The 98th (Prince of Wales) 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 ...
. It was originally raised in 1824 as the 98th Regiment of Foot, before assuming the title of the 98th (Prince of Wales) Regiment of Foot in 1876. Later, in 1881, following the Childers Reforms of the British Army, the regiment was amalgamated with the 64th Regiment of Foot to become the
Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment. As the 64th Foot was senior to the 98th, the 98th became the 2nd Battalion in the new regiment. Throughout the course of the regiment's existence it served mostly overseas in South Africa, China and India.
History
Formation
The 98th Foot was raised in
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
by
Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
Mildmay Fane
Mildmay Fane (c. October 1689 – 11 September 1715) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 8 months in 1715, before his early death.
Fane was the fifth son of Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland and his wife Rachel, daught ...
in response to the threat posed by the
French intervention in Spain in March 1824. It was the sixth regiment to be numbered the 98th Foot. The first
Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
of the regiment was
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Henry Conran. The first set of
colours
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
were presented by the Duchess of Richmond at a ceremony at Chichester on 6 October 1824.
In December 1824 the new regiment was posted to South Africa where for all bar two years of its 13-year tour it was based in Cape Town, the other two years being in Grahamstown. During the entire tour no active service was seen. Returning to England in 1837 the regiment was based for two years in Newcastle upon Tyne where it was frequently called out to support the civil powers during the
Chartist unrests. At this point command of the regiment was taken over by its most famous commanding officer,
Sir Colin Campbell who commanded the regiment for 12 years between 1835 and 1847.
The Victorian era
![98th Foot at Chinkiang](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/98th_Foot_at_Chinkiang.jpg)
In 1841 the regiment moved to Ireland but very shortly afterwards was sent to China during the
First Opium War
The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...
. Arriving in Hong Kong in 1842 it formed part of the 1st Brigade, commanded by Major General
Lord Saltoun
Lord Saltoun, of Abernethy, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1445 for Sir Lawrence Abernethy. The title remained in the Abernethy family until the death in 1669 of his descendant the tenth Lady Saltoun. She was succeeded ...
, along with the
26th Foot, the Bengal Volunteer Battalion and the grenadier and light companies of the 41st Madras Native Infantry. The brigade
advanced on Chinkiang and after an ineffective pursuit of retreating Chinese forces took part in the final advance on
Nanking
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
. During this war very few battle casualties were taken but over 50 died from cholera with another over 200 unfit for duty. As a result of its participation in the war, the regiment was awarded its first battle honour "The DRAGON superscribed CHINA". A move to Hong Kong followed where the appalling death rate from disease continued with over 500 dying and sick. This loss of life affected the 98th's commander,
Sir Colin Campbell; his biographer,
Adrian Greenwood
Adrian Mark Greenwood (October 1973 – 6 April 2016) was a British historian, biographer, author, and art dealer, with a particular interest in nineteenth-century British military history. As well as hundreds of articles on antiques and collec ...
, argues that Campbell was suffering from manic depression at the time.
The next move was to India in 1846. Initially the regiment was based in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
(Kolkata) and
Dinapore
Danapur is a Indian satellite town and one of the 6 sub-divisions (Tehsil) in Patna district of Bihar state.[Second Anglo-Sikh War
The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company, British East India Company that took place in 1848 and 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab r ...](_blank)
, a second battle honour – PUNJAUB – was awarded. From here the regiment was one of the first British units to serve on the
North West Frontier and spent 1849–1851 in and around the Kohat Pass area. The governor-general of India, had instructed Sir Colin Campbell to take the 98th on a series of punitive raids against
Pathan
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
tribesmen, in order to force them to pay taxes levied by the
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 ...
, but Campbell refused and was forced to resign and return to England.
By 1851 the regiment had been abroad for a total of nine years and in that time it had suffered over 1,100 deaths, mostly from sickness, with almost 200 invalided home. The last three years of the posting were spent in Calcutta before the regiment returned to England in 1855.
Following three years on home service the regiment returned to India and the North West Frontier. As a result, it saw no service in the
Indian Mutiny
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...
. Instead it was employed as part of the Sittana Field Force sent to deal with the so-called Hindustani Fanatics.
The regiment returned home in 1867 and then in 1870 moved to Ireland for three years. During this time it dealt with minor disturbance including a mutiny by the Tipperary Light Infantry Militia. 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 98th was linked with the
64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot
The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was created as the 2nd Battalion, 11th Regiment of Foot in 1756, redesignated as the 64th Regiment of Foot in 1758, and took a county title ...
, and assigned to district no. 20 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 ...
,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
.
The next posting was to the West Indies from 1873 to 1880 followed by a move to Malta. It was in Malta following the presentation of what transpired to be the last set of regimental colours by
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 o ...
that the regiment became the 98th (Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot on 27 October 1876.
Amalgamation
War broke out in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in 1879 and in 1880 in response the regiment moved once more to India being based initially at
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...
. It was here that in 1881 the eventual conclusion of 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 ...
took effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 64th Foot and with militia and rifle volunteer units in Northern Staffordshire to form the
Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment. As the junior regiment the 98th Foot became the 2nd Battalion of the new regiment.
[
The regiment was renamed The North Staffordshire (The Prince of Wales's) Regiment in 1920. In 1959 the North Staffordshire and ]South Staffordshire Regiment
The South Staffordshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for only 68 years. The regiment was created in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot an ...
s amalgamated to form the Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's). In September 2007 The Staffordshire Regiment amalgamated with the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment and the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment
The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot) (abbreviated as ''WFR'') was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. The regiment served as the county regiment for Derbyshire, Nottingham ...
to form the Mercian Regiment
The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire, Worcesters and Foresters, and Staffords) is an infantry regiment of the British Army, which is recruited from five of the counties that formed the ancient kingdom of Mercia. Known as 'The Heart of England's Infant ...
, in which the Staffords became the 3rd (Staffordshire) Battalion. The Dragon device is still carried on the colours and drums of the Mercian Regiment.[
]
Battle honours
The 98th Foot was granted the following battle honours:
* The DRAGON superscribed CHINA (1842);
* PUNJAUB (1848).
Colonels of the Regiment
Colonels of the Regiment were:
*1824–1829: Lt-Gen. Henry Conron
*1829–1832: Lt-Gen. Sir Samuel Venables Hinde, KB
*1832–1836: Maj-Gen. Hon. Sir Charles James Greville, KCB
*1836–1839: Lt-Gen. John Ross, CB
*1839–1854: Gen. Sir Willoughby Cotton
Lieutenant General Sir Willoughby Cotton (1783 – 4 May 1860) was a British soldier.
Family
Willoughby Cotton was born in 1783, to Vice-Admiral Rowland Cotton and Elizabeth Aston. They also had a daughter, Sydney Arabella Cotton. Rowland Cot ...
, GCB, KCH
*1854–1863: Gen. William Lindsay Darling
*1863–1864: Maj-Gen. Robert Henry Wynyard
Robert Henry Wynyard (24 December 1802 – 6 January 1864) was a New Zealand colonial administrator, serving at various times as Lieutenant Governor of New Ulster Province, Administrator of the Government, and was the first Superintendent o ...
, CB
*1864–1881: Gen. Sir Robert Percy Douglas
General Sir Robert Percy Douglas, 4th Baronet (29 August 1805 – 30 September 1891) was a British Army officer who became Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.
Early life
The son of General Sir Howard Douglas, 3rd Baronet, Douglas was educated at ...
, Bt.
See also
* List of regiments of the British Army
The structure of the British Army is being reorganised to the Future Soldier structure. The Army is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff (CGS), with Army Headquarters which is located in Andover, Hampshire. Subordinate to that post, the ...
* Staffordshire Regiment Museum
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
Official British Army Website of the 98th Regiment of Foot
{{DEFAULTSORT:98th (Prince Of Wales's) Regiment Of Foot
Infantry regiments of the British Army
North Staffordshire Regiment
Military units and formations established in 1824
Military units and formations in Staffordshire
Military units and formations disestablished in 1881
1824 establishments in the United Kingdom