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Devonshire Regiment
Military History Army English Regiments Devonshire |
Photographs and History of the Devonshire Regiment.
during the reign of Queen Victoria.
the Devonshire Regiment, this Regiment had its origins in 1685 and was raised by the Duke of Beaufort as a corps of "Musketeers and Pikemen," to which was attached, later a company of grenadiers. its recruits were from devon, Somerset and Dorset; and these saw service in Ireland at Londonderry, the Boyne, Athlone, Limerick and Lanesboroough; in Flanders at Huy and Limburg; in Portugal at Portalegre; in Spain at Almanza, in the Nehterlands at malplaquet, Mons, Pont-a -Vendin, Douay, Bethune, Aire and St Venant; In America in 1711 at quebec and then at Dunkirk. returning to England in 1714, the regiment took part in the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion and was present at Dunblane. it saw no further active service until 1742, when it took part in the fighting at Dettingen and Fontenoy, but again came home to take part in the Civil war of 1745 at Carlisle, returning to the Continent to fight at Roucoux. |
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Colonel Kinder and the Officers of the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment (1896) The 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment, whose march through their native county in August 1895 will be long remembered in the West of England, is commanded by Colonel D. T. Kinder - who is shown with his dog in the centre of our illustration - an officer held in high regard by all ranks, and also at Army Headquarters, as the recent special extension of the term of his command shows. Our photograph was taken at the Citadel on Plymouth Hoe, shortly before the regiment started its memorable march in 1895. The facings of the regiment are white, and it bears as a badge the Castle of the City of Exeter, with the motto "Semper Fidelis". |
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The Warrant Officers, Sergeants and Staff-Sergeants of the 2nd Batt Devonshire Regiment (1896) The central figure shown in the foreground of this group is Sergeant Major King, the senior Warrant Officer of the Battalion. He has now been appointed to the regimental depot at Exeter, and his place is held by Sergeant Instructor of Musketry Connett, who sits on the right between Sergeant Major King and Bandmaster Bampton. Among other Staff-Sergeants shown are Quarter-Master Sergeants Adams (Orderly Room Clerk) and Dyer, Band Sergeant Jones, with Colour Sergeants Crubb and Jones, two members of the regiment well known as organizers of sport. |
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The 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment on Parade. (1896) The Devonshire Regiment (the old Eleventh Foot) has a long and distinguished record, dating from the year of Monmouth's rebellion, 1685, when the corps that we know as the 1st Battalion of the Regiment was raised for King James the Second, in North Devon. The present 2md Battalion which we see here on parade, when in garrison last year at the Citadel at Plymouth, was raised in 1858. "Dettingen", "Salamanca" (where from its terrible losses on the field of battle the regiment acquired its sobriquet of the "Bloody Eleventh"), "Pyrenees", "Nivelle", "Nive", "Orthes", "Toulouse", "Peninsula", "Afaghanistan 1879-80" (a distinction added by the 2nd Battalion), are the battle honours borne on the colours of the regiment. Their badge is the Castle of Exeter, with the motto "Semper Fidelis", and their facings since 1881 have been white. The original facings of the Devonshires' (down to 1881) were green. |
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Sergeants of the Devonshire Regiment, 1898 |
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The
Devonshire Regiment
The next regiment is the Devonshire, consisting of the old 11th Foot (Regimental District No. 11), and dates from the troublous period of 1685, when it was raised by the Duke of Beaufort to strengthen King James?s cause against the threatened aggression of Monmouth. The uniform at the commencement was scarlet, with facings, breeches, stockings and ribbons tawny coloured. When the ill-advised action of James alienated from him the majority of his subjects, the great majority of the officers and men of the 11th favoured the cause of William of Orange, and the Colonel, who adhered to James, was summarily overpowered and deprived of the de facto command. Shortly after the accession of William and Mary, the 11th were engaged in the struggles in Ireland, at which time a considerable Irish element was infused into their ranks, and fought well in the battle which outsted the unfortunate James the last of his dominions. Their next service was in Portugal, where, at Portalegre, the hopeless odds against them caused the whole regiment to be made prisoner of war. They were soon exchanged, and the year 1707 saw them again in Portugal, when they greatly distinguished themselves at the Battle of Almanza, which ended so disastrously for the British arms. The colonel of the 11th Colonel Hill-was acting in command of the brigade, and he fought brought his own regiment, and another now disbanded, into action when our troops had met with their first repulse. For a time the 11th and their comrades-?two regiments against an army?