Leicestershire regiment
The Regiment, which was to become the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, was formed in London during the last months of the troubled reign of James the 2nd. On the 27th September, 1688, Colonel Solomon Richards was commissioned by His Majesty to raise a foot regiment of thirteen Companies each of sixty men. The first duty of this Regiment was to mount guard at Windsor Castle. In February 1689 the Prince and Princess of Orange assumed the throne of England as King William and Queen Mary. The Regiment swore its allegiance to the Protestants interests of the new King and Queen, and soon it was fighting across the Channel in Flanders with the British army commanded by King William in person.
The Regiment won special distinction at the Siege of Namur in 1695. This was during the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-97) when an over mighty Louis the 14th of France fought an inefficient alliance of Britain, Holland, Spain, Germany and Austria. Namur had the reputation of being the strongest fortress in Flanders. The Colonel of the Regiment, John Courthorpe, two other officers, and 101 sergeants and rank and file were killed. The Regiment served in Flanders until the end of the war.
In 1701 the Regiment was ordered to re-join the Allied Army in the Low Countries in the continuing struggle against Louis the 14th of France. It fought with distinction under The Duke of Marlborough throughout the campaigns of 1702 and 1703.
In the autumn of 1703 Portugal joined the Allied Army and it was decided to send British troops to Portugal in order to place Charles of Austria on the throne of Spain. Marlborough agreed to send four regiments form Holland, commenting “All four old regiments are I think very good ones, Sir Matthew Bridges’ (17th) is the strongest I have. In 1705 it was engaged in the siege and capture of the Spanish fortresses of Valencia, Albuquerque, and Badajoz. The next year the Regiment gained distinction at another siege, the fortified town of Alcan Tara.
In 1707 the Regiment fought with great bravery in the battle of Almanza where Galway was defeated by a superior France-Spanish force. Colonel Blood later died of his wounds and the Duke of Marlborough in a despatch refers to him as being “much lamented for his bravery and experience”. After Almanza the Regiment spent two more years in Portugal and Spain before returning to England. In 1713 at the end of the war, the Regiment adopted the official title of the 17th Foot. In 1725 it went to Minorca and remained there for twenty-five years of uneasy peace.
In 1756 Britain found herself committed to another great war against France. This time one of the main areas of dispute was Canada, over which the French claimed sovereignty. On the outbreak of war the regiment was sent to the British outposts of Nova Scotia on the eastern seaboard of Canada. Here it was joined by an English army under General Amherst which included General Wolfe’s Brigade. It was in this famous Brigade that the 17th foot took part in the siege and capture of the French fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The 17th Foot waded ashore waist-deep in water under heavy fire and pursued the French to the gates of the town which was besieged for 49 days.
Next year the 17th foot took part in two operations which led to the conquest of Canada. Under Amherst it contributed to the French defeat at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga. The Grenadier Company remained under Wolfe. He decided to attack Quebec which was considered impregnable. Without waiting for reinforcements Wolfe led the Brigade in a night
assault from the St. Lawrence River up the steep cliffs of the heights of Abraham. In the battle on the top of the Heights the Brigade defeated a French force nearly three times its strength. At this moment of victory Wolfe was fatally wounded. Thus died one of England’s most famous Generals at the age of 34. The Regiment honoured his memory by playing Wolfe’s Lament on ceremonial occasions, black lace was worn on officers’ mess dress and a black crepe ribbon was laid the length of the dining table on guest nights.
The Regiment landed at Boston on New years Day 1776 and in August it fought under General Howe at Brooklyn and afterwards occupied New York. Building operations in this great city still unearth relics of the Regiment such as badges and buttons, some of which are on display in the Royal Tigers gallery. Early on the misty morning of 3rd January, 1777, the 17th Foot, about 250 strong, under Colonel Mawhood, marched from Princeton to Trenton. To the surprise of both sides it met some 3,000 American soldiers under the personal command of General George Washington. Reckless of the odds the 17th Foot at once attacked, drove the American vanguard through an orchard, captured a battery of guns and then found themselves surrounded by the enemy main force. Still unbroken, with drums beating and bayonets fixed, the 17th broke their way out of this circle carried their Colours to safety at a cost of 101 killed
In August 1782 orders were issued for the 17th Regiment to assume, in addition to its number, the title Leicestershire. The Regiment was to “cultivate a connection with that County, which might at all times be useful towards recruiting”. The first record of the Regiment being stationed in the County is from March to May 1799, prior to taking part in an expedition against the Dutch and the French
The French Revolution brought further unrest to Europe and a rebellion in Ireland which was savagely suppressed. For its service in Ireland the Leicestershire Militia was given the Irish Harp badge. The 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment was expanded to two battalions both of which took part in the duke of York’s abortive expedition to Holland in 1799.
