Irish Regiments.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 October 1922, Page 4

Irish Regiments.

FAMOUS CORPS DISBANDED. THEIII IMPERIAL SERVICE. (Bv F. M. Cutiaek in Sydney j “Herald.”) ' Great numbers of people in every part of the Empire have read with no little regret of the passing away of six famous Irish infantry regiments. The retrenchment scheme within the British army is not responsible for their , disbandment; it is a result of the treaty with the Sinn Fciners which esablishes the Irish Free. State. Only the Royal InniskiUing Fusiliers, cut clown to one battalion, remain as be-

fore. Another old regiment—also predominantly North Irish—the Royal Irish Rifles, will live on in the army as the Royal Ulster Rifles. But six grand old regiments are to go:— ! The ltoyal Irish Regiment, old 18th Foot. _ ' The Royal Irish Fusiliers, old 87th and 89th Foot . i The Connaught Rangers, old 88th and 91th Foot. 1 The Leinster Regiment, old 100th and 109th Foot. The Koval Munster Fusiliers, the 101st and' 104th Foot. i The. Royal Dublin Fusiliers, old

102iul and 103 Foot. ! The Secretary for War. subsequent to the announcement of disbandment, declared that it might be possible to regain one battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers in place of one of the two battalions of In ni.sk filings. I k AN IMPERIAL SERVICE. I I Thore is no part of the. Empire | whoso history is not concerned at some i point or other with these Irish corps. 1 Several Canadian militia, units are directly allied with the Loinstcrs and ( | the Ministers. Similarly the 7th Wei- , I lington Regiment of New Zealand, is

allied with the Royal Irish Regiment, a relic of the period of service of the 2nd Battalion of the' Royal Irish Regiment in the Maori AVar in the sixties, which returned to England via Australia in 1871. The Dublins’ history is connected with the old Now South AA r ales Corps, which also bore (in (1789) tho regimental number 1113. This corps, “after long and demoralisin'/ service in that settlement,” relates the official history of the Dublins, “'was brought into the line as the 102nd Foot in 1809, and was ordered home soon afterwards.” The I,clusters actually embodied colonial units

raised to help the motherland at the , time of the Indian Mutiny, and, in j commemoration of a Canadian fusion, the Ist Leinsters’ full title was “The Ist Prince of AA’alts’ Leinster Regi- , ment (Royal Canadians).” At the. beginning of the Crimean War in 1854 ; offers of service were made by Canad- j in its to the British Government, but it was not deemed expedient at the time to accept them. When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857 a fur- j tlier offer was made by a number of j officers of Canadian volunteers to raise a regiment for service in India. ! and this time it was accepted. The j regiment thus formed was ordered lo ■ be taken on the strength of the. Bri- j tisli Army, and was styled the 100th : Regiment of Foot, and later the Ist | Leinsters. When it arrived in Eng-! land, however, the mutiny had been j suppressed, and the unit went on foreign service to Gibraltar, and then j subsequently to India. South African volunteers also offered themselves ler • , service in the crisis of the Mutiny, | and a body of .500 Jagars from the j Cape—which arrived on the scene, a iso j ] too late to serve during the. mutiny ] lighting—was drafted into the 3rd j Bombay European Regiment. The 3rd | Bombay Europeans, on the amalgama- j , lion of British ami Indian forces in I j 1802. was incorporated in the British J Army as the HXHIi Foot. With the j institution of the territorial system of nomenclature in the British Army in 1881 the 19th Foot became the 2nd J Leinster (Bombay Infantry) Regiment. The service- offered to the Empire. in time of need in those old days by the then infant dominions (colonies

at that period) may (illy be regarded ns a starting point in the splendid record in Imperial service of dominion iVtizen forces, which was continued through the Soudan War. the South African War, and the late war against the aggn ssion of Germany. GLORY IX INDIA. It is above all with India that the service of these Irish regiments will be for ever associated. 'The colours of all of them are emblazoned with Indian names. Some of them were cradled there. The l.st Dublins sprang from the earlier ]{)2nd Royal Madras Fusiliers, the successors (in turn) of the old .Madras,European Regiment, foundid in 16-15; the 2nd Dublins were descended from the old Hast India Com-