-carried all before them; then the superiority of numbers began to tell, and the devoted regiments were overwhelmed. The official record thus describes the position: -?Assailed by musketry, charged by cavalry, and attacked on both flanks, in front and in rear, at the same moment, they were overpowered and cur down the dreadful slaughter.? Colonel Hill with a few other officers, by strenuous endeavours, gathered together the straggling remains of the British regiments and their allies and retreated in a solid square. The 11th lost six officers killed and twenty wounded and prisoners; the details of the loss in the rank and file have not been preserved. They fought before Mons; a few years later they shared in the fighting in Scotland. Then came the more acceptable campaign in Flanders, where the gallant Devonshire won the first ?honour? borne on their colours, when under Field Marshal the Earl of stair they fought at Dettingen. They had a bad time of it as Fontenoy, where they lost four officers killed and eleven wounded and missing, the corresponding numbers of the rank and file being forty-nine and a hundred and fifty. A short interval of rest intervened, and then we read of them fighting desperately at Rocoux, where-in a hollow way and assailed by vastly superior numbers-they held their own so stubbornly that in that hollow way were left two hundred who would never see pleasant Devon land again. In the warrants that appeared in 1751 was one, which directed the facings to be ?full green? instead of tawny, though; the actual change had probably taken place some years previously. Five years later a second battalion was formed, which in two years became the 64th Regiment. The regiment was represented at Warboiurg; they garrisoned Minorca, and in 1793 took part in the raid on France. At Ollomilles, where the 11th were with the force under Elphinstone, we read that ?the credit of the day was chiefly secured from the great exertions and gallant behaviour of Captain Douglas,? while Captain Moncrief and Lieutenant Knight also distinguished themselves. Then, as we trace onward the history of the regiment, we hear of their courage and devotion in places, the very names of which are strange and unfamiliar to us of today. At Farow, Hauteur de Grasse, on the banks of the Neuve, at Cape le Brun and Arenas, the 11th dealt shrewd blows, and suffered hardships and bore themselves manfully in sore straits of peril, as beseemed men of Devon. They shared in the expedition against Ostend, and were taken prisoners; then they served in the West Indies at paces with names that seem to have been taken at random from some foreign hagiology-St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, and St. Thomas, St. John, Santa Cruz. Then came the era of the Peninsular War, in which no regiment earned a nobler name. In 1808 another Second Battalion was formed, and proceeded at once to join the forces then investing Flushing, where they signalised their bapteme de feu by taking the brass drums of the French 11th regiment, and, that there might be no lack of musicians, enlisted into their service a Prussian band which had been attached to a French foreign legion. Meanwhile the first Battalion had joined the fourth Division under Lowry Cole, and was taking its share in the duties then all-important at the seat of war, and here after a time they were joined by the second battalion. The regiment shared but nominally in the combats of Buasco, Sabugal, and Fuentes d?Onor, not being actually on either occasion. At Tarifa, however, they did splendid service, Captain Wren particularly distinguishing himself. But it was at Salamanca that their highest fame was won, a fame perhaps the more brilliant and lasting that in the winning more than half of their gallant number were killed or wounded. They were in Hulse?s brigade-the ?grand brigade,? before whose ?withering fire? the splendid dragoons of Boyer went down like children?s play things-and, together with the 61st, won their way desperately, as Napier relates, through such a fire as British soldiers can sustain. Seldom has the commander of a regiment received such praise from his superior as was given to Major Newman of the 11th. It is impossible for me,? said General Hulse, ?to find words to express my admiration of the gallant conduct of your regiment this day, but let every individual of the corps conceive everything that is gallant and brave and apply it to themselves.? And the praise was not understood. A standard and a battery were taken by the 11th that day, and when after the battle the French mustered their forces it was found that the regiment which had been chiefly opposed to the Devonshire only numbered two hundred out of two thousand two hundred which were with the colours before Salamanca was fought. They fought in the battles of the Pyrenees-at nivelle and the Nive; at San Sebastian, Lieutenant Gethins of the 11th tore down the French colours waving from the cavalier; at Orthes, where fighting was so desperate that it seemed at one time as if Soult?s exultant boast-?At last I have him!?