British trade and political interest in India had been expanding for over 100 years when the Regiment was ordered there in 1804. It took part in a series of small wars and punitive
expeditions, fighting at Bundlekund in 1807, on the Sutlej in 1808 and later in Nepal against the Ghurkas 1813-14. The Regiment returned home in 1823 and on 25th June, King George the 4th approved the Regiment to bear “on its colours and appointments the figure of the ‘ROYAL TIGER’ with the word ‘HINDOOSTAN’ superscribed, as a lasting testimony of the
exemplary conduct of the Corps during the period of service in India from 1804 to1823.
After a brief spell at home and in Australia the Regiment returned to India in 1837. India’s north-west frontier was the buffer zone between modern Pakistan and Afghanistan. This was a period when fear of Russian expansion and real or imagined Russian intrigues in Afghanistan led to British intervention and small wars in this region.
On the outbreak of war against Russia, the Regiment was in Gibraltar. It was one of the first British regiments to land in the Crimea. There it experienced the rigours of the siege of
Sebastopol, taking part in the fierce and prolonged assaults on the Russian fort known as the Great Redan. It was here that Sergeant Philip Smith won the Regiment’s first Victoria Cross.
In 1858 a 2nd Battalion of the Regiment was formed and it went to Canada where British garrisons were still stationed. The 1st Battalion returned to India and served in the second
Afghan War, taking part in operations which secured the Khyber Pass on the North West frontier, including the capture of the Afghan fortress of Alimasjid.
In 1881 the infantry was re-organised on a County basis. Regimental numbers were abolished, except for precedence and the Regiment became THE LEICESTERHSIRE REGIMENT. In July 1881 the Headquarters of the Regimental District opened at Glen Parva Barracks, the name later being changed to the Regimental Depot, The Leicestershire Regiment
A few months before the Boer War broke out a number of British battalions, including The Leicestershire Regiment, were sent from India to Natal and The Leicestershire’s were stationed at Glencoe, in the north of Natal. It thus formed part of the brigade of General Sir William Penn Symons and took part in the attack on the Boer positions at Talana Hill in October 1899. In a grim fight the Battalion gained the hill with heavy casualties. Penn Symons was mortally wounded and the Commander-in Chief, General Sir George White, VC, ordered the force to withdraw to Ladysmith.
On the 30th, in the battle of Ladysmith, the Leicesters were with Colonel Grimwood on the right and had a very trying day. They had about 24 casualties. After the siege began the Leicesters
occupied posts on the north side and, in the Boer attack on Platrand on 6 January 1900, the Leicester’s successfully defended a diversionary attack by the Boers, to the north perimeter against their fortifications.
The siege of Ladysmith lasted until 28th February 1900, during which the garrison was reduced to starvation rations and many were killed or died of disease.
When, Ladysmith having been relieved and its garrison recuperated, Sir Redvers Buller moved north, the Leicesters were brigaded with the 1st Liverpool, 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and 1st King’s Royal Rifles. After re-organisation and rest, the Battalion joined the 4th Division in General Buller’s Natal Field Force, and took part in the storming of Laing’s Nek and the Lyndenberg operations which carried the war into the Orange Free State and Transvaal during the summer of 1900. The Third (Militia) Battalion volunteered for service in South Africa and took an active part in the guerrilla operations under Kitchener which ended the war.
In his despatch of 10th October 1900 Lord Roberts mentions that in the operations about Badfontein on the way to Lydenburg the Leicesters and 1st King’s Royal Rifles pulled a field battery up a steep hill, which did much to assist in compelling the enemy to bolt.
After marching to Lydenburg with General Buller, and taking part in his other operations north of the Delagoa line, the Leicesters remained in the Eastern Transvaal, sometimes trekking, as in General French’s operations or, sometimes doing garrison duty. That their work was consistently good is proved by the fact that they got rather more than an average number of mentions in Lord Kitchener’s despatches during the war.
For a long time prior to the close of the war they occupied blockhouses on the Standerton-Ermelo road.
Tom Marston the last RSM of the Leicester regiment at Leicester Fort Ladysmith 1999
See article by George Jones
See www.angloboerwar.com forfurther details