Name : Royal Warwickshire Regiment Started : 1881 Ended : 1963 Previous Regiment Lineage(s) : ---------------------------------------- Sir Walter Vane's Regiment of Foot (1673 - 1674) Lillington's Regiment of Foot (1674 - 1675) Ashley's Regiment of Foot (1675 - 1678) Sir Henry Belasyse's Regiment of Foot (1678 - 1689) Babington's Regiment of Foot (1690 - 1691) Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt's Regiment of Foot (1691 - 1694) Marquis de Rade's Regiment of Foot (1694 - 1695) Columbine's Regiment of Foot (1695 - 1703) Rivers's Regiment of Foot (1703 - 1706) Southwell's Regiment of Foot (1706 - 1708) Harrison's Regiment of Foot (1708 - 1716) Dormer's Regiment of Foot (1716 - 1720) Dormer's Regiment of Foot (1720 - 1738) Guise's Regiment of Foot (1738 - 1751) 6th Regiment of Foot (1751 - 1782) 6th (1st Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot (1782 - 1832) 6th (Royal 1st Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot (1832 - 1881)
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Subsequent Regiment Lineage : ---------------------------------------- Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers (1963 - 1968) Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (1968 - Present)
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Warwickshire Regiment
In 1673 the States-General of the Netherlands received permission to employ, for the second time, a British contingent. A new "Holland Regiment" was then formed, and commanded by Sir Walter Vane, formerly colonel of what is now the Buffs. Between 1674 and 1678 it saw its first active service at Grave, Maestricht, Mont Cassel, and St Denis; and, accompanying the Prince of Orange to England in 1688 as "Babington's Regiment", it afterwards took part in the Irish wars at Charlemont, Boyne, Athlone, Ballymore, Aughrim, Galway, Castleconnell, and Limerick. In the Netherlands campaigns of 1692, etc, it served at Steenkirk and Namur; in 1702, as a sea-service regiment it was at Cadiz, and helped to storm the forts at Vigo, receiving £561 10s as prize money; in 1705 it formed part of the army despatched to support the claim of the Archduke Charles of Austria to the Spanish throne, and fought at Barcelona, where the regiment, under Colonel Southwell, behaved with the greatest gallantry; it took part in the storming of Fort Monjuich; in Valencia it was at many 'affairs'; it fought at Requena, Cuenza, Almanza, and Saragossa, when thirty standards were taken by the British; and finally the regiment was taken prisoner at Brihuega after a brave defence, but its 'honour was preserved untarnished'. It saw no further active service until 1719, when it shared in the capture of Vigo, Rondondella, and Pontevedra; and, in 1740 was at Cuba.
It fought against the Jacobites in 1745, when Sergeant Molloy and twelve men, left in charge of Fort Ruthven, repulsed the attack of 300 of the enemy, replying to the summons to surrender that 'he was too old a soldier to surrender a garrison of such strength without bloody noses'; when two companies made almost the last stand at Prestonpans; and when other detachments bravely held Forts Augustus and William.
In 1761 it was officially entitled 'the 6th', to which the name '1st Warwickshire' was added thirty years later; and 1793 found it again in the West Indies - at Martinique, St Lucia and Guadaloupe. In 1798, in the Irish Rebellion, it fought at Castlebar; and, in 1808, in the Peninsula, where it served at Roleia, Vimiera, and Corunna. After the Walcheren Expedition, when it was so reduced by sickness that it was unable to 'furnish the usual reliefs of the ordinary regimental guard', it returned to the Peninsula in 1812, and added "Vittoria", "Almanza", "Pyrenees", "Nivelle", "Orthes", and "Peninsula" to the colours, besides fighting at Echalar, Bidassoa, Nive, Hastingues, and Oyergave.
In 1814 it was engaged in Canada, at the siege of Fort Erie, for which "Niagara" was added to the battle roll; and since then it has seen service at Aden in 1840; and in Africa, for which the Royal Warwicks bear on the colours the name of "South Africa, 1846 - 47" and "South Africa, 1851 - 53". It saw some service in Oude in 1858, in Sikkim in 1860, and in the Hazara campaign in 1868. Second battalions served from 1804 - 15, from 1846 till 1851 and lastly from 1858 to now.
The regiment had green facings from 1735 and yellow facings from 1751 to 1832, "when it became Royal". In 1839 men are shown with royal blue facings, coatees, and epaulets, white trousers, and bell shaped shakoes. The antelope (white, "ducally gorged and chained or," the badge of Henry VI, but supposed to have been assumed after Saragossa in 1710, or as suggested in the "Royal Military Chronicle" of 1811, after the battle of Almanza, when the standard of the Spanish "Royal African Regiment", bearing the antelope, was taken), with a crown and within a circle having "Royal Warwickshire Regiment", is worn on the button, the helmet plate, the waist plate, and forage cap, and the bear and ragged staff (which, with the exception of the added chain, was the badge of the house of Warwick, and was borne by the 1st Warwick Militia) is on the tunic collar; but, by special permission, the "Antelope" is worn on the collar of the mess jacket. The other badge is the rose, "slipped and leaved" - unlike that of the Buffs, which has the flower only. The motto "Vi et armis" appears at one time to have been used; according to Cannon, it was borne on the knapsack until 1825.
The Militia battalions are the 1st and 2nd Warwicks (1759) and they served on board ship at the time of the Mutiny of the Nore, in Ireland in 1798, and were embodied in 1854. The Volunteer battalions are the 1st Birmingham (in green and scarlet), and 2nd Coventry (in scarlet and blue), formerly the 1st and 2nd Warwickshire. The regimental pet is naturally an antelope, "Billy" by name, who marches past at the head of the regiment, led by two drummers. The horns are tipped with silver, and he wears a silver collar with chains, by which he is led. On full dress parades he wears a blue coat, gold embroidered and bearing the regimental honours. At one time a bear was adopted as the regimental pet. The Royal Warwicks were once called "Guise's Geese", from the name of one of their colonels and the facings at the time. They have also the names of the "Warwickshire Lads" and the "Saucy Sixth". The depot is at Warwick.
Extract from "The British Army and Auxiliary Forces, Vol II" c.1898.