-Was going to be verified by the defeat of the great English commander, the 11th had their full share of the fierce work; at Toulouse it was they and the 91st who retook at last that terrible Colombette redoubt where, within and without, the ground was piled high with dead and dying men. During Waterloo the Devonshire Regiment was in Ireland, and from that time till 1879 no war of importance claimed their assistance. They were in Canada during the rising of 1838, then in Australia, the Cape and Hong Kong. In the Afghan war of 1879-80 they were in general Phavre. The second battalion went on the 23rd July, 1880, under Lieutenant-Colonel Corrie to Dozan, and no receipt of the terrible tidings of Maiwand were moved hurriedly on to a place called Gulistan Karez. The great difficulty of transport and communication prevented them from reaching Candahar for some three weeks after its relief by General Roberts. It is noted that they were the first regiment of British infantry that had ever marched through Sind and the bolan during that season of the year. As a matter of fact their mortality was greater than is often the case with a regiment in the fiercest action. They lost two officers and a hundred and thirty-six men, while so severely had the climate and illness affected them that, on the 1st of January 1881, out of 715 that had marched six months before, only 215 were fit for service! Amongst those of the Devonshire Regiment who have distinguished themselves may be mentioned Lieutenant-Colonel Street, Lieutenant-Colonel Gibbons; Majors Kinder, Tull, Kelsall, and Noon; Captains Harries, Park, Davies, Briggs, and Ellacombe, and Lieutenant Carr. Her Majesty?s Army JAMES EDWARD IGNATIUS MASTERSON (Lieutenant, now Captain and Brevet-Major) 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment On January 6th 1900, after seven weeks of continual bombardment and all the privations of a close siege, the Boers Sir George White?s gallant garrison as stubborn as ever, and with Buller?s battalions steadily, though slowly creeping to its relief, they began to entertain doubts whether Ladysmith would fall as easily as they had once expected. They therefore determined on a general assault on the town, hoping that disease and starvation and sapped the strength of the defending garrison. Though the British ranks had been sadly thinned since the commencement of the siege, the indomitable pluck of the British had in no way diminished and seemed to none, the Devonshire regiment acquitted itself on that day, in a manner worthy of its best traditions. At Waggon Hill, three of its companies, one of which was led by Lieutenant Masterson made a dah for a ridge, strongly held by the enemy, and captured it, but became at once exposed to a terrible fire from the right and left front. The position becoming almost untenable, Lieutenant Masterson undertook to convey a message to the Imperial Light horse, a hundred yards distant, to direct their attention to the left front, and endeavout to check the enemy?s fire from that point. The ground, which he had to traverse, was absolutely without cover, and swept by a galling fire, and before he had crossed it he was shot in both thighs. With undaunted courage, struggling up, he contrived to crawl along and deliver his message before falling exhausted in the trench held by our men. By his heroic devotion, Masterson was the means of saving many lives. Major Masterson, born on June 25th 1862, enlisted at anearly age in the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers, with which famous regiment he fought at Tel-el-Kebir, gaining medal with clasp, and Khedive?s Star. Commissioned into the Devonshire Regiment in 1891, he served in the operations in Burma (medal and clasp); and in 1897-8 took part in the fighting on thenorthWest Frontier of India (medal and two clasp). This officer?s career is one of the many instances from Luke O?Connor onwards-in which men, who in their early days served as private soldiers, have gained the Victoria Cross and eventually risen to high rank. |
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The Devonshire Regiment on Manoeuvres |
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