pany’s Ist Bombay European. Regiment (1661), which later became the 103rd Royal Bombay Fusiliers. The Dublin Fusiliers thus date from the original formation of the oldest, of the old Indian regiments. They have fought through livery Indian campaign since the British first appeared there—-with Clive and Eyre, Coote and Wellington and Havelock. They were at Arcot with Clive at the beginning of his military career; they stormed Seringaputam; they relieved Lucknow ; and were in tho capture of C'awnpore. The Bombays (2nd Dublins) were formed to garrison Bombay when Charles II received the settlement as dowry with Catherine of Bragnnza; tho Madras Fusiliers (Ist Dublins) were concerned in thecapture of every Dutch settlement in tiie Indian seas. The Connaught Rangers were with them at Seringapatam and in the,'Ma-hratta wars, so also was the first unit to he numbered the I.ooth Foot (now Ist .Monsters) began in 1652 as a little band of 30 men under an ensign, raised in Bengal by the Fast India Company to guard their Calcutta settlement and trade. This hand had become four companies in 1756; they were in that year almost annihilated in the defence of Fort William against Surajah Dowlali, and a few of them perished in tho Black Hole of Calcutta. The survivors joined by detachments from Madras, became the Bengal European Battalion; this battalion, too, fought in every Indian war, and under the territorial reorganisation it then appeared in Europe as the Ist Ministers more than two hundred years after its formation. The Monsters gained six Victoria Crosses during the Indian Mutiny, and earned the nickname of “The Dirtyshirts” from turning out on one occasion during the mutiny to fight in their shirt sleeves. THE OLDEST REGIMENT. Tho Royal Irish Regiment, the oldest Irish regiment in the service, dates from its incorporation in the British Army in 1688 though it had previously existed in the form of independent companies raised for the purpose of garrisoning Ireland after the days of the Commonwealth. I-ike many other regiments, it served first afloat as , marines. It liogan its army history with William 111, and Marlborough, served throughout their campaigns in Flanders, and made its name early as ] the storming of Namur in 1695. The 18th Foot (as the regiment was then ‘ named) was ordered to support the - assault of the Grenadiers—tho storm ] troops of that period oil a breach in , the rampants; but before- the 18th could arrive tho Grenadiers had attacked and been beaten hack. Unde-

terred by this event, and surging over the ruins, they never paused until tho colours of the regiment were waving triumphantly from the summit of the breach.” This gallant feat, performed under the eye.s of AA’illiam 111., earned the 18th the titlo of “The Royal Regiment bf Foot of Ireland” subsequently shortened to the Royal Irish Regiment. It maintained its csgreat ireputation through all Marlborough’s battles. The Royal Irish was in America in the early part of the war of independence, where it took part in the battle of Lexington. All these regiments except the Leinsters were engaged as soon as war broke out with France in 1793. The Dublins and Ministers (to use their later names) )were already in India, and there the 88th (later the Connaught Rangers) joined them. The Connaughts and the Royal Irish were both with Abercrombie’s expedition against Napoleon in Egypt, and so were the 89th (2nd Royal Irish Fusileers). The 87th (Ist Royal Irish

Fusileers) began the war in the AVest Indies, and when that battalion was recalled for Wellington's campaign in the Peninsula, it. was replaced by both battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment, fn their 12 years’ term in the Indies the Royal Trish buried there 50 officers and 3000 men. In the Peninsula the Connaughts and the Fusileers made their name. The Connaughts formed the forlorn hope at the storming of both Bndajoss and Ciudad Rodrigo; the Fusileers (both battalions) covered themselves with glory, and emerged from the campaign known as the “Faugh-a-Ballaghs” (the. Clear-the-AVavs). Tn China, Afghanistan, the Crimea, South Africa, Egypt, and South Africa again, the names of some or all of these regiments run through every war and almost every battle worth calling a battle. The great war saw them expanded, like all other British

regiments, into many battalions. Besides the regular battalions in the first expeditionary force in France, there ' were units raised under tho New Army recruiting in the 10th, 10th, and 35th (Ulster) divisions, which were purely Irish divisions.