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Tariq Ibn Ziyad
The Umayyad general Tariq ibn Ziyad, leading a Berber-dominated army, sailed across the Strait from Ceuta. He first attempted to land on Algeciras but failed. Upon his failure, he landed undetected at the southern point of the Rock from present-day Morocco in his quest for Spain.
It was here that Gibraltar was named. Coming from the Arabian words Gabal-Al-Tariq (the mountain of Tariq). Little was built during the first four centuries of Moorish control.
Abu al-Mu’min
Gibraltar was fortified for the first time in response to coastal threats posed by the Christian kings of Aragon and Castile. On 19th March, Almohad Sultan, Abd al-Mu’min, issued an order and charged two of the most important architects of the day with the task of building a permanent settlement. This city was to be laid out on the upper slopes of the Rock and was to include a castle, mosque, several palaces for himself and his sons, and reservoirs to provide a supply of water.
It was to be protected by a “wall of fine build” with a single gate known as the Bab al-Fath (Gate of Victory) facing towards the isthmus connecting Gibraltar with the mainland. A harbour was also to be constructed, and windmills were to be constructed on the Rock.
Gibraltar was renamed Jebel al-Fath (Mount of Victory), though this name did not persist, and a fortified city named Medinat al-Fath (City of Victory).
The Tower of Homage of the castle remains standing today (Moorish Castle).
Collapse of Almohad Empire
After the collapse of the Almohad Empire, Gibraltar was taken by Ibn Hud, a Taifa Emir of Al-Andalus.
KING CHARLES II OF SPAIN
1st November 1700
King Charles II of Spain died leaving no descendants. In the autumn he had made a will naming his successor as Philip of Bourbon, a grandson of Louis XIV backed by France. Upon any possible refusal, the crown of Spain would be offered next to Philip’s younger brother, the Duke of Berry, and then to the Archduke Charles of Austria.
Archduke Charles, supported by the Holy Roman Empire, England and the Netherlands did not accept Charles II’s testament.
Image: Portrait of Charles II of Spain, Juan Carreño, c. 1685
ARCHDUKE CHARLES – PRETENDER TO THE THRONE
1st November 1700
Following the death of his relative, Charles II of Spain, son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Archduke Charles of Austria declares himself King of Spain.
During the War of the Spanish Succession, inside of Spain, the majority of the nobility of the Crown of Aragon supported Archduke Charles’ claim to the Spanish throne by right of his grandmother Maria Anna of Spain. Charles was even hailed as King of Aragon under the name Charles III.
Image: Coat of arms of Archduke Charles of Austria as claim to the Spanish throne, variant used in the peninsular territories of the Crown of Aragon Version with Supporters
PHILIP OF ANJOU
16th November 1700
Philip of Anjou is proclaimed Philip V of Spain.
During the War of the Spanish Succession, inside Spain, the Crown of Castile supported Philip, whilst the Crown of Aragon supported Archduke Charles.
Image: Proclamation of Philip V as King of Spain in the Palace of Versailles on November 16, 1700
SPANISH SUCCESSION
July 1701 – August 1714
The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was a major European conflict of the early 18th century, triggered by the death in 1700 of the last Habsburg King of Spain, the infirm and childless Charles II. Charles II had ruled over a vast global empire, and the question of who would succeed him had long troubled the governments of Europe. Attempts to solve the problem by peacefully partitioning the empire among the eligible candidates from the royal houses of France (Bourbon), Austria (Habsburg), and Bavaria (Wittelsbach) ultimately failed, and on his deathbed Charles II fixed the entire Spanish inheritance on his grandnephew Philip, Duke of Anjou, the second-eldest grandson of King Louis XIV of France. With Philip ruling in Spain, Louis XIV would secure great advantages for his dynasty, but some statesmen regarded a dominant House of Bourbon as a threat to European stability, jeopardising the balance of power.
To counter Louis XIV’s growing dominance, England, the Dutch Republic, and Austria – together with their allies in the Holy Roman Empire – re-formed the 1680s Grand Alliance (1701) and supported Emperor Leopold I‘s claim to the whole Spanish inheritance for his second son, Archduke Charles.
The English, the Dutch and the Austrians formally declared war in May 1702. By 1708, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy had secured victory in the Spanish Netherlands and in Italy, and had defeated Louis XIV’s ally Bavaria. But Allied unity broke and the Grand Alliance was defeated in Spain. With casualties mounting and aims of the Alliance diverging, the Tories came to power in Great Britain in 1710 and resolved to end the war, ceasing combat operations in 1712. The Dutch, Austrians, and German states fought on to strengthen their own negotiating position, but defeated by Marshal Villars, they had to accept Anglo-French mediation. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the Treaty of Rastatt (1714) ended the conflict by partitioning the Spanish empire. The Austrians received most of Spain’s former European realms, while the Duke of Anjou retained peninsular Spain and Spanish America, where, after renouncing his claim to the French succession, he reigned (with one brief interlude) as King Philip V until 1746.
Image: Europe in 1700, at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession
TREATY OF THE HAGUE
7th September 1701
England, the Netherlands and Austria signed the Treaty of The Hague. By this treaty, they accepted Philippe of Anjou as King of Spain, but allotted Austria the Spanish territories in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands. England and the Netherlands, meanwhile, were to retain their commercial rights in Spain. Later (in 1703), Portugal, Savoy and some German states joined the alliance.
Diego de Salinas
Born 03.08.1649 – Died 27.11.1720
TERM: 1700 – 1704, 4th August
Don Diego Esteban Gómez de Salinas y Rodríguez de Villarroel was the last Spanish Governor of Gibraltar.
He was appointed military governor (alcaide) of Gibraltar in 1700 and then appointed Governor by Philip V in December 1701. He arrived on The Rock in early 1702.
With the start of hostilities in the War of the Spanish Succession, Salinas requested reinforcements which were never sent. On 1 August 1704, English marines under the command of Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt landed on the isthmus north of The Rock from the Bay of Gibraltar and after preparing a three-pronged attack plan sent a message asking for surrender. Salinas did not accept, and the city was bombarded on 3 August by the enemy ships. Salinas capitulated on the morning of 4 August.
He died in his hometown of Madrid in November 1720.
CAPTURE OF GIBRALTAR – THE 11th SIEGE
1st – 21st August 1704
The Capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance occurred between 1–3 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Peninsula to control the Strait of Gibraltar and facilitate naval operations against the French fleet in the western Mediterranean Sea.
Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt represented the Habsburg cause in the region. In May 1704 the Prince and Admiral George Rooke, commander of the main Grand Alliance fleet, failed to take Barcelona in the name of ‘Charles III’; Rooke subsequently evaded pressure from his allies to make another attempt on Cádiz. In order to compensate for their lack of success the Alliance commanders resolved to capture Gibraltar. Following a heavy bombardment the town was invaded by English and Dutch marines and sailors.
The governor, Diego de Salinas, agreed to surrender Gibraltar and its small garrison on 3 August. Three days later Prince George entered the town with Austrian and Spanish Habsburg troops in the name of Charles III of Spain.
Image: View of Gibraltar taken by an officer of Admiral Sir George Rooke’s fleet on July 1704
Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt
Born 1669 – Died 13.09.1705
TERM: 4th – 6th August 1704
Prince George Louis of Hessen-Darmstadt was a Field Marshal in the Austrian army.
He is known for his career in Habsburg Spain, as Viceroy of Catalonia (1698 – 1701), head of the Austrian army in the War of Spanish Succession (1701 – 1705).
He was appointed Governor of Gibraltar by Charles III, pretender to the Spanish throne.
Henry Nugent
Born in Ireland – Died in November 1704
TERM: 1704, 6th August – 1704, November
Henry Nugent, Count of Valdesoto and Viscount Coolamber was an Irish military man.
He was the second Governor of Gibraltar during the Habsburg occupation and was appointed by Charles III, pretender to the Spainish throne.
Nugent served as Governor for a period of 6 months between August and November 1704.
FIRST SPANISH SIEGE (12th SEIGE OF GIBRALTAR)
5th September 1704 – 31st March 1705
At the start of the siege, Gibraltar was garrisoned by around 2,000 Dutch, English, Austrian and pro-Habsburg Spanish troops facing a besieging force of up to 8,000 French, pro-Bourbon Spanish and Irish troops. The defenders were able to hold off the numerically superior besieging force through exploiting Gibraltar’s geography and the small town’s fortifications, though they were frequently short of manpower and ammunition. The besiegers were undermined by disputes between the French and Spanish officers and terrible conditions in their trenches and bastions, which led to outbreaks of epidemic disease and undermined morale. Sea power proved crucial, as the French navy sought unsuccessfully to prevent the Grand Alliance shipping in fresh troops, ammunition and food. Three naval battles were fought during the siege, two of which were clear defeats for the French and the last of which resulted in the siege being abandoned as hopeless after nine months of fruitless shelling. The outcome was disastrous for the French and Bourbon Spanish side, which was said to have lost 10,000 men against only 400 for the Grand Alliance.
John Shrimpton
TERM: 1704, 24th December – 1707, 24th December
John Shrimpton joined the Army becoming a Major in the 1st (Queen’s Own) Foot Guards.
In 1693, during the Nine Years’ War, he was wounded at the Battle of Landen in Flanders.
In 1701 he became Member of Parliament for Whitchurch.
When the Garrison in Gibraltar came under threat from the French in 1704, a force of 2,500 troops under Shrimpton’s command was dispatched to re-inforce the Garrison. Archduke Charles, acting on the recommendation of Queen Anne, asked Shrimpton to accept an appointment as Governor and he remained there until 1707.
REST OF THE WAR
2nd August 1705 – 1711
During the rest of the War of the Spanish Succession, although nominally in the hands of the Archduke Charles, and garrisoned with both English and Dutch regiments, Britain began to monopolize the rule of the town. Even if the formal transfer of sovereignty would not take place until the signature of the Treaty of Utrecht, the British Governor and garrison become the de facto rulers of the town.
1705, 2 August – The Archduke Charles stopped over in Gibraltar on his way to the territories of the Crown of Aragon. The Prince of Hesse joined him, thus leaving the town (he would die one month later in the siege of Barcelona). The English Major General John Shrimpton was left as governor (appointed by the Archduke Charles on the recommendation of Queen Anne).
1706, 17 February – Queen Anne though not yet the legal ruler of the territory declared Gibraltar a free port (upon request of the Sultan of Morocco, who wanted Gibraltar being given this status in return for supplying the town).
1707, 24 December – The first British Governor directly appointed by Queen Anne, Roger Elliott, took up residence in the Convent of the Franciscan friars.
1711 – The British government, then in the hands of the Tories, covertly ordered the British Gibraltar governor, Thomas Stanwix, to expel any foreign (not British) troops (to foster Great Britain’s sole right to Gibraltar in the negotiations running up between Britain and France). Although he answered positively, he allowed a Dutch regiment to stay. It remained there until March 1713.
Roger Elliott
Born c 1665 – Died 16.05.1714
TERM: 1707, 24th December – 1711, 24th January
In March 1705, Colonel Elliott’s Regiment of Foot embarked for Spain and served at Gibraltar, which was declared a free port in 1706. In 1707 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar and then appointed Governor on 24 December. He was one of the earliest British Governors.
On 1 January 1710, he was promoted to Major-General, and on 24 January 1711, he handed over the Governorship to Brigadier-General Thomas Stanwix. He finally departed Gibraltar on 18 June 1711.
His nephew George Augustus Elliott also became a noted Governor and defender of Gibraltar in 1777.
Thomas Stanwix
Born 1670 – Died 14.03.1725
TERM: 1711, 24th January – 1713, 7th August
Brigadier General Thomas Stanwix was a British Army officer and politician.
During the War of the Spanish Succession 1703, he was present at the Battle of Caia in Portugal. He became Governor in 1711, but was unsuccessful as Govenor, as his main achievement was to become richer than when he arrived. Observers felt that he should have concentrated on encouraging the Dutch to leave so that the benefits of the Capture of Gibraltar (in 1704) could be directed entirely in Britain’s direction. Stanwick was tenacious as even when he was replaced by David Colyear he stayed on as lieutenant-governor for some months.
On 13 July 1713, Spain ceded Gibraltar to Great Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht. Stanwix remained governor for a further month until 7th August 1713.
TREATY OF UTRECHT
APRIL 1713
Under Article X of the treaty, Spain cedes Gibraltar to Great Britain
BRITISH RULE
11th April 1713
The territory was subsequently ceded to the Crown of Great Britain in perpetuity by Spain under article X of the Treaties of Utrecht. Despite some military attempts by the Spanish to retake it in the 18th century, most notably in the Great Siege of 1779–1783, the Rock has remained under British control ever since.
In that treaty, Spain ceded Great Britain “the full and entire propriety of the town and castle of Gibraltar, together with the port, fortifications, and forts thereunto belonging … for ever, without any exception or impediment whatsoever.”
