Sir Archibald Campbell, Bt., GCB (of Ava) *1840–1851: Lt-Gen. Sir John Macleod, CB, KCH *1851–1854: Gen. Sir

George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * G ...

, GCB, KH *1854–1861: Gen. Sir George Leigh Goldie, KCB *1861–1875: Gen.

Henry Robinson-Montagu, 6th Baron Rokeby General Henry Robinson-Montague, 6th Baron Rokeby, (2 February 1798 – 25 May 1883) was a senior British Army officer of the 19th century. Military career Born the son of the 4th Baron, Rokeby was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 18 ...

, GCB *1875–1881: Gen. Henry Hope Graham, CB

References

Sources

* * * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 77 Military units and formations established in 1787 Regiments of the British Army in the Crimean War Military units and formations disestablished in 1881 Military units and formations in Middlesex Middlesex Regiment 1787 establishments in Great Britain Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in the Peninsular War