75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment of Foot

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For other units with the same regimental number, see 75th Regiment of Foot (disambiguation).

The 75th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, later redesignated the 75th Regiment of Foot and, later still, the 75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment of Foot, was a British Army line infantry regiment. During the Childers Reforms it was united with the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to form the Gordon Highlanders.

Service history

Raised. The 75th was raised as a Highland Regiment for service in the British East India Company in 1787[1] by Robert Abercromby, its first colonel, and was known as Abercromby's Highlanders.[2] It first assembled in June 1788 in Stirling, proceeded to England and arrived in India by the end of the year.[3][4] It comprised eight battalion or center companies, a grenadier company and a light infantry company.

India. The 75th was stationed in Bombay[5] and Madras.[6] Two significant actions in India were the Battle of Seringapatam, 1799 [7] and the Siege of Bhurtpore, 1805.[8]

Britain. The 75th returned to Britain in 1806 to rebuild and 1809 it lost its "Highland" designation becoming the 75th Regiment of Foot,[9] though colloquially it was known as the Stirlingshire Regiment.

Mediterranean. During the Napoleonic Wars, the 75th was stationed in the Mediterranean: Sicily 1811-14,[10] Ionian Islands and Gibraltar 1814-23.

Britain. 1823-1834.

Cape Colony. The 75th served in Cape Colony, participating in the Kaffir Wars.[11]

Britain. 1843-1849.

India. The 75th returned to India in 1849,[12] participating in the Sepoy Rebellion, 1857, in particular the Siege of Lucknow.

Britain. The 75th returned to Britain in 1860. In 1862 it formally regained its territorial designation, becaming the 75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment of Foot.[13]

The 75th also saw service in Ireland, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Cape Colony before 1881.[14]

In 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms, the 75th amalgamated with the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to become the 1st battalion, the Gordon Highlanders.[15] The 75th was forced painfully into this ill-suited linking, and went so far as commissioning a marble monument to itself in Malta where it was based at the time. It had spent so long away from Scotland that they were effectively an English unit that had to relearn how to wear kilts. The pedigree of the contemporary The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, can be traced, in part, to the 75th.

Notes

  1. ↑ Trevor Royle (2011). The Gordon Highlanders, A Concise History, Random House, Appendix
  2. ↑ Christopher Chant (2013). The Handbook of British Regiments, Routledge Revivals, p240
  3. ↑ Anthony Leask (2006)Sword of Scotland, Pen and Sword, p95
  4. ↑ David Stewart (1825). Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland: With Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments, Volume 2, Constable,p241
  5. ↑ David Stewart (1825). Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland: With Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments, Volume 2, Constable,p172
  6. ↑ Stuart Reid and Bryan Fosten (1992). Wellington’s Highlanders, Osprey, p19
  7. ↑ David Stewart (1825). Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland: With Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments, Volume 2, Constable,p204
  8. ↑ David Stewart (1825). Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland: With Details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments, Volume 2, Constable,p244
  9. ↑ Trevor Royle (2011). The Gordon Highlanders, A Concise History, Random House, Appendix
  10. ↑ Stuart Reid and Bryan Fosten (1992). Wellington’s Highlanders, Osprey, p19
  11. ↑ George McCall Theal (2010). History of South Africa Since September 1795, Cambridge University Press, p262
  12. ↑ National Army Museum website, http://www.nam.ac.uk/research/famous-units/75th-stirlingshire-regiment-foot
  13. ↑ Trevor Royle (2011). The Gordon Highlanders, A Concise History, Random House, Appendix
  14. ↑ National Army Museum website, http://www.nam.ac.uk/research/famous-units/75th-stirlingshire-regiment-foot
  15. ↑ Trevor Royle (2011). The Gordon Highlanders, A Concise History, Random House, Appendix

References

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