The Treaty stipulated that no overland trade between Gibraltar and Spain was to take place, except for emergency provisions in the case that Gibraltar is unable to be supplied by sea. Another condition of the cession was that “no leave shall be given under any pretence whatsoever, either to Jews or Moors, to reside or have their dwellings in the said town of Gibraltar.” This was not respected for long and Gibraltar has had for many years an established Jewish community, along with Muslims from North Africa.
Finally, under the Treaty, should the British crown wish to dispose of Gibraltar, that of Spain should be offered the territory first.
Image: The pre-1801 Union Flag (of Great Britain). Note the term “King’s Colours”. This term is used by US-based flag makers and sellers because this was one of the flags used by the King’s forces during the American Revolutionary War.
PRE PENINSULAR WARS
12th April 1713 – 1728
Between 1713 and 1728, there were seven occasions when British ministers was prepared to bargain Gibraltar away as part of his foreign policy. However, the Parliament frustrated always such attempts, echoing the public opinion in Britain.
1721, March – Philip V of Spain requested the restitution of Gibraltar to proceed to the renewal of the trade licences of Great Britain with the Spanish possessions in America.
1721, 1 June – George I sent a letter to Philip V promising “to make use of the first favourable Opportunity to regulate this Article (the Demand touching the Restitution of Gibraltar), with the Consent of my Parliament“. However, the British Parliament never endorsed such promise.
1727, February-June – Second of the sieges by Spain tried to recapture Gibraltar (Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar). Depending on the sources, Spanish troops were between 12,000 and 25,000. British defenders were 1,500 at the beginning of the siege, increasing up to about 5,000. After a five-month siege with several unsuccessful and costly attempts, Spanish troops gave up and retired.
1729 – At the end of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–1729, the Treaty of Seville confirming all previous treaties (including the Treaty of Utrecht) allowed Great Britain to keep Menorca and Gibraltar.
1730 – A Belgian Engineer, the Marquis of Verboom, Chief Engineer of the Spanish Royal Engineer Corps, who had taken part in the 1727 siege, arrived in San Roque commissioned by the Spanish government to design a line of fortifications across the isthmus. Fort San Felipe and Fort Santa Barbara were built. The fortifications, known to the British as the Spanish Lines, and to Spain as La Línea de Contravalación were the origin of modern-day town of La Línea de la Concepción.
1749-1754 – Lieutenant General Humphrey Bland is the Governor of Gibraltar. He compiles the twelve “Articles” or regulations that ruled the administration of Gibraltar for over sixty years. First article, dealing with property, establishes that only Protestants may own property. In 1754 the population settled at around 6,000 people, with the garrison and their dependants constituting about three-quarters of it. The civilian population comprised mainly Genoese and Jews.
1776, 23 February – One of the heaviest storms ever recorded in Gibraltar. The lower part of the town was flooded. Linewall was breached along 100 m.
1779, June – In the midst of the American Revolutionary War, Spain declared war against Great Britain (as France had done the year before).
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1713
Pearce’s Regiment 1704 – 1732
1751: 5th Regiment of Foot
1881: Northumberland Fusiliers
RAISED: By Daniel O’Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare, as Viscount Clare’s Regiment in 1674 as one of three English units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade. The regiment accompanied William III (William of Orange, Holland), to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and became part of the English establishment in 1689.
GIBRALTAR: In 1713, the regiment was posted to Gibraltar, where it spent the next 15 years. It was part of the garrison during the 1727 Anglo-Spanish War, when the Spanish besieged Gibraltar for over four months.[ref]
COLONEL: Major-General Thomas Pearce, (~1670 – 1739), an English army officer, was Colonel of the regiment from 1704 – 1732.
MORE INFO: THOMAS PEARCE – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
Egerton’s Regiment 1719 – 1732
1751: 20th Regiment of Foot
1881: Lancashire Fusiliers
RAISED: By a commission dated 20 November 1688, the regiment was formed in Torbay, Devon under Sir Richard Peyton as Peyton’s Regiment of Foot. Its first overseas deployments were to the Low Countries in 1689 and Spain in the 1700s.
GIBRALTAR: In 1713, it began 60 years rotating between England, Ireland and the Mediterranean, including two long spells with the Gibraltar garrison.[ref]
In 1727, was one of the four regiments that made up the sparsely defended garrison of approximately 1200 men, until reinforcements arrived. After serving in Gibraltar for 15 years, the regiment left in 1728 and returned to Ireland.
COLONEL: William Egerton (1684 – 1732) a British Army officer was Colonel of the regiment from 1719 – 1732.
MORE INFO: WILLIAM EGERTON – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
Earl of Portmore
Born 1656 – Died 02.01.1730
TERM: 1713, 7th August – 1720, 20th October
General David Colyear, 1st Earl of Portmore KT PC, was a Scottish general and was commissioned into the Army of William of Orange in 1674.
He took part in the War of Spanish Succession and participated in the Battle of Cádiz in 1702 and the Battle of Vigo Bay later that year.
In August 1713, he was constituted Governor of Gibraltar, and in October of the same year he was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland. When Gibraltar was besieged by the Spaniards in 1727, he embarked for that place to assume command, but on the approach of Admiral Wager with eleven ships the siege was raised.
COTTON’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Cotton’s Regiment 1715 – 1725
1751: 13th Regiment of Foot
1881: Somerset Light Infantry
RAISED: One of nine regiments of foot raised by James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.
GIBRALTAR: In 1704, Barrymore’s Regiment moved to the Iberian Peninsula taking part in the defence of the recently-captured Gibraltar (1704 – 05) and the Siege of Barcelona (1705). In 1711, the regiment started a long period of garrison duty at Gibraltar.
COLONEL: Stanhope Cotton, an officer in the British Army and Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar in 1716, was Colonel of the regiment from 1715 – 1725,[ref] succeeding Barrymore.
The colonelcy of the regiment changed again in 1725 when Lord Mark Kerr (Kerr’s Regiment), succeeded Stanhope Cotton and again in 1732 when Colonel John Middleton (Middleton’s Regiment), succeeded Lord Kerr.
Richard Kane
Born 1662 – Died 1736
TERM: 1720, 20th October – 1727, 2nd February
Brigadier General Richard Kane was a British Army General.
He was Lieutenant Governor of Minorca, arriving there in November 1712.
In 1720 to 1721, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar when it was threatened by Spain and, in 1725, George I ordered him to return to Gibraltar again to strengthen the defences and ward off Spanish invaders. This he did and at the same time he recommended a civil government for “the Rock”. George I rewarded him in 1725 for his work by giving him the colonelcy of a regiment (later the 9th Regiment of Foot). Kane returned to Minorca in February 1727, just before the Spanish launched an unsuccessful siege on Gibraltar.
BISSETT’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Bissett’s Regiment 1717 – 1742
1751: 30th Regiment of Foot
1881: East Lancashire Regiment
RAISED: The regiment was re-raised in Lincolnshire in 1702 by Colonel Thomas Sanderson as Thomas Sanderson’s Regiment of Marines. The unit took part in the capture and defence of Gibraltar in July 1704.
GIBRALTAR: Bissett’s Regiment arrived in Gibraltar in 1723 and in 1727, was one of the four regiments that made up the sparsely defended garrison of approximately 1200 men, until reinforcements arrived.
The regiment left Gibraltar and returned to Cork, Ireland in 1728,[ref] although other sources suggest that they left in 1732.[ref]
COLONEL: Lieutenant General Andrew Bissett, a British Army officer was the Colonel of the regiment from 1717 to 1742.[ref]
LORD MARK KERR’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Lord Mark Kerr’s Regiment 1725 – 1732
(See Cotton’s Regiment 1715 for regimental history)
1751: 13th Regiment of Foot
1881: Somerset Light Infantry
COLONEL: The colonelcy of the Regiment changed in 1725 when Lord Mark Kerr succeeded Stanhope Cotton.
Lord Mark Kerr (baptised 1 April 1676 – 2 February 1752) was a Scottish-born professional soldier, who served in the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Quadruple Alliance. He remained as Colonel of the regiment until May 1732 when he was succeeded by Colonel John Middleton.
Before Kerr transferred his colonelcy to the Somerset Light Infantry, he was formally the colonel of the the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot from 1712 until 1725 when he was succeeded by Henry Disney (Disney’s Regiment).
MORE INFO: LORD MARK KERR
Jasper Clayton
Died 27.06.1743
TERM: 1727, 2nd February – 1730, 13th May
Jasepr Clayton was a Lieutenant General in the British Army.
In 1707, during the War of the Spanish Succession, he was present at the Battle of Almansa.
In 1713 he was made Colonel of the 14th Regiment of Foot.
He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar in 1727 remaining there until 1730.
He fought in the War of Austrian Succession and was killed at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1727
All of these regiments arrived in Gibraltar at the beginning of April 1727.[ref]
Anstruther’s Regiment 1720 – 1760
1751: 26th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with 90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers) to form Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) – disbanded in 1968
RAISED: A Scottish infantry regiment of the British Army active from 1689 to 1881. Originally formed as the Cameronian Guard by the Lords of the Convention, named after the Cameronians, followers of the Presbyterian Richard Cameron, who had been a militant leader in the struggles of the Covenanters against attempts by the Stuart monarchs Charles II and James VII to outlaw Presbyterianism and impose bishops on the Church of Scotland.
GIBRALTAR: In 1726, they left Ireland to serve as marines aboard naval ships, and were then sent as reinforcements to the garrison in Gibraltar during the war with Spain in 1727. The regiment did not see field combat during the Siege of Gibraltar, as the activity on both sides was mostly a matter of long-distance bombardment rather than direct attacks; nine men were killed or died of wounds, and twenty-nine were injured.
The Regiment remained in the Gibraltar garrison until 1738 when it moved to Minorca, and then returned to Ireland in 1748.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Philip Anstruther (c. 1680 – 11 November 1760), of Airdrie, Fife, was a British Army officer and Scottish politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1715 and 1754 and was a controversial Lieutenant-governor of Menorca. He was promoted to colonel of the regiment in May 1720.
MORE INFO: [PHILIP ANSTRUTHER – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Middleton’s Regiment 1721 – 1732
1751: 25th Regiment of Foot
1881: The King’s Own Borderers
RAISED: On 18 March 1689 by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobite forces of James VII. The regiment was part of the Scottish Division of the British Army.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment fought at Sheriffmuir in the First Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, and then garrisoned Ireland and Gibraltar. It suffered so severely in the Siege of Gibraltar in 1727 that its few survivors had to be drafted to another regiment while its officers went home to re-recruit.[ref]
COLONEL: John Middleton became the colonel of the Somerset Light Infantry in 1732 succeeding Lord Mark Kerr.
John Middleton (27 September 1678 – 4 May 1739) was a British Army officer and Scottish Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons almost continuously between 1713 and 1739.
With the changing of colonelcy in 1732, Middleton was succeeded by John Leslie, 10th Earl of Rothes (Rothes’ Regiment 1732).[ref]
MORE INFO: [JOHN MIDDLETON – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [KING’S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS WEBSITE]
Clayton’s Regiment 1713 – 1743
1751: 14th Regiment of Foot
1881: West Yorkshire Regiment
RAISED: By Sir Edward Hales in 1685, by order of King James II. One of the nine new regiments of foot, raised to meet the Monmouth Rebellion it was termed Hales’s Regiment. The regiment served in Flanders between 1693 and 1696 and gained its first battle honour at Namur in 1695.
GIBRALTAR: In 1715 saw the regiment moved to Scotland to fight the Jacobite risings. In 1727, the regiment played a major part in defending Gibraltar against the Spanish, where it remained garrisoned for the next 15 years.
COLONEL: Jasper Clayton (died 27 June 1743) was Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar from 1727 to 1730 and was colonel of the regiment from 1713 – 1743.
MORE INFO: JASPER CLAYTON
Newton’s Regiment 1722 – 1730
1751: 39th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorset Regiment
RAISED: The 39th Regiment of Foot was raised in 1701, in the reign of William III. Colonel Richard Coote was appointed to command it on 13 February 1702. The first service of the regiment was in an expedition from Ireland to Portugal in 1704.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment sailed to Gibraltar in 1726 to reinforce the garrison, before sailing to Jamaica in 1729 and then returning to Ireland in 1732.
COLONEL: William Newton became colonel of the regiment from 28 September 1722 until his death in 1730.
William Newton, (died 10 November 1730) was an officer of the British Army. He was promoted to Brigadier-General on 4 March 1727, while serving with his regiment at the thirteenth siege of Gibraltar.
MORE INFO: WILLIAM NEWTON
Disney’s Regiment 1725 – 1731
1751: 29th Regiment of Foot
1881: Worcestershire Regiment
RAISED: Formed on 16 February 1694 during the Nine Years War by Colonel Thomas Farrington as Thomas Farrington’s Regiment of Foot. The regiment was disbanded after the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, but was reformed in 1702 when the War of the Spanish Succession began. Originally the regiment was to be posted in the West Indies, however after protests from Colonel Farringdon about how unhealthy the posting was, the regiment joined Marlborough’s army in Flanders in 1704.
GIBRALTAR: In 1712/13, the regiment became part of the Gibraltar garrison and remained there for the next 30 years, defending the fortress against the besieging Spanish army during the Siege of Gibraltar during the 1727-1729.
COLONEL: Henry Disney (died 19th November 1731), succeeded Lord Mark Kerr on 25 December 1725 as colonel of the regiment until the time of his death in 1731.
Before becoming colonel of the regiment, Disney was appointed to the 36th Foot Regiment 23rd October 1710 to 10th July 1715. He then left the army for 10 years, but returned when Spain threatened hostilities.
MORE INFO: [HENRY DISNEY] [WORCESTER REGIMENT OF FOOT WEBSITE]
Haye’s Regiment 1723 – 1732
1751: 34th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot to form the Border Regiment
RAISED: In February 1702 in East Anglia by Colonel Lord Lucas as Lord Lucas’s Regiment of Foot to fight in the War of Spanish Succession.
GIBRALTAR: In March 1727, three regiments, one of them being Haye’s Regiment, arrived in Gibraltar from Menorca as reinforcements.[ref]
In February 1727 the garrison of Gibraltar opened its fire on the besieging army and the Thirty fourth Regiment was at this period on its way from Ireland to share in the honor of a successful defence of this important fortress. The regiment encountered a storm at sea and lost several companies by shipwreck six companies proceeded to Plymouth and afterwards continuing their voyage arrived at Gibraltar on the 26th of March in company with the Twenty fifth Regiment they were followed by several other corps. The garrison made a very gallant defence of the fortress committed to their charge against the storm of war which raged against them with increasing fury until the thunder of one hundred cannon became almost incessant in the day time and was partially continued throughout the night.[ref]
COLONEL: Colonel Robert Hayes (died 7 April 1731) was a soldier of the British Army. He was Colonel of the regiment from 1723 – 1732.
The regiment was withdrawn from Gibraltar in 1728 and proceeded to Ireland.
MORE INFO: [THE BRITISH EMPIRE] [ALL THINGS GEORGIAN]
Joseph Sabine
Born c. 1661 – Died 24.10.1739
TERM: 1730, 15th October – 1739, 24th October
General Joseph Sabine was a British general and Member of Parliament.
He served in Flanders throughout the War of Spanish Succession, commanding his Regiment at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, at the Battle of Oudenarde in 1708 and then at the Siege of Lille later that year.
He was promoted to General in 1730, and was subsequently appointed Governor of Gibraltar; he died in Gibraltar in 1739.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1732
Lord Albemarle’s Regiment 1731 – 1733
(See Disney’s Regiment 1727 for regimental history)
1751: 29th Regiment of Foot
1881: Worcestershire Regiment
Formed in February 1694 during the Nine Years War by Colonel Thomas Farrington, the regiment became part of the Gibraltar garrison in 1712/13, spending the next 30 years here and defended the fortress against the besieging Spanish army during the Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar 1727.
COLONEL: Lord Albermarle succeeded Henry Disney in 1731 on the event of his death.[ref]
Colonel Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (5 June 1702 – 22 December 1754) was a British soldier, diplomat and courtier.
He was succeeded by George Reade as colonel of the regiment in 1733.
MORE INFO: LORD WILLEM ALBEMARLE
Kirk’s Regiment 1710 – 1741
1751: 2nd Regiment of Foot
1881: The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment
RAISED: 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough’s Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath (then in Surrey) specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry when she married King Charles II.
In the campaign in the Low Countries, it distinguished itself in the defence of Tongren (1703), before surrendering to the French. For this action, the regiment was awarded its ‘Royal’ title.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was on garrison duties in Canada, Gibraltar, Ireland and England during the 18th century.
COLONEL: Lieutenant General Percy Kirk (1684 – 1 January 1741) was a British Army officer and became colonel of the regiment on 19th September 1710.[ref]
MORE INFO: [PERCY KIRK] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Tyrawley’s Regiment 1713 – 1739
1751: 7th Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
RAISED: Formed as a fusilier regiment in 1685 by George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth, from two companies of the Tower of London guard, and was originally called the Ordnance Regiment. The regiment took part in an expedition which captured the town of Rota in Spain in spring 1702 and then saw action at the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
GIBRALTAR: Its first overseas deployments were to the Low Countries in 1689 and Spain in the 1700s. In 1713, it began 60 years rotating between England, Ireland and the Mediterranean, including two long spells with the Gibraltar garrison.[ref]
COLONEL: James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and 1st Baron Kilmaine, (1682 – 14 July 1774), was an Irish officer in the British Army. He was Colonel of the regiment from 1713 to 1739, succeeding his father, Lieutenant General Charles O’Hara, 1st Baron Tyrawley.[ref]
He later became the Governor of Gibraltar in 1756.
Rothes’ Regiment 1732 – 1745
(See Middleton’s Regiment 1727 for regiment history)
1751: 25th Regiment of Foot
1881: King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Part of the Scottish Division of the British Army, the regiment was raised in 1689 by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobite forces of James VII. The regiment suffered heavy losses during the Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar in 1727.
COLONEL: John Leslie became colonel of the regiment in 1732 succeeding John Middleton.[ref]
General John Leslie, 10th Earl of Rothes (1698 – 10 December 1767) was a senior British Army officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Army between 1758 and 1767.
MORE INFO: JOHN LESLIE
Grove’s Regiment 1715 – 1737
1751: 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot
1881: Royal Lincolnshire Regiment
RAISED: On 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath’s Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath.
COLONEL: Brigadier-General Henry Grove (born 1665 – died 1736) was a British Army officer. He became colonel of the regiment on 23rd June 1715.
Grove was succeeded by Francis Columbine in 1737.[ref]
MORE INFO: HENRY GROVE
READE’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Reade’s Regiment 1733 – 1739
(See Disney’s Regiment 1727 for regimental history & Lord Albermarle’s Regiment 1731)
1751: 29th Regiment of Foot
1881: Worcestershire Regiment
Formed on 16 February 1694 during the Nine Years War by Colonel Thomas Farrington, the regiment became part of the garrison in Gibraltar in 1712/13 and remained for 30 years. During the Thirteenth Siege 1727, it defended the fortress against the besieging Spanish Army.
COLONEL: In 1733, George Reade succeeded Lord Albemarle as Colonel of the regiment.
General George Reade (1687 – 28 March 1756), was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1734.
MORE INFO: GEORGE READE – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
COLUMBINE’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Columbine’s Regiment 1737 – 1746
(See Grove’s Regiment 1732 for regimental history)
1751: 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot
1881: Royal Lincolnshire Regiment
COLONEL: Francis Columbine succeeded Henry Grove in 1737 as colonel of the regiment.
Francis Columbine (died 22 September 1746) was a British Army officer and Governor of Gibraltar for six months from October 1739 and April 1740.
MORE INFO: FRANCIS COLUMBINE
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1739
Hargrave’s Regiment 1739 – 1751
(See Tyrawley’s Regiment 1732 for regimental history)
1751: 7th Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
COLONEL: William Hargrave succeeded James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley as Colonel of the regiment in 1739.
Lieutenant General William Hargrave (died 21 January 1751) was a British Army officer and Governor of Gibraltar in 1740.
MORE INFO: WILLIAM HARGRAVE
Fuller’s Regiment 1739 – 1748
(See Disney’s Regiment 1727 for regimental history, Lord Ablemarles’ Regiment 1732 & Reade’s Regiment 1733)
1751: 29th Regiment of Foot
1881: Worcestershire Regiment of Foot
COLONEL: Francis Fuller succeeded George Reade as Colonel of the regiment in 1739.
Major-General Francis Fuller (died 10 June 1748) was an officer of the British Army.
MORE INFO: FRANCIS FULLER
Francis Columbine
Died 22.09.1746
TERM: 1739, 24th October – 1740, 22nd April
Francis Columbine was a British Army officer.
He served in the wars of Queen Anne under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and was for many years an officer of the 8th Regiment of Foot. He was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 10th Regiment of Foot and performed the duty of commanding officer for more than twelve years. He was promoted again to the rank of major-general on 29 October 1735, and was rewarded with the colonelcy of his own regiment (later the 10th Foot) on 27 January 1737. On 2 July 1739 he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant General.
Columbine was Governor for six months.
Cathedral Square in Gibraltar is on the site of what was Columbine Street.
William Hargrave
Died 21.01.1751
TERM: 1740, 22nd April – 1748, 14th March
Lieutenant General William Hargrave was a British Army officer.
In 1702, during the War of the Spanish Succession, he fought at the Battle of Cádiz and the Battle of Vigo Bay; he was also present at the Siege of Barcelona in 1705 and at the Battle of Almansa in 1707.
In 1739 he became Colonel of The Royal Fusiliers just before he became Governor of Gibraltar in 1740.
FOWKES REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Fowke’s Regiment 1741 – 1755
(See Kirk’s Regiment 1732 for regimental history)
1751: 2nd Regiment of Foot
1881: The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment
Raised in 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier which was part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry when she married King Charles II. During the 18th Century, the regiment was on garrison duties in Canada, Gibraltar, Ireland and England.
COLONEL: Thomas Fowke succeeded as colonel on 12 August 1741, following the death of Percy Kirk.[ref]
Lieutenant General Thomas Fowke, (c. 1690 – 29 March 1765) was a British military officer. He was appointed Governor of Gibraltar in 1752.
MORE INFO: THOMAS FOWKE
HOUGHTON’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Houghton’s Regiment 1741 – 1745
1751: 45th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment to form the Sherwood Foresters
RAISED: In 1741 by Colonel Daniel Houghton as Houghton’s Regiment for service during the War of the Austrian Succession.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was first posted to Gibraltar in 1745, before moving to Nova Scotia in 1747 for garrison duty.[ref]
COLONEL: Brigadier General Daniel Houghton was a soldier in the British Army and was Colonel of the regiment from 1741 to 1745.
MORE INFO: NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM
Humphrey Bland
Born 1686 – Died 08.05.1763
TERM: 1748, 14th March – 1754, 31st May
Lieutenant General Humphrey Bland was a British Army officer.
He became a leading military theoretician and military writer. One of his books, ‘A Treatise of Military Discipline: In Which is laid down and Explained the Duties of Officer and Soldier‘, published in 1727 and was “considered the bible of the British Army”. A first edition was owned by George Washington who encouraged his officers in the Continental Army to “study Bland and other treatises.”
In 1742 he was appointed Quartermaster-General to the Forces a post he held until his death.
In 1747 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief for Scotland, and although he was Governor of Gibraltar between 1749 and 1754, he resumed his role as Commander-in-Chief for Scotland from 1753 to 1756.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1749
Leighton’s Regiment 1747 – 1773
1751: 32nd Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
RAISED: First raised by Colonel Edward Fox as Edward Fox’s Regiment of Marines in 1702 to fight in the War of Spanish Succession 1702 – 1714 and took part in the capture and defence of Gibraltar in July 1704. It was disbanded in 1713 but re-raised as Jacob Borr’s Regiment of Foot in 1714.
GIBRALTAR: Recalled home during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, it was stationed first in Lancashire and then Scotland. It was sent back to Flanders, where it fought at Lauffeld (1747), before returning to Gibraltar.
COLONEL: General Francis Leighton (1696 – 9 June 1773) was a general of the British Army. On 1 July 1751 a royal warrant was issued declaring that in future regiments were no longer to be known by their colonel’s name, but by the “Number or Rank of the Regiment”, General Francis Leighton’s Regiment was renamed the 32nd Regiment of Foot.
Leighton became colonel of the regiment on 1st December 1747.
MORE INFO: [FRANCIS LEIGHTON] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Fleming’s Regiment 1741 – 1751
1751: 36th Regiment of Foot
1881: 29th and 36th Regiments of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment
RAISED: The unit was raised on the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession: On 28 June 1701 William III issued a warrant to William Caulfeild, 2nd Viscount Charlemont to raise a regiment of foot in Ireland.
GIBRALTAR: After the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the regiment returned to England in 1749 where its establishment was reduced before it was sent to Gibraltar to form part of the garrison.[ref]
COLONEL: James Fleming (1682 – 31 March 1751) was a British major-general, and colonel of the 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot.
On his death in 1751, he was succeeded as Colonel by Lord Robert Manners.
MORE INFO: [JAMES FLEMING] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
8th Regiment
1751: 8th (King’s) Regiment of Foot
1881: King’s Regiment (Liverpool)
RAISED: The regiment formed as the Princess Anne of Denmark’s Regiment of Foot during a rebellion in 1685 by the illegitimate son of King Charles II against King James II.
On the accession of Princess Anne to the throne in 1702, the regiment became the Queen’s Regiment of Foot. In 1716 at the behest of George I, to honour the regiment’s service at Sheriffmuir, the Queen’s became the King’s Regiment of Foot.
GIBRALTAR: In 1749, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Gibraltar where it would be stationed for three years.[ref]
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Edward Wolfe was Colonel of the regiment from 1745 to 1759.
Lord Beauclerk’s Regiment 1745 – 1749
1751: 31st Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot to form the East Surrey Regiment
RAISED: One of six regiments of marines formed in 1702, raised in the West Country by Colonel George Villier during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13), it assisted in the capture and defence of Gibraltar (1704).
COLONEL: Henry Beauclerk was Colonel of the regiment from 22 April 1745 until retiring from the army on 8 May 1749.[ref]
Lord Henry Beauclerk (11 August 1701 – 2 January 1761), was the fourth son of the first Duke of St Albans, a colonel in the British army and a member of parliament.
MORE INFO: [LORD HENRY BEAUCLERK – Parliamentary History / Family] [NATIONAL ARYM MUSEUM] [QUEEN’S ROYAL SURREY REGIMENT]
LORD MANNER’S REGIMENT
Manners’ Regiment 1751 – 1765
(See Fleming’s Regiment 1749 for regimental history)
1751: 36th Regiment of Foot
1881: 29th and 36th Regiments of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment
COLONEL: Following the death of James Fleming, Robert Manners became colonel of the regiment in 1751.
General Lord Robert Manners (c. 1717 – 31 May 1782) was an English soldier and nobleman, a Lieutenant-General in the British army and a Member of Parliament.
MORE INFO: LORD ROBERT MANNERS – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
BRADDOCK’S REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
Braddock’s Regiment 1753 – 1755
(See Clayton’s Regiment 1727 for regimental history)
1751: 14th Regiment of Foot
1881: West Yorkshire Regiment
One of nine new regiments raised in 1685 to meet the Monmouth Rebellion. In 1727, the regiment played a major part in defending Gibraltar against the Spanish, where it remained garrisoned for the next 15 years.
In 1752 the regiment returned to Gibraltar where it was stationed during the Seven Years’ War.[ref]
COLONEL: On the death of Thomas Fowke, Edward Braddock succeeded him as colonel of the regiment from 1753 to 1755.
Major General Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British officer and commander-in-chief for the Thirteen Colonies during the actions at the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763).
MORE INFO: EDWARD BRADDOCK
Thomas Fowke
Born c. 1690 – Died 29.03.1765
TERM: 1754, 31st May – 1756, 12th July
Lieutenant General Thomas Fowke was a British Army officer.
In 1745, he served as Brigadier-General during the Battle of Prestonpans. In 1748, he starved on Staff in Flanders with the rank of Major-General; his aide-de-camp was Robert Donkin.
He served as Governor of Gibraltar for 2 years but was suspended for not providing a regiment of marines to Admiral John Byng, who was attempting to transport troops from Gibraltar to Minorca. He was ultimately dismissed from the service by King George II, but reinstated to his former rank in 1761 by George III.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1754
Guise’s Regiment 1738 – 1765
1751: 6th Regiment of Foot
1881: Royal Warwickshire Regiment
RAISED: The infantry Regiment has its’ origins in 1674 when Prince William of Orange asked for British troops to serve in Holland against the threat of the French. The regiment then came over to England with him in 1688 taking part in what became known as the Glorious Revolution to replace James II.
GIBRALTAR: In 1753, the regiment was transferred to Gibraltar, where it spent the next 19 years before moving to the West Indies in 1772. General Guise was the colonel of the regiment from 1738 – 1765.
COLONEL: John Guise was the colonel of the regiment from 1 November 1738 – 1765.
General John Guise (1682 or 1683 – 12 June 1765) was a British Army officer and art collector. He served many years in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, and was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of that regiment in 1736.
MORE INFO: [JOHN GUISE] [ROYAL REGIMENT OF FUSILIERS MUSEUM]
Pulteney’s Regiment 1738 – 1765
(See Cotton’s Regiment 1715 for regimental history & Kerr’s Regiment 1725)
1751: 13th Regiment of Foot
1881: Somerset Light Infantry
The Somerset Light Infantry regiment served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. One of nine regiments of foot raised by James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the Monmouth Rebellion. The regiment started a long period of garrison duty in Gibraltar in 1711.
COLONEL: Harry Pulteney was colonel from 1738 to 1765. Under his command the regiment served at Dettingen, Fontenoy, the Jacobite Rebellion at Falkirk and Culloden. Later they took part in the road-building programme in the Scottish Highlands, and the regiment’s officers were among those unsuccessfully investigating the famous Appin murder of 1752.
General Harry Pulteney (14 February 1686 – 26 October 1767) was an English soldier and Member of Parliament.
MORE INFO: HARRY PULTENEY – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
Lord Tyrawley
Born 1682 – Died 14.07.1774
TERM: 1756, 12th July – 1757, 16th April
Field Marshal James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley and 1st Baron Kilmaine PC was an Irish officer in the British Army.
He fought at the Siege of Barcelona in April 1706 and was wounded at the Battle of Almansa in April 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
O’Hara became Governor of Gibraltar in 1756 and set about improving the fortifications. These changes came under criticism from William Skinner who was British Chief Engineer.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1756
21st Regiment
1751: 21st Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Scots Fusiliers
RAISED: Formed in Scotland in September 1678 by the Earl of Mar for service against dissident Covenanters and helped suppress Presbyterian rebellions at Bothwell Bridge in 1679 and the 1685 Argyll’s Rising.
GIBRALTAR: With the exception of the capture of Belle Île in 1761 during the 1756-63 Seven Years’ War, the next 20 years were spent on garrison duty in Gibraltar, Scotland, West Florida and Quebec before returning to England in 1773.
COLONEL: General William Maule, 1st Earl Panmure (1700–1782) was a Scottish soldier and politician. He was colonel of the regiment from 1752 – 1770.
MORE INFO: [WILLIAM MAULE] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
56th Regiment
1755: Formed as the 58th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot to form the Essex Regiment
RAISED: In 1755 to meet the threat of war with France, the regiment originally numbered as the 58th Regiment, but renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded.
COLONEL: Major-General Lord Charles Manners (died 5 December 1761) was a British soldier, brother of Lord Robert Manners, (see Manner’s Regiment 1751) and the youngest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland. He was colonel of the regiment from 1755 to 1761.
MORE INFO: [LORD CHARLES MANNERS] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Lord Robert Bertie’s Regiment 1754 – 1776
(See Tyrawley’s Regiment 1732 for regimental history & Hargrave’s Regiment 1739)
1751: 7th Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
Formed as a fusilier regiment in 1685 by George Legge from two companies of the Tower of London guard, and originally called the Ordnance Regiment. The regiment began 60 years rotating between England, Ireland and the Mediterranean, including two long spells with the Gibraltar garrison.
COLONEL: General Lord Robert Bertie (14 November 1721 – 10 March 1782) was a senior British Army officer and politician. He was Regimental Colonel of the 7th Regiment of Foot from 20 August 1754 to 12 November 1776, serving through the Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763).
MORE INFO: [LORD ROBERT BERTIE – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Campbell’s Regiment 1755 – 1757
1755: Formed as the 56th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment
RAISED: In Salisbury by John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll in 1755 as the 56th Regiment of Foot for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 53rd Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of the existing 50th and 51st regiments, in 1756. In 1781 and adopted a county designation becoming the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was deployed to Gibraltar in 1756 and remained there until it moved to Ireland in 1765.
COLONEL: Field Marshal John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll (June 1723 – 24 May 1806), styled Marquess of Lorne from 1761 to 1770, was a Scottish soldier, nobleman and Member of Parliament. He was promoted to colonel on 10 November 1755, raised the regiment in December 1755 and was colonel until 1757.
MORE INFO: [JOHN CAMPBELL – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [Regiments of the Malta Garrison]
Colonel Whitmore’s Regiment 1755 – 1758
1755: Formed as the 55th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers) to form the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
RAISED: In 1755 in Northern England by Colonel William Whitmore as the 55th Regiment of Foot for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 53rd Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of the existing 50th and 51st regiments, in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment embarked for Gibraltar in 1756 and, after returning home, moved to Ireland in 1768.
COLONEL: Lieutenant General William Whitmore (14 May 1714 – 22 July 1771) was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament.
In 1755 Whitmore was ordered to raise a new regiment, originally to be called the 55th Foot, but subsequently named the 53rd Foot. After the regiment was formed he was given its colonelcy, prior to the regiment sailing to Gibraltar for garrison duties.
William Whitmore was succeeded by John Toovey as colonel of the regiment in 1759.
MORE INFO: [WILLIAM WHITMORE – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [SHROPSHIRE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM]
Colonel Arabin’s Regiment 1755 – 1757
1755: Formed as the 59th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Middlesex Regiment
RAISED: In Somerset and Gloucester by Colonel John Arabin as the 59th Regiment of Foot in 1755 for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 57th Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of the existing 50th and 51st regiments in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment’s first posting was to Gibraltar during the Seven Years War (1756-63), from where it operated for a time as marines along the coast of Spain. It was moved to Minorca in 1763 and then to Ireland five years later.
COLONEL: Colonel John Arabin (1703 – 1757) was colonel of the regiment from 1755 to 1757. He was succeeded by David Cunyngham.
MORE INFO: [JOHN ARABIN] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Lord Effingham’s Regiment 1754 – 1760
(See Haye’s Regiment 1727)
1755: Formed as the 34th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot to form the Border Regiment
RAISED: In East Anglia by Colonel Lord Lucas as Lord Lucas’s Regiment of Foot in February 1702 to fight in the War of Spanish Succession.
GIBRALTAR: In 1752 the Regiment was sent to form a part of the garrison (which also included the 4th Foot) of Minorca commanded by General Blakeney and suffered a prolonged French siege in April 1756. The English regiments were defeated and forced to surrender to Marshal Richelieu. They were later shipped to Gibraltar.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham (1714 – 19 November 1763), styled Lord Howard from 1731 to 1743, was a British nobleman and Army officer, the son of Francis Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham.
He was appointed an aide-de-camp to the King on 20 August 1749, and received the colonelcy of the 34th Regiment of Foot on 2 December 1754.
MORE INFO: [THOMAS HOWARD] [CUMBRIA’S MUSEUM OF MILITARY LIFE]
Colonel Dunmore’s Regiment 1713 – 1752
1642: Formed as Marquis of Argyll’s Royal Regiment
The Scots Guards (SG) is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army. The Scots Guards trace their origins back to 1642 when, by order of King Charles I, the regiment was raised by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll for service in Ireland, and was known as the Marquis of Argyll’s Royal Regiment. It was retitled The Third Regiment of Foot Guards in 1712 and moved from Edinburgh to London.
MORE INFO: [JOHN MURRY, 2nd EARL OF DUNMORE] [SCOTS GUARDS WEBSITE]
Colonel Cornwallis’ Regiment 1752 – 1776
1751: 24th Regiment of Foot
1881: The South Wales Borderers
RAISED: Formed in 1689 by Sir Edward Dering, 3rd Baronet as Sir Edward Dering’s Regiment of Foot in 1689.
GIBRALTAR: In 1756, the regiment was stationed in Minorca when the French launched an amphibious expedition against Minorca. After the capitulation of the British force defending the Fortress of St. Philip on June 28, the regiment was sent to Gibraltar.
COLONEL: Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis (March 1713 – January 1776) was a British military officer who was a member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family. Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and then was given the task of establishing Halifax, Nova Scotia as the Governor of Nova Scotia (1749–1752).
He became Governor of Gibraltar in 1761.
MORE INFO: [EDWARD CORNWALLIS] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
23rd Regiment of Foot
1751: 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers)
1881: The Royal Welsh Fusiliers
RAISED: The Royal Welch Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised by Henry Herbert at Ludlow on 16 March 1689, following the 1688 Glorious Revolution and exile of James II.
GIBRALTAR: In 1756, at the outbreak of the Seven Years War, the regiment was one of four British regiments that unsuccessfully took part in the defence of Minorca and surrendered to the French in June 1756. The regiments were given free passage to Gibraltar.
COLONEL: Lieutenant General John Huske (ca 1692 – 18 January 1761) was a British military officer, whose active service began in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession, included the Jacobite rising of 1745 and ended in 1748. He was colonel of the regiment from 1743 to 1761.
MORE INFO: [JOHN HUSKE] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM] [THE ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS MUSEUM AT CAERNARFON CASTLE]
2nd Dragoons (Royal North British)
1681: Formed as The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons
RAISED: The regiment was formed as The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons in 1681 from a number of existing troops of cavalry. Its first action was the suppression of the Earl of Argyll’s rising, launched in 1685 in support of the Duke of Monmouth’s revolt. In 1693 the entire regiment attended a royal inspection in London mounted on ‘greys’ (horses with white or dappled-white hair). This gained it the nickname ‘Scots Grey Dragoons’.
Soon after 1711, the regiment was re-ranked as the 2nd Dragoons in the new combined English and Scottish cavalry order of precedence.
COLONEL: General John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll KT PC (c. 1693 – 9 November 1770), was a British Army officer and Scottish Whig politician. He was colonel of the regiment from 1752 to 1770.
MORE INFO: [JOHN CAMPBELL – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Earl of Home
Born 1681 – Died 28.04.1761
TERM: 1757, 16th April – 1761, 28th April
Lieutenant General William Home, 8th Earl of Home was a Scottish peer.
He fought at the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745 under Sir John Cope. Distinguishing service meant that he was given command of the Glasgow volunteer regiment of foot which was given orders to defend Stirling. He did well as most of the Jacobite forces were in England making their way to Derby with Bonnie Prince Charlie.
He became Governor of Gibraltar in 1757.
Home was meant to return to England on 29 April 1761 but died in Gibraltar the day before.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1757
Colonel Grey’s Regiment 1757 – 1760
(See Campbell’s Regiment 1756)
1755: Formed as the 56th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment
COLONEL: Major-General John Grey (died 10 March 1760) succeeded John Campbell becoming colonel of the regiment on 5 April 1757.
MORE INFO: JOHN GREY
Colonel Cunynghame’s Regiment 1757 – 1767
(See Colonel Arabin’s Regiment 1756 for regimental history)
1755: Formed as the 59th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Middlesex Regiment
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Sir David Cunynghame (1 August 1700 – 10 October 1767), 3rd Baronet of Milncraig and Livingstone, was colonel of the regiment from 1757 to 1767.
MORE INFO: DAVID CUNYGHAME
COLONEL TOOVEY’S REGIMENT
Colonel Toovey’s Regiment 1759 – 1770
(See Colonel Whitmore’s Regiment 1756 for regimental history)
1755: Formed as the 55th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 85th Regiment of Foot (Bucks Volunteers) to form the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
In 1755 Whitmore was ordered to raise a new regiment, originally to be called the 55th Foot, but subsequently named the 53rd Foot. After the regiment was formed he was given its colonelcy, prior to the regiment sailing to Gibraltar for garrison duties.
COLONEL: Major-Gen John Toovey (<8 December 1680 – 1762) was colonel of the regiment from 1759 to 1770.
MORE INFO: JOHN TOOVEY
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1760
7th Regiment
(See Tyrawley’s Regiment 1732 for regimental history pre 1751, Hargrave’s Regiment 1739 & Lord Robert Bertie’s Regiment 1756)
1751: 7th Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
Formed as a fusilier regiment in 1685 by George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth, from two companies of the Tower of London guard, and was originally called the Ordnance Regiment.
In 1755, the regiment consisted of 3 field officers, 7 captains, 11 lieutenants, 9 ensigns, 4 staff, 20 sergeants, 20 corporals, 10 drummers and 350 privates. On March 31, it embarked at Cork for England. On April 9, it arrived at Bristol. During the summer, the regiment was augmented from 29 men per company to 70. Two companies were also added. At the end of the year, it was sent to Dover Castle.[ref]
GIBRALTAR: On March 2 1756, the regiment was reviewed in Dover Castle by the Duke of Cumberland. It then proceeded to Portsmouth. On March 30, it embarked on board Admiral Byng’s squadron. On April 5, this squadron sailed from Portmouth. On April 17, it reached Lisbon. Byng’s squadron was sailing to Minorca to relieve the British force besieged in Fort St. Philip since three weeks. The fleet was so slenderly manned that Byng required the regiment for duty on board ship. However, a French fleet under M. de la Galissonière prevented Byng from reaching Minorca and the British fleet retired towards Gibraltar.
From 1757 to 1763, the regiment remained at Gibraltar.
COLONEL: Lord Robert Bertie was colonel of the regiment from 1754 to 1776.
MORE INFO: [LORD ROBERT BERTIE – Parliamentary History 1715 – 1754 & 1754 – 1790 / Wikipedia] [THE BRITISH EMPIRE – THE ROYAL FUSILIERS WEBSITE]
15th Regiment
1751: 15th Regiment of Foot
1881: The East Yorkshire Regiment
RAISED: In1685 in Nottingham by Sir William Clifton, 3rd Baronet as Sir William Clifton’s Regiment of Foot.
The regiment was sent to Holland in 1701 for service in the War of the Spanish Succession and fought at the siege of Kaiserswerth in 1702, the siege of Venlo later that year and the Battle of Blenheim in August 1704. It went on to fight at the Battle of Ramillies in May 1706, the Battle of Oudenarde in July 1708 and the Battle of Malplaquet in September 1709. It returned to England in 1714. It was sent to Scotland and took part in the Battle of Glen Shiel in June 1719 during Jacobite rising.
COLONEL: Jeffery Amherst was colonel of the regiment from 1756 to 1768.
Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, KB (29 January 1717 – 3 August 1797) was an officer in the British Army, served as a Commander-in-Chief of the Forces and was the first British Governor General in the territories that eventually became Canada.
MORE INFO: JEFFERY AMHERST
54th Regiment
1755: Formed as 56th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment
RAISED: In Salisbury by John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll in 1755 as the 56th Regiment of Foot for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 53rd Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of the existing 50th and 51st regiments, in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was deployed to Gibraltar in 1756 and remained there until it moved to Ireland in 1765.
COLONEL: General John Parslow (died 15 November 1786), was colonel of the regiment from 1760 to 1770.
MORE INFO: JOHN PARSLOW
57th Regiment
(See Colonel Cunynghame’s Regiment 1757)
1755: Formed as the 59th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Middlesex Regiment
Lieutenant-General David Cunynghame was colonel of the regiment until 1767.
MORE INFO: 57 REGIMENT
53rd Regiment
(See Colonel Toovey’s Regiment 1759)
1755: Formed as 55th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 85th (King’s Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot to form the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
RAISED: A new regiment was raised in 1755 in northern England under the colonelcy of William Whitmore. Initially numbered the 55th Foot, it became the 53rd the following year when two of the intervening regiments disbanded. By then, the unit was stationed in Gibraltar, sometimes serving as marines during the Seven Years War (1756-63). It remained here until 1768, when it moved to Ireland.
Major-General John Toovey was colonel of the regiment until 1770.
MORE INFO: NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM
John Toovey
TERM: 1761, 28th April – 1761, 23rd June
John Toovey was acting Governor of Gibraltar for 25 days.
John Parslow
TERM: 1761, 13th – 14th June
John Parslow was acting Govenor of Gibraltar for just 1 day.
Edward Cornwallis
Born 05.03.1713 – Died 14.01.1776
TERM: 1761, 14th June – 1776, 14th January
Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis was a British military officer with a long career in the British Army.
In November 1756 Cornwallis was one of three colonels who were ordered to proceed to Gibraltar and from there embark for Minorca, which was then under siege from the French. Admiral John Byng called a council of war, which involved Cornwallis, and advised the return of the fleet to Gibraltar leaving the garrison at Minorca to its fate.
Byng, Cornwallis and the other officers were arrested when they returned to England. They faced court martial. Byng was found guilty and executed. Cornwallis testified that he was following Byng’s command and was judged to have been a passenger under the control of Byng and was exonerated.
He served as Governor from 1761 until the time of his death in January 1776 at the age of 63.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1763
19th Regiment
1751: 19th Regiment of Foot
1881: The Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment)
RAISED: Formed during the 1688 Glorious Revolution from independent companies raised in Devon by Colonel Francis Luttrell as Luttrell’s Regiment, to support William III.
GIBRALTAR: It took part in the Battle of Rocoux and the Battle of Lauffeld before the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the War of the Austrian Succession, after which it became part of the garrison of Gibraltar.
During the Seven Years’ War, it took part in the capture of Belle Île in April 176 and suffered over 200 casualties. The regiment spent the next 20 years on garrison duty in Gibraltar and Scotland.
COLONEL: George Beauclerk was Colonel of the regiment from 1751 to 1768.[ref]
Lord George Beauclerk (26 December 1704 – 11 May 1768), was the six son of the first Duke of St Albans, a colonel in the British army and a member of parliament. His older brother Henry Beauclerk was also a colonel in the British army – see Lord Beauclerk’s Regiment 1749.
MORE INFO: LORD GEORGE BEAUCLERK – Parliamentary History / Family / Wikipedia
20th Regiment
(See Egerton’s Regiment 1713)
1751: 20th Regiment of Foot
1881: Lancashire Fusiliers
By a commission dated 20 November 1688, the regiment was formed in Torbay, Devon under Sir Richard Peyton as Peyton’s Regiment of Foot. Its first overseas deployments were to the Low Countries in 1689 and Spain in the 1700s.
In 1713 the regiment began 60 years of service rotating between England, Ireland and the Mediterranean including two long spells with the Gibraltar garrison. During the Thirteenth Siege of Gibraltar in 1727, the regiment was one of the four regiments that made up the sparsely defended garrison of approximately 1200 men, until reinforcements arrived. After serving in Gibraltar for 15 years, the regiment left in 1728.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General William Kingsley (c.1698 – 1769) was colonel of the regiment from 1756 to 1769.[ref]
MORE INFO: WILLIAM KINGSLEY
24th Regiment
(See Colonel Cornwallis’ Regiment 1756)
1751: 24th Regiment of Foot
1881: The South Wales Borderers
Raised in 1689 by Sir Edward Dering, 3rd Baronet as Sir Edward Dering’s Regiment of Foot in 1689, the regiment took part in the Siege of Fort St Philip in Menorca in April 1756 during the Seven Years’ War. After the capitulation of the British force defending the Fortress of St. Philip on June 28, the regiment was sent to Gibraltar. Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis was colonel of the regiment from 1752 to 1776.
MORE INFO: [EDWARD CORNWALLIS] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
30th Regiment
(See Bissett’s Regiment 1723)
1751: 30th Regiment of Foot
1881: East Lancashire Regiment
Raised in Lincolnshire by Colonel Thomas Sanderson in 1702, the unit took part in the capture and defence of Gibraltar in July 1704.
In 1727 the regiment was one of the four regiments that made up the sparsely defended Gibraltar garrison until reinforcements arrived, before returning to Ireland.
The regiment returned to Gibraltar again, serving from 1763 to 1771.
COLONEL: General John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun was colonel of the regiment from 1749 to 1770.
MORE INFO: JOHN CAMPBELL
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1768
These regiments arrived in Gibraltar March 1768 to relieve the 53rd and 54th regiments of foot.
1881: Amalgamated with the 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot to form the Welch Regiment
RAISED: On 25 August 1756 it was ordered that a number of existing regiments should raise a second battalion; among those chosen was the 24th Regiment of Foot. The 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment of Foot was formed on 10 December 1756 and renumbered as the 69th Regiment of Foot on 21 April 1758.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Honorable Charles Colville (10 August 1691 – 29 August 1755) was colonel of the regiment from 1758 to 1775.
MORE INFO: CHARLES COLVILLE
1st Regiment
1751: 1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
RAISED: Formed in 1633 when Sir John Hepburn, under a Royal Warrant granted by King Charles I, raised a body of men in Scotland for service in France. A second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland. The regiment fought in the War of the Spanish Succession 1701 -1714 and from 1715 to 1742, both battalions were in Ireland, after which they were usually separated.
Until American War began in 1775, both Battalions served as garrisons in the Mediterranean, the 1st in Gibraltar and the 2nd in Minorca.
COLONEL: Field Marshal John Campbell was colonel of the regiment from 1765 to 1782.[ref]
He had been colonel of the 54th regiment from 1755 to 1757.
MORE INFO: [JOHN CAMPBELL] [THE ROYAL SCOTS WEBSITE]
2nd Regiment
(See Kirk’s Regiment 1732 & Fowke’s Regiment 1741)
1751: 2nd Regiment of Foot
1881: The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment
RAISED: 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough’s Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath (then in Surrey) specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry when she married King Charles II.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Montagu was colonel of the regiment from 1760 until his death in 1777.
MORE INFO: [CHARLES MONTAGU] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1769
These regiments arrived in Gibraltar May/June 1769 to relieve the 20th and 24th regiments of foot.
12th Regiment
1751: 12th Regiment of Foot
1881: Suffolk Regiment
RAISED: First on 20 June 1685, as the Duke of Norfolk’s Regiment of Foot, in Norwich. A second battalion was established in 1757 and in 1758, the second Battalion was constituted as the 65th Regiment.
COLONEL: Henry Clinton was colonel of the regiment from 1766 to 1779.
General Sir Henry Clinton (c.16 April 1730 – 23 December 1795) was a British army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1772 and 1795. In 1794, he was named Governor of Gibraltar, but died before assuming the post.
MORE INFO: HENRY CLINTON – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
39th Regiment
(See Newton’s Regiment 1727)
1751: 39th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot to form the Dorsetshire Regiment
RAISED: First by Adam Loftus, 1st Viscount Lisburne as Viscount Lisburne’s Regiment of Foot in 1689 but was disbanded in 1697. It was re-raised in Ireland by Colonel Richard Coote as Richard Coote’s Regiment of Foot in August 1702. In 1713 the regiment embarked for Gibraltar and then moved to Menorca later in the year. It was posted to Ireland in 1719 and sailed back to Gibraltar in 1726 to reinforce the garrison.
COLONEL: Robert Boyd was colonel of the regiment from 1765 to 1782.[ref]
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Boyd (c. 1710 – 13 May 1794) was a British Army officer. He was three-times Governor of Gibraltar (1776 to 1777, 1790 and 1790 to 1794) and his body is buried under Kings Bastion.
MORE INFO: ROBERT BOYD
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1771
56th Regiment
(See 1756)
1755: Formed as the 58th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot to form the Essex Regiment
RAISED: In 1755 to meet the threat of war with France, the regiment originally numbered as the 58th Regiment, but renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded.
In 1770 the regiment was despatched to Gibraltar, sailing from Cork in May and remained in the garrison for many years. It was present when Spain declared war on the United Kingdom in June 1779 and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began. The Siege ended in 1783 and the 56th received the battle honour “Gibraltar” for its service in the siege, with the right to bear the castle-and-key insignia on its colours. It was relieved in October 1783, and returned to England.
COLONEL: General Hunt Walsh (1720 – 28 February 1795) was a British soldier and politician, was colonel of the regiment from 1766 to 1795.
MORE INFO: HUNT WALSH
58th Regiment
1755: Formed as the 60th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Northamptonshire Regiment
RAISED: By Colonel Robert Anstruther as the 60th Regiment of Foot in 1755 for service in the Seven Years’ War, but re-ranked as the 58th Regiment of Foot, when two senior regiments were disbanded in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was posted to Gibraltar in 1770 and took part in the Great Siege in the early 1780s.
COLONEL: General Robert Cuninghame, 1st Baron Rossmore PC (Ire) (18 April 1726 – 6 August 1801) was an Irish British Army officer and politician was colonel of the regiment from 1767 to 1775.[ref]
MORE INFO: ROBERT CUNINGHAME – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia
HANOVERIANS BRIGADE GIBRALTAR
Hanoverian’s Brigade 1775 – 1783
In 1775 Britain did not have enough troops to fight the colonial rebellion in America – The American Revolution. English parliament approached George III, who was also king of Hanover, and they requested the use of Hanoverian troops. Five battalions were sent; two battalions Minorca and three to Gibraltar – Reden Regiment, Hardenberg Regiment and La Motte Regiment, to replace the 1st, 2nd and 69th regiments of foot that had returned to Britain in November 1775.
Each of the Hanovarian battalions consisted of one grenadier and five musketeer companies, with a total including officers and noncommissioned officers of 473 men, as well as two women.
The battalions also made up part of the Gibraltar garrison during The Great Siege (1779 – 1783).
MORE INFO: ACTA MILITARIA
Robert Boyd – 1st Term
Born c. 1710 – Died 13 May 1794
1st TERM: 1776, January – 1777, 25th May
Sir Robert Boyd KB was a Lieutenant General in the British Army.
He would serve as Governor of Gibraltar 3 times – (1776 to 1777, 1790 and 1790 to 1794).
Boyd’s first term as Governor of Gibraltar was 1776 to 1777.
He became acting Governor from July 1790 to October 1790 and his second term was from October 1790 to May 1794.
George Eliott
Born 25.12.1717 – Died 06.07.1790
TERM: 1777, 25th May – 1787, 14th June
George Augustus Eliott, PC, was a British officer and served in three major wars during the eighteenth century.
He is most notable for his command of the Gibraltar garrison during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, which lasted between 1779 and 1783 during the American War of Independence. He was celebrated for his successful defence of the fortress.
George Augustus Eliott was Governor of Gibraltar from May 1777 to June 1787.
General Eliott has been commemorated on a Gibraltar pound banknote; his portrait has appeared since 1995 on the £10 notes issued by the Government of Gibraltar.
THE GREAT SIEGE
24th June 1779 – 7th February 1783
The Great Siege of Gibraltar (the fourteenth and last military siege of Gibraltar), was the longest (3 years & 7 months) and most famous of Gibraltar’s sieges. It was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the American War of Independence which broke out in 1775. This was the largest action fought during the war in terms of numbers, particularly the Grand Assault of 18 September 1782.
In 1779, Spain allied with France and declared war on Britain, the primary ambition of which being to recover Gibraltar. Bearing in mind the futility of previous sieges in which Gibraltar had been blockaded only by land, the Spanish launched a combined land and sea blockade in an attempt to starve the garrison into surrender. They bribed the sultan of Morocco into severing trade with Gibraltar and built booms to prevent ships landing supplies, while simultaneously blockading the isthmus with over 13,000 men, where work began on rebuilding the batteries from the previous siege 50 years earlier.
From the summer of 1780, Spanish forces attempted to bombard Gibraltar with fire ships and gunboats, while the British attempted to devise ways of frustrating these attacks as well as bombarding the Spanish camp with the few cannon that could reach. The Spanish bombardment continued throughout the siege, though slackening at times, but the naval blockade was intermittent, meaning that merchants were able to land and sell supplies to the garrison, preventing it from being starved into submission. The merchants also conveyed those civilians who could afford it away from the Rock, and so the civilian population gradually declined. The siege concluded after Britain ceded East and West Florida and Minorca to Spain in exchange for Gibraltar in lengthy negotiations facilitated by France.
1779, July – Start of the Siege. French and Spanish forces tried to wrest control of Gibraltar from the established British Garrison. The garrison, led by George Augustus Eliott, later 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar, survived all attacks and a blockade of supplies.
1782, 13 September – Start of an assault involving 100,000 men, 48 ships and 450 cannon. The British garrison survived.
1783, February – By now the siege was over, and George Augustus Eliott was awarded the Knight of the Bath and was created 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar. The Treaties of Versailles which ceded Minorca and Florida to Spain, reaffirmed previous treaties in the rest of issues, thus not affecting to Gibraltar.
1782 – Work on the Great Siege Tunnels started. The tunnels became a great and complex system of underground fortifications which nowadays criss-crosses the inside of the Rock. Once the Siege was over, the fortifications were rebuilt and, in the following century, the walls were lined with Portland limestone. Such stone gave the walls their present white appearance.
The successful resistance in the Great Siege is attributed to several factors: the improvement in fortifications by Colonel (later General Sir) William Green in 1769; the British naval supremacy, which translated into support of the Navy; the competent command by General George Augustus Elliot; and an appropriately sized garrison. As in the early years of the British period, during the Siege the British Government considered to exchange Gibraltar for some Spanish possession. However, by the end of the Siege the fortress and its heroic response to the siege was now acquiring a sort of cult status amongst the population in Britain and no exchange however attractive, was likely to be acceptable.
72nd FOOT REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
72nd Regiment (Royal Manchester Volunteers)
RAISED: Formed on 16 December 1777 by public subscription in the City of Manchester to serve on garrison duty in Gibraltar during the American War of Independence 1775 – 1783.
GIBRALTAR: At the start of The Great Siege in 1779, the Gibraltar garrison comprised of 12th, 39th, 56th, 58th, 72nd regiments and also the three Hanoverian battalions.
The regiment was disbanded in 1783 on their return to Manchester following the Treaty of Paris (1783).
COLONEL: Charles Mawhood was colonel of the regiment from 1777 until the time of his death in August 1780.
MORE INFO: CHARLES MAWHOOD
73rd FOOT REGIMENT GIBRALTAR
73rd Regiment of Foot (disbanded)
RAISED: The regiment was raised at Elgin by Major-General John Mackenzie, Lord MacLeod as the 73rd (Highland) Regiment of Foot (McLeod’s Highlanders) from Highland clans in December 1777. A second battalion was formed in September 1778. The 1st battalion embarked for India in January 1779.
GIBRALTAR: In January 1780, the 2nd battalion served as marines at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent before arriving in Gibraltar later that month and then taking part in the Great Siege of Gibraltar 1779 – 1783. The 2nd Battalion was disbanded in 1783.
The regiment was redesignated as the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot (MacLeod’s Highlanders) in 1786.
COLONEL: Major-General Colonel George Mackenzie was the colonel of the regiment from 1777 to 1789.
MORE INFO: GEORGE MACKENZIE
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1782
These three regiments arrived in Gibraltar in 1782 to strengthen the garrison
97th Regiment of Foot
The first 97th Regiment of Foot was raised in c1760 and disbanded in 1763. A second regiment was raised in 1780 under Colonel Samuel Stanton, arriving in Gibraltar in March. The regiment was disbanded in 1783.[ref]
25th Regiment of Foot
(See Middleton’s Regiment 1727 & Rothe’s Regiment 1732)
1751: 25th Regiment of Foot
1881: The King’s Own Borderers
RAISED: On 18 March 1689 by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobite forces of James VII. The regiment was part of the Scottish Division of the British Army.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment fought at Sheriffmuir in the First Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, and then garrisoned Ireland and Gibraltar. It suffered so severely in the Siege of Gibraltar in 1727 that its few survivors had to be drafted to another regiment while its officers went home to re-recruit.[ref]
Following garrison duties on Menorca from 1768 to 1780, the regiment was sent to relieve Gibraltar, (arriving in October 1780) during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
COLONEL: General Lord George Henry Lennox (29 November 1737 – 25 March 1805) was a British Army officer and politician was colonel of the regiment from 1762 to the time of his death in 1805.
MORE INFO: [GEORGE HENRY LENNOX – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
59th Regiment of Foot
1755: Formed as 61st Regiment of Foot
1881: Became 2nd Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment
RAISED: In the counties of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire by Sir Charles Montagu as the 61st Regiment of Foot in 1755 for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 59th Regiment of Foot following the disbandment of the existing regiments in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: In 1782, the closing stages of the Anglo Spanish War, the regiment was assigned to the Gibraltar garrison, arriving in October 1780 and remained for ten years.
COLONEL: General Sir David Lindsay, 4th Baronet of Evelick (c.1732 – 6 March 1797) was colonel of the regiment from 1776 to 1797.
MORE INFO: SIR DAVID LINDSAY
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1783
2nd Regiment of Foot
(See Kirk’s Regiment 1732, Fowke’s Regiment 1741 & 1768)
1751: 2nd Regiment of Foot
1881: The Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment
Raised in 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough’s Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath (then in Surrey) specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry when she married King Charles II.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Daniel Jones (died 20 November 1793) was colonel of the regiment from 1777 until his death in 1793.
MORE INFO: [DANIEL JONES] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
11th Regiment of Foot
1751: 11th Regiment of Foot
1881: Devonshire Regiment
RAISED: In 1685 by Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort as The Duke of Beaufort’s Regiment of Foot, or Beaufort Musketeers, to defend Bristol against the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion.
GIBRALTAR: When the American War of Independence (1775 – 1783) ended, the regiment was directed to proceed to Gibraltar. It arrived in November 1783. The regiment remained in Gibraltar until the winter of 1792 and then it returned to England at the beginning of January 1793.[ref]
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Francis Smith (1723–1791) was colonel of the regiment from 1781 to the time of his death in 1791.
MORE INFO: FRANCIS SMITH
18th Regiment of Foot
1751: 18th Regiment of Foot
1881:The Royal Irish Regiment (disbanded 1922)
RAISED: The regiment was formed in 1684 by the Earl of Granard from independent companies in Ireland.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment served in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714) and in 1718 it joined the garrison Menorca, where it remained here until 1742, with the exception of a detachment sent to Gibraltar in 1727. After this, The regiment spent most of the next 25 years on garrison duty in Britain and Ireland, but returned to Gibraltar in 1783 and remained for 10 years.
COLONEL: General Sir John Saunders Sebright, 6th Baronet (19 October 1725 – 23 February 1794) was colonel of the regiment from 1776 to 1797.
MORE INFO: [DANIEL JONES – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
32nd Regiment of Foot
(SeeLeighton‘s Regiment 1749)
1751: 32nd Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
RAISED: First raised by Colonel Edward Fox as Edward Fox’s Regiment of Marines in 1702 to fight in the War of Spanish Succession 1702 – 1714 and took part in the capture and defence of Gibraltar in July 1704. It was disbanded in 1713 but re-raised as Jacob Borr’s Regiment of Foot in 1714.
GIBRALTAR: Recalled home during the 1745 Jacobite Rising, it was stationed first in Lancashire and then Scotland. It was sent back to Flanders, where it fought at Lauffeld (1747), before returning to Gibraltar.
From the 1750s to the 1780s, the regiment was garrisoned in Scotland, the West Indies and Ireland, returning to Gibraltar in 1783 and remaining until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802).
COLONEL: General Ralph Gore, 1st Earl of Ross (23 November 1725 – September 1802), was colonel of the regiment from 1781 until the time of his death in 1802.
MORE INFO: [RALPH GORE] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
ARMY REGIMENT GIBRALTAR 1784
1st Regiment of Foot
(See 1768)
1751: 1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
RAISED: Formed in 1633 when Sir John Hepburn, under a Royal Warrant granted by King Charles I, raised a body of men in Scotland for service in France. A second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland.
GIBRALTAR: In August 1784, the second battalion of the regiment joined the garrison.
COLONEL: Lord Adam Gordon (c. 1726 – 13 August 1801) was colonel of the regiment from 1782 to 1801.[ref]
MORE INFO: [LORD ADAM GORDON] [THE ROYAL SCOTS WEBSITE]
50th Regiment of Foot
1755: Formed as 52nd Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 97th (The Earl of Ulster’s) Regiment of Foot to form the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment
RAISED: In 1755 by Colonel James Abercrombie originally as the 52nd Regiment of Foot for service in the Seven Years’ War, it was re-numbered as the 50th Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of two existing regiments in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment embarked for Gibraltar in August 1784 and then moved to Corsica in January 1793 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars and took part in the Siege of Calvi in July 1794. It returned to Gibraltar in 1797 and moved to Menorca in 1799 before embarking for Egypt in 1800.
COLONEL: General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, (25 January 1727 – 29 August 1798) was colonel of the regiment from 1777 to 1798.
MORE INFO: [THOMAS SPENCER – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
10th Regiment of Foot
(See Grove’s Regiment 1732 & Columbine’s Regiment 1737)
1751: 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot
1881: Royal Lincolnshire Regiment
RAISED: On 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath’s Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath.
COLONEL: Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Murray Keith (20 September 1730 – 22 June 1795) was colonel of the regiment from 1781 to 1795.
MORE INFO: [ROBERT MURRAY KEITH – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [REDCOAT.ORG]
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1786
68th Regiment of Foot
1758: 68th Regiment of Foot
1881: Became the Durham Light Infantry
RAISED: In Leicester in1756 as the 2nd Battalion of the 23rd Regiment of Foot, it became its own regiment in April 1758 and numbered the 68th Regiment of Foot. Following garrison duties in England, Scotland and Ireland, the unit was sent to the West Indies in 1764.
GIBRALTAR: In October 1785 the regiment garrisoned Gibraltar for nine years, after which it was sent back to the West Indies.
COLONEL: Major-General John Lambton (26 July 1710 – 22 March 1794) was colonel of the regiment from 1758 until the time of his death in 1794.
MORE INFO: [JOHN LAMBTON – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
Lord Heathfield
Born 25.12.1717 – Died 06.07.1790
TERM: 1787, 14th June – 1790, July
George Augustus Eliott, KB returned to England in 1787. He was created Lord Heathfield, Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar on 6 July 1787.
Around the spring/summer of 1788, he was making his way overland back to Gibraltar where he was still Governor. However, he became ill and stayed in the Aachen area to recuperate.
As Lord Heathfield, Eliott remained as the Governor of Gibraltar from June 1787 to July 1790.
Robert Boyd – 2nd Term
Born c. 1710 – Died 13 May 1794
2nd TERM: 1790, July – 1794, 13th May
Boyd considered that his and General Sir William Green‘s work on the King’s Bastion in Gibraltar was so important that he asked to be buried there. The site of his burial is not indicated but his body is lost under cement used to strengthen the building still further in the 19th century. A marble stone in the King’s Bastion reads:
‘Within the walls of this bastion are deposited the mortal remains of the late General Sir Robert Boyd, K.B., governor of this fortress, who died on 13 May 1794, aged 84 years. By him the first stone of the bastion was laid in 1773, and under his supervision it was completed, when, on that occasion, in his address to the troops, he expressed a wish to see it resist the combined efforts of France and Spain, which wish was accomplished on 13 Sept. 1782, when, by the fire of this bastion, the flotilla expressly designed for the capture of this fortress were utterly destroyed.’
Henry Clinton
Born 16.04.1730 – Died 23.12.1795
TERM: 1794 – 1795
General Sir Henry Clinton, KB was a British army officer and politician, best known for his service as a general during the American War of Independence.
First arriving in Boston in May 1775, from 1778 to 1782 he was the British Commander-in-Chief in North America. In addition to his military service and due to the influence of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, he was also a Member of Parliament for many years.
Late in life he was named Governor of Gibraltar, but died before assuming the post.
Charles Rainsford
Born 03.02.1728 – Died 28.05.1809
TERM: 1794, 13th May – 1795, 30th December
General Charles Rainsford was a British Army officer.
During the outbreak of Britain’s war with Revolutionary France, Rainsford was sent to be Robert Boyd’s second-in-command in Gibraltar. He took over as Governor after Boyd’s death.
On Rainsford’s in London in 1809 he was buried in a vault in the chancel of the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London, alongside his first wife, father and uncle.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1794
1881:Amalgamated with the 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment)
RAISED: In 1793 by General Charles Leigh in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution (1789 – 1799).
GIBRALTAR: The regiment was posted to Gibraltar in August 1794 and a second battalion was raised and also sent to Gibraltar. In 1795, the 1st Battalion was sent to the West Indies and the 2nd Battalion was disbanded and its soldiers drafted into other units in Gibraltar.
COLONEL: General Charles Leigh (1748 – 7 August 1815) was the Colonel of the regiment from 1793 to 1797.
MORE INFO: [CHARLES LEIGH] [LANCASHIRE INFANTRY MUSEUM]
1881: Amalgamated with the 75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gordon Highlanders
RAISED: In Aberdeenshire by General George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon, in February 1794 as the 100th (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution.
GIBRALTAR: Its first posting was to Gibraltar in September 1794 before moving to Corsica in June 1795. The regiment returned to Gibraltar in September 1796 and returned to England in March 1798.
COLONEL: General George Duncan Gordon (2 February 1770 – 28 May 1836) was colonel of the regiment from until 1806.
MORE INFO: [GEORGE GORDON – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1795
1881: Amalgamated with the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot to form the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
RAISED: By Lieutenant-Colonel George Nugent in 1793, as the 85th Regiment of Foot, in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution.
It was posted to Gibraltar in 1795 and returned home to England in 1797.
COLONEL: Field Marshal George Nugent (10 June 1757 – 11 March 1849) was the Colonel of the regiment from 1794 to 1805.
MORE INFO: [GEORGE NUGENT – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [SHROPSHIRE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM]
Charles O’Hara
Born 1740 – Died 25.02.1802
TERM: 1795, 30th December – 1802, 25th February
General Charles O’Hara was a British military officer who served in the Seven Years’ War, American War of Independence, and French Revolutionary War. During his career O’Hara personally surrendered to both George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1792, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar and named Governor for a second time on 30 December 1795.
He is known for the folly that was O’Hara’s Tower in Gibraltar.
O’Hara let the garrison enjoy the ninety pubs on the Rock. It has been proposed that he needed the income to finance his many households and mistresses. Jervis however won with regard to his navy’s needs. The poor morale in the garrison led to a plot to let Spain have Gibraltar. O’Hara discovered the plot and 1,000 people were exiled from the Rock.
He died from complications due to his old wounds.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1796
28th Regiment of Foot
1751: 28th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gloucestershire Regiment
RAISED: By Colonel Sir John Gibson as Sir John Gibson’s Regiment of Foot on 16 February 1694. The regiment was disbanded in 1697, but reformed under the same colonel in 1702 and was posted to the continent during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714).
The regiment fought in the West Indies and helped take Saint Lucia in 1778, but was captured by the French on Saint Kitts in 1782 and interned until the end of the war. It returned to Flanders following the outbreak of war with revolutionary France in 1793 and moved to the West Indies in 1795.
GIBRALTAR: In October 1795, the regiment was ordered back to the West Indies, however, during the journey, the Battalion was divided in a storm: 4 companies went to Barbados and 6 companies to Gibraltar. In 1797, the 4 companies arrived in Gibraltar from the West Indies and the Battalion reunited. A detachment remained in Gibraltar before being moved to Menorca in November 1798 and returning in December. The regiment stayed in Gibraltar until 1800 except for 9 month period, (September 1799 to June 1800), when the regiment was in Menorca.[ref]
COLONEL: General Robert Prescott (c.1726 – 21 December 1815) was colonel of the regiment from 1789 to 1815.
MORE INFO: [ROBERT PRESCOTT] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1799
37th Regiment of Foot
1751: 37th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to become the Hampshire Regiment (later the Royal Hampshire Regiment)
RAISED: In Ireland by Lieutenant-General Thomas Meredyth as Meredyth’s Regiment in February 1702. The regiment fought under the Duke of Marlborough in September 1709 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
GIBRALTAR: At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), the regiment returned to the Low Countries. It served at Tournay (1794), before moving on to Gibraltar in 1796, followed by nine years in the West Indies from 1800.[ref]
COLONEL: General Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple, 1st Baronet (3 December 1750 – 9 April 1830) was colonel of the regiment from 1798 to 1810.
He was Governor of Gibraltar from November 1806 to August 1808.
MORE INFO: [HEW DALRYMPLE] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
44th Regiment of Foot
1751: 44th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot to form the Essex Regiment
RAISED: By Colonel James Long as James Long’s Regiment of Foot in 1741. The regiment saw active service at the Battle of Prestonpans in September 1745 during the Jacobite rising.
At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), the regiment split: its battalion companies were sent to Flanders and its light-infantry flank companies served as marines in the West Indies.
GIBRALTAR: After re-uniting in 1795, the 44th regiment went on to garrison Gibraltar, leaving to fight at Alexandria in Egypt (1801).
COLONEL: General Charles Rainsford (3 February 1728 – 24 May 1809) was colonel of the regiment from 1781 to 1809.
He was Governor of Gibraltar from May 1794 to December 1795.
MORE INFO: [CHARLES RAINFORD] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
48th Regiment of Foot
1751: 48th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Northamptonshire Regiment
RAISED: In 1741 by Colonel James Cholmondeley as James Cholmondeley’s Regiment of Foot, the regiment was sent to Scotland in 1745 and fought during the Jacobite rising. Ranked as the 59th Regiment of Foot in 1747, but re-ranked as the 48th Regiment of Foot in 1751.
The 1st Battalion of the regiment was in Gibraltar in 1799.[ref]
COLONEL: General Patrick Tonyn (1725–1804) was colonel of the regiment from 1787 to 1805.
MORE INFO: [PATRICK TONYN] [MALTA GARRISON]
1881: Amalgamated with the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot to form the East Surrey Regiment
RAISED: As the 2nd Battalion of the 31st Regiment of Foot on 10 December 1756 and renumbered as the 70th (Glasgow Lowland) Regiment of Foot on 21 April 1758. The regiment was sent to Ireland in 1763 and on to the West Indies in 1764 and returning home in 1774.
The regiment embarked for the West Indies again in 1793 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars, taking part in the Battle of Martinique and the Invasion of Guadeloupe 1794. It returned to Europe landing at Gibraltar in May 1795.
COLONEL: General John Howard (7 March 1739 – 23 January 1820) was colonel of the regiment from 1783 to 1814.
MORE INFO: [JOHN HOWARD] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
MALTA
1800
Malta voluntarily became part of the British Empire as a protectorate. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the island became a military and navel fortress for the British Mediterranean fleet. Although initially the island was not given much importance, its excellent harbours became a prized asset for the British, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The island became a military and naval fortress, the headquarters of the British Mediterranean fleet.
This increased the attractiveness of Gibraltar, since controlling both Gibraltar and Malta would mean the effective mastery of the Mediterranean Sea by the Royal Navy.
Image: Ensign of Malta in the 19th Century
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1800
Cambrian Rangers (Welch Fencibles)
The term ‘fencible’ may come from ‘defencible’ and means a defence force.
The fencibles were British Army regiments raised in the United Kingdom and in the colonies for defence against the threat of invasion during the Seven Years’ War, the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars in the late 18th century. Usually temporary units, composed of local volunteers, commanded by Regular Army officers, their role was, as their name suggests, usually confined to garrison and patrol duties, freeing the regular Army units to perform offensive operations.
The first regiment raised was the Argyle Fencibles in 1759 and the last was the MacLeod Fencibles in 1779. In all over 20 regiments were created, although they were not all in existence at the same time. Most fencible regiments were not posted to overseas service, however, there were exceptions. Ireland was not united with the Kingdom of Great Britain until 1801, but several fencible regiments were sent during the Rebellion of 1798, whilst some fencible regiments had terms of service that extended to any part of Europe.
Raised on 8 August 1798, composed of ten companies, under the command of William Edwards, the Cambrian Rangers served in the garrison. The regiment was disbanded in 1801-2.[ref]
Prince of Wales Own (PWO) Fencibles
Raised on 15 June 1798, composed of ten companies, under the command ofColonel William Johnstone Bart, the Prince of Wales Own Fencibles served in the garrison.The unit was disbanded at Plymouth on 21 May 1802.[ref]
MORE INFO: [PWO FENCIBLES] [BRITISH ARMY FENCIBLE UNITS]
5th Regiment – 1st & 2nd Battalions
(See Pearce’s Regiment 1713)
1751: 5th Regiment of Foot
1881: Northumberland Fusiliers
RAISED: By Daniel O’Brien, 3rd Viscount Clare, as Viscount Clare’s Regiment in 1674 as one of three English units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade. The regiment accompanied William III (William of Orange, Holland), to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution and became part of the English establishment in 1689.
GIBRALTAR: In 1713, the regiment was posted to Gibraltar, where it spent the next 15 years. It was part of the garrison during the 1727 Anglo-Spanish War, when the Spanish besieged Gibraltar for over four months.[ref]
COLONEL: Field Marshal Sir Alured Clarke GCB (24 November 1744 – 16 September 1832) was Colonel of the regiment from 1794 – 1801.
MORE INFO: ALURED CLARKE
1881: Amalgamated with the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot to form the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
RAISED: In Argyll on 10 February 1794 by General Duncan Campbell of Lochnell for John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll as the 98th (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution.
COLONEL: General Duncan Campbell of Lochnell (29 June 1763 – 9 April 1837) was colonel of the regiment from 1796 to 1837.
MORE INFO: [DUNCAN CAMPBELL – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1801
1881: Amalgamated with the 96th Regiment of Foot to form the Manchester Regiment
RAISED: The start of the Seven Years’ War, promoted the army expand. On 25 August 1756 it was ordered that a number of existing regiments should raise a second battalion. The regiment was formed as the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Regiment of Foot on 10 December 1756 and renumbered as the 63rd Regiment of Foot on 21 April 1758. Later that year, the regiment, together with a number of other newly created regiments, set off for the West Indies.
GIBRALTAR: In November 1801 the regiment joined the garrison at Gibraltar and, in 1803, it was deployed to Ireland.
COLONEL: General Alexander Lindsay (18 January 1752 – 27 March 1825) was Colonel of the regiment from 1789 – 1825.
MORE INFO: ALEXANDER LINDSAY
25th Regiment
(See Middleton’s Regiment 1727, Rothes’ Regiment 1732 & 1782)
1751: 25th Regiment of Foot
1881: The King’s Own Borderers
RAISED: On 18 March 1689 by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven to defend Edinburgh against the Jacobite forces of James VII. The regiment was part of the Scottish Division of the British Army.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment fought at Sheriffmuir in the First Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, and then garrisoned Ireland and Gibraltar. It suffered so severely in the Siege of Gibraltar in 1727 that its few survivors had to be drafted to another regiment while its officers went home to re-recruit.[ref]
Following garrison duties on Menorca from 1768 to 1780, the regiment was sent to relieve Gibraltar, (arriving in October 1780) during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).
COLONEL: General Lord George Henry Lennox (29 November 1737 – 25 March 1805) was a British Army officer and politician was Colonel of the regiment from 1762 to the time of his death in 1805.
MORE INFO: [GEORGE HENRY LENNOX – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
23rd Regiment
(See 1756)
1751: 23rd Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Welsh Fusiliers
RAISED: By Henry Herbert at Ludlow on 16 March 1689, following the 1688 Glorious Revolution and exile of James II.
GIBRALTAR: In the opening battle of the Seven Years’ War, it was part of the Minorca garrison that surrendered to the French in June 1756 and later given free passage to Gibraltar.
The regiment returned to Gibraltar arriving in December 1801 and remaining until 1803 when it departed for England. It would return in 1823.[ref]
COLONEL: General Richard Grenville (6 July 1742 – 22 April 1823) was a British Army officer and politician was Colonel of the regiment from 1786 to 1823.
MORE INFO: [RICHARD GRENVILLE – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
MUTINY
1802
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn took up his post on 24 May 1802 with express orders from the government to restore discipline among the drunken troops. The Duke’s harsh discipline precipitated a mutiny by soldiers in his own and the 25th Regiment on Christmas Eve 1802.
It was recognized at the time of his appointment that his predecessor, Charles O’Hara’s administration was permissive or relaxed (source: Gillen, pp. 153 & 157). It seems that Edward was told of this and that he should take the appropriate steps to bring the garrison back into line and the government would support him in his endeavours.
The Duke closed most of the wine houses in town (there were 90 of them) and reduced the licences for the sale of Malt liquor to three houses – The Three Light Infantrymen in Cooperage Lane, The Three Guns in Cannon Lane and the Halfway House (later the Three Grenadiers – between Southport and South Barracks).
“Edward also insisted on uniformity of the appearance of sentries. All sentries were ordered to don or remove greatcoats at the command of the orderly officer, and not merely when they felt too cold or too hot. At daylight every day each member of a guard or a picket had to wash, untie his hair, comb it, tie it afresh, and brush his clothes to the satisfaction of the orderly officer.” Source: McKenzie Porter Overture to Victoria (Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1961) p. 108.
A mutiny broke out. The Duke met this with firmness, seizing the head mutineers. Ten were found guilty and three were put to death.
MERCHANT COINS
1802
The first merchant token to bear the name Gibraltar (albeit spelt Gibralter) was issued by Robert Keeling in order to alleviate a shortage of copper.
The real was the official currency of Gibraltar until 1825 and continued to circulate alongside other Spanish and British currencies until 1898.
Charles Barnett
TERM: 1802, 25th February – 1802, 10th May
Charles Barnett was Governor for 75 days.
Duke of Kent
Born 02.11.1767 – Died 23.01.1820
TERM: 1802, 24th May – 1820, 23rd January
Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent and Strathearn KG, KP, GCB, GCH, PC (full name, Edward Augustus), was the son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria.
He took up his post as Governor of Gibraltar on 24 May 1802 with express orders from the government to restore discipline among the drunken troops.
His harsh discipline precipitated a mutiny by soldiers in his own and, the 25th Regiment, on Christmas Eve 1802. The Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, recalled him in May 1803 after receiving reports of the mutiny, Prince Edward refused to return to England until his successor arrived.
On his return to England, although allowed to continue to hold the governorship of Gibraltar until his death, he was forbidden to return. BIOGRAPHY
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1802
2nd Battalion – 1st Regiment
(See 1768 & 1784)
1751: 1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot
1881: The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
RAISED: Formed in 1633 when Sir John Hepburn, under a Royal Warrant granted by King Charles I, raised a body of men in Scotland for service in France. A second battalion was raised in March 1686 and posted to Scotland. The regiment fought in the War of the Spanish Succession 1701 -1714 and from 1715 to 1742, both battalions were in Ireland, after which they were usually separated.
Until American War began in 1775, both Battalions served as garrisons in the Mediterranean, the 1st in Gibraltar and the 2nd in Minorca.
In May 1802, the 2nd Battalion departed from Malta bound for Gibraltar.[ref]
COLONEL: The Duke of Kent and Strathearn was Colonel of the regiment from 1801 to 1820.
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (2 November 1767 – 23 January 1820) was the son of King George III. He was appointed Governor of Gibraltar in 1802. His only child became Queen Victoria.
MORE INFO: [PRINCE EDWARD] [THE ROYAL SCOTS WEBSITE]
8th Regiment
(See 1749)
1751: 8th (King’s) Regiment of Foot
1881: King’s Regiment (Liverpool)
RAISED: The regiment formed as the Princess Anne of Denmark’s Regiment of Foot during a rebellion in 1685 by the illegitimate son of King Charles II against King James II.
On the accession of Princess Anne to the throne in 1702, the regiment became the Queen’s Regiment of Foot. In 1716 at the behest of George I, to honour the regiment’s service at Sheriffmuir, the Queen’s became the King’s Regiment of Foot.
GIBRALTAR: In 1749, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Gibraltar where it would be stationed for three years.[ref]
The regiment was in Gibraltar again in 1802 before returning to England in 1803. [ref]
COLONEL: General Ralph Dundas (1730 – 7 February 1814) was Colonel of the regiment from 1794 to 1814.
MORE INFO: RALPH DUNDAS
Thomas Trigge
Born c. 1742 – Died 11.01.1814
TERM: 1803, 2nd May – 1804, 17th December
General Sir Thomas Trigg(e) KB fought during the Seven Years’ War and commanded the 12th Regiment of Foot during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
He was briefly the Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar between May 1803 to December 1804.
When Prince Edward eventually left Gibraltar never to return, although he nominally remained the Governor, it was Major General Trigge who became the first in a long line of acting Lieutenant Governors acting for The Duke of Kent.
One of Trigge’s first acts as acting Governor was to countermand 35 of the 169 new regulations his predecessor had introduced.
There is a Trigge Road in Gibraltar.
NELSON ARRIVES IN GIBRALTAR
3rd June 1803
Admiral Horatio Nelson is appointed Mediterranean commander-in-chief on 15th May 1803. His new command stretched from the straits of Gibraltar, all the way to Greece and Turkey.
Diplomatic relations between Britain and France were at crisis point and Britain declared war on France on May 16th.
He reached Gibraltar on 3 June, bringing the first news of the renewal of war following the collapse of the Peace of Amiens on 16 May 1803.
Image: Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1803
13th Regiment
(See Cotton’s Regiment 1715, Kerr’s Regiment 1725 & Pulteney’s Regiment 1754)
1751: 13th Regiment of Foot
1881: Somerset Light Infantry
RAISED: One of nine regiments of foot raised by James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.
GIBRALTAR: In 1704, Barrymore’s Regiment moved to the Iberian Peninsula taking part in the defence of the recently-captured Gibraltar (1704 – 05) and the Siege of Barcelona (1705). In 1711, the regiment started a long period of garrison duty at Gibraltar.
In 1801 the regiment sailed to Egypt to help repel the French invasion force and took part in the Siege of Alexandria. With a temporary end to hostilities with France in March 1802, the regiment left Egypt that month, sailing to Malta, where they were stationed for a year, before moving to Gibraltar. It returned to England in 1805.
COLONEL: General George Ainslie was Colonel of the regiment from 1789 to 1804.
MORE INFO: GEORGE AINSLIE
YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC
1804
The first reported victim of the 1804 Gibraltar yellow fever epidemic had recently returned from a trip to one of the Spanish port cities afflicted with yellow fever.
Medical authorities reported, “a shopkeeper, named Santo (a resident of Gibraltar) arrived from Cadiz on the 28th of August, 1804, and was taken ill on the 29th; he had lodged in a house at Cadiz, where some persons died of the then prevailing fever.” Santo was probably bitten by a mosquito carrying the yellow fever virus while in Spain and imported the virus into Gibraltar via his infected blood.
Timing is crucial since the outbreak of yellow fever in nearby Malaga had already prompted the enactment of a Gibraltarian government proclamation, dated 27th August, which ordered that “commencing with tomorrow and until further orders all communications with Spain both by Land and Sea shall be cut off. The impulse to close the open border was wise, though unfortunately too late, as Santo had just made his way back into Gibraltar. Under the threat of yellow fever, Santo appears to be one of the last to travel between the two countries.
Following Santos arrival in Gibraltar, it appears that many of his immediate neighbours in the Boyd’s Buildings patio, located in the centre of the town, were the first to be struck by yellow fever. Medical reports indicate that, Mrs. Fenton [wife to Bombardier Fenton of the Royal Artillery] was the second person attacked; she was taken ill on the 3rd of September, her
husband and a child of the name of Roland, were taken ill on the 8th, and died on the 12th. Mrs. Boyd, who had visited Mrs. Fenton, was taken ill on the 13th, and died on the 19th; her husband was taken ill on the 14th, and died on the 16th: all those families were neighbours.
By the end of September, the fever raged with such violence that it was necessary to force civilians to help remove the dead.
‘Mrs Baynes was obliged to put both Mr Frome and his wife in their coffins, not having any creature near her, nor could she get them buried till the Governor ordered some men who were then in the street to be pressed for that purpose. How the town is to be cleansed we can scarcely tell, we fear dead bodies are at this moment shut up, our men at the sick lines need to be forever running to the main guard to beg them to remove the dead from our street, there being six persons lying there, and there was no other chance of getting their dead buried but by doing so. Mrs Fletcher who is now a very pretty young woman, was seen throwing her father out of the chamber window‘.
After four months epidemic had run its course, leaving more than 5000 dead and many more incapacitated. It was reported that some 4864 civilians and 869 military perished during the course of the epidemic.
While yellow fever visited Gibraltar in 1810, 1813, 1814, and 1828, mortality in those epidemics was never as great as in 1804. The reduction in the mortality rate beginning with the 1810 epidemic was likely attributable to some degree of immunity built up among the inhabitants since 1804.
Source: Gibraltar’s 1804 Yellow Fever Scourge: The Search for Scapegoats
Image: click here to enlarge
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1804
10th Regiment
(See Grove’s Regiment 1732, Columbine’s Regiment 1737 & 1784)
1751: 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot
1881: Royal Lincolnshire Regiment
RAISED: On 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath’s Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath.
During the Seven Year’s War (1756 – 1763), the regiment was stationed in Gibraltar.[ref]
The regiment served in the West Indies from 1793 to 1795. In 1800 it embarked for Egypt for service in the French Revolutionary Wars and took part in the Battle of Alexandria in March 1801. It arrived in Gibraltar in 1803.[ref]
COLONEL: General Henry Edward Fox (4 March 1755 – 18 July 1811) was colonel of the regiment from 1795 to 1811. He served Governor of Gibraltar from December 1804 to June 1806.
MORE INFO: HENRY FOX
A regiment of the British Army formed of Swiss, French and German soldiers raised in 1794 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars. The regiment was at Minorca in September 1799 and Gibraltar