Name : 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) Started : 1802 Ended : 1881 Previous Regiment Lineage(s) : ---------------------------------------- 80th Regiment of Foot (1793 - 1802)
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Subsequent Regiment Lineage : ---------------------------------------- South Staffordshire Regiment (1881 - 1959) Staffordshire Regiment (1959 - 2007) Mercian Regiment (Cheshire, Worcesters and Foresters, and Staffords) (2007 - Present)
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The 2nd battalion of the South Staffordshire, the 80th Regiment, dates from 1793, when lord Paget raised it. The following year, the Staffordshire volunteers, as the regiment was then called, joined the Duke of York's army in Flanders, and during their sojourn there lost more than half their number. A few years later they formed part of Baird's army, which, with a view to joining Abercrombie, made the march across the desert, which has before been referred to, and by this participation in the campaign gained the Sphinx and "Egypt" for their colours. After this they were for several years in India, gaining warriors' craft in the many battles by which the British rule was consolidated, and thus missed participation in any of the Peninsular battles, as they did not return to England before 1818. After a stay here of some sixteen years or so, they were ordered to Australia, and during the years 1836-1844, were more or less busily employed in the not very congenial task of suppressing convict riots. Their next station was in India, during their voyage to which occurred a most extraordinary incident. "Part of the corps," says Colonel Archer, "during the voyage was shipwrecked under very remarkable circumstances, being cast high and dry by a storm wave in the deal of night on the top of a wood or jungle in the Little Andamans." Arriving in India, they were fortunate enough to participate in some of the most important events, which the stirring history of British arms in India has to chronicle.
They fought at Moodkee, where night alone saved the foe from total destruction. At Ferozeshah they earned a reputation for courage and discipline of which any regiment might be proud. "About twelve o'clock at night, the Sikhs finding that Sir Harry Smith had been forced to retire from the village, and that their batteries were not occupied, brought some guns to bear upon the column, the fire from which was very destructive. The Governor-General mounted his horse and called to the 80th Regiment, which was at the head of the column, "my lads, we shall have no sleep until we have those guns.' The regiment deployed immediately, advanced, supported by the 1st Bengal Europeans, and drove a large body of Sikhs from three guns, which they spiked. The regiment then retired, and took up its position again at the head of the column as steadily as if on a parade, much to the admiration of the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, the former of whom exclaimed, as they passed him, "Plucky dogs" we cannot fail to win with such men as these.'" To the brilliant victory of Sobraon they contributed not a little, and it was at that head of the 80th that the gallant Sir Robert Dick received his death wound.
They bore a brilliant part in the second Burmese War in 1852. In the attack on the Grand Pagoda four companies of the 80th under Major Montgomery formed the advance, driving the enemy steadily before them, while in the attack on the eastern entrance the assaulting force comprised a wing of the 80th under Major Lockhart. In the attack on Pegu, Captain Ormsby commanded the one company of the 80th that were present, and ably performed their part in the singularly easy and bloodless victory achieved by our troops. After the war in Burmah, the next fighting in which the 80th shared was in India, where they gained "Central India" as a distinction. Those familiar with the military history of that time know how much severe and splendid fighting those words commemorate. They assisted at the capture of Calpee, shared in the arduous tasks of the pacification of Oude, and a few years later took part in the Bhotan Expedition, which was found so much more difficult than had at first been anticipated. The regiment returned home in 1886, and were represented nine years later in the expedition to Perak.
The next important was in which they were engaged was that in South Africa of 1878-79. They were in garrison at Luneburg under Major Charles Tucker, and in March 1879, a company under Captain Moriarty was ordered to meet some supplies, which were being forwarded. Owing to some delay the Intombe River, which had to be crossed, grew swollen with the rains, and some question seems to have been raised as to the judgment with which the encampment was laid. However that may be, in the early morning of the 12th some four thousand Zulus, led by the Chief Umbelini, swept down upon the little band of seventy-one. Across the river, Lieutenant Harward had been posted with some thirty men; in a few moments all that remained of the entire company scarcely numbered more. Captain Moriarty was killed the moment he left his tent; in some cases his men were assuaged before they could leave theirs. Lieutenant Harward's party opened a brisk fire on the Zulus, but naturally it could have no effect on such a mass, and at least two hundred of them crossed the river. Lieutenant Harward ordered his men to fall back upon a farmhouse, and then he did a thing, which, fortunately, is without a parallel in military history - rode off him to obtain succour from Luneburg! Probably the severest critics of this infatuated action would acquit Lieutenant Harward of anything approaching cowardice, but the error was none the less a terrible one. Fortunately, dark though the Hour was, with it came the man. "Sergeant Booth, the senior non-commissioned officer present, now assumed command, rallied the small group of men, and endeavoured to cover the retreat of the few soldiers upon the opposite bank, who were trying to escape across the river towards him. The little band, to avoid being assuaged at close quarters, was compelled to fall back. This small knot of gallant men fought the Zulus for three miles in retreat, but Sergeant Booth and his men showed a bold front on every side. They kept close together firing volleys at their pursuers as they prepared to rush upon them. The party gallantly checked the Zulus, The Gazette informed his countrymen "that had it not been for the coolness displayed by this non-commissioned officer, not one man would have escaped."
The observations made by Lord Chelmford in commenting on the decision of the Court Martial held on Lieutenant Harward included some remarks, which deserve a place in any record of British regiments. After referring to the "monstrous theory that a regimental officer, who is the only officer present with a party of soldiers actually and seriously engaged with the enemy, can, under any pretext, be justified in deserting them," his Lordship went on to say: -"The more helpless the position in which an officer finds his men, the more it is bounden duty to stay and share their fortune, whether for good or ill. It is because the British officer has always done so, that he occupies the position in which he is held in the estimation of the world, and that he possesses the influence he does in the ranks of our army. The soldier has learned to feel that come what may, he can in the direst moment of danger look with implicit faith to his officer, knowing that he will never desert him under any possible circumstances. It is to this faith of the British soldier in his officer that we owe of the gallant deed recorded in our annals." On another a previous occasion had a man of the 80th gained a V.C. in this savage African warfare. "On the 22nd January, 1879, when the camp at Isandhlwana was taken by the enemy, Private Wassall, 80th Foot, retreated towards the Buffalo River, in which he saw a comrade, Private Westwood of the same regiment, struggling and apparently drowning. He rode to the bank, dismounted, leaving his horse on the Zulu side, rescued the man from the stream, and again mounted his horse, dragging Private Westwood across the river under a heavy shower of bullets." Some five companies of the 80th were at Ulundi, where they led the advance, and subsequently the regiment was represented in Colonel Clarke's column. In the operations against Sekukuni, Major Creagh did valuable service, and in the final attack upon the chief's stronghold, the 80th were in the centre column. The regiment returned home in 1880, and have not since then been engaged in any important warfare.
