Name : 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot Started : 1782 Ended : 1881 Previous Regiment Lineage(s) : ---------------------------------------- 64th Regiment of Foot (1758 - 1782)
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Subsequent Regiment Lineage : ---------------------------------------- Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire) Regiment (1881 - 1921) North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) (1921 - 1959) Staffordshire Regiment (1959 - 2007) Mercian Regiment (Cheshire, Worcesters and Foresters, and Staffords) (2007 - Present)
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The 11th Foot, in 1758, was deprived of its 2nd battalion, which was numbered the 64th, after two years service under the former number. It was named the "2nd Staffordshire" in 1782, a title it bore until the
amalgamation of 1882 when, however, the regiment was first designated the South Staffordshire, altered shortly after to its present name.
The year after it first had an independent existence it was despatched to the West Indies to take part in the capture of Martinique and Guadaloupe; sent home after that, it returned to the American continent at the outbreak of the war of Independence, served first at Nova Scotia, and then at Boston until the evacuation of the city, fighting also at Staten Island, Brooklyn, Ridgeway, Hill of Campo, Brandywine, the Acushusat River Expedition, Charleston, and Eutaw Springs, where the 64th did not "give ground until over powered by numbers and severe slaughter." After general duty it once more appeared before Martinique and Guadaloupe in 1794, to help in their reduction and to suffer heavy loss; and after an interlude in Ireland, where the regiment defeated the French at Ballinamuck, it returned to the west Indies and saw the surrender of St. Martin, St. Lucia, Demerara, Essequibo, and Surinam; coming home in 1815 to form part of the Army of Occupation of France. Embarking for India in 1849, the 64th was employed in garrison duty there until 1856, when the Persians attacked Heart, and war consequently broke out between Great Britain and Persia. The regiment formed part of the expedition, was at the storming of the Fort of Reshire, the surrender of Bushire, and the battle of Kooshab; after which, with Mohumra as a "base of operations," the army prepared to march on Ispahan. But the war was virtually over. The Persian forces, some seven thousandstrong, took up a position at Ahwaz, but evacuated it without firing a shot on the approach of three hundred British soldiers. On returning to India, the outbreak of the Mutiny called for the service of the Staffordshire men. The enemy was met with at Futtehpore, Aong, Pandoo Nuddee, Kalee Nuddee, Kerkeroulie, Bareilly, and Cawnpore, when some of the 64th were left to garrison the place, and the remainder served with Outram and Havelock in the advance on Lucknow. The Cawnpore garrison had meanwhile had severe work to do against the attacks of Tantia Topee; and the regiment also took part in the Rohilcund campaign, and in most of the operations that attended the suppression of the Mutiny. During the campaign Drummer Thomas Flynn won the Cross for Valour for "conspicuous gallantry." Since that campaign the gallant 64th have seen no active but much foreign service.
The present 2nd battalion of the regiment first appears in 1824, and was entitled the "Prince of Wales's Regiment of Foot" in 1876, from its having acted as guard to his Royal Highness during his visit to Malta. On this occasion new colours were presented to the regiment, and the Prince requested that the old should be entrusted to his care. The title and the badge of His Royal Highness's Plume date from this event, but five other battalions have borne the number. The first served from 1760 to 1765, and fought at Havannah in 1762; the second from 1780 to 1783; the third, raised in 1796, became the 91st; the fourth, formed in 1804, was disbanded in 1818 as the 97th; and the fifth, enlisted in 1804 as the 99th, disappeared as "the Prince of Wales's Tipperary Regiment" in 1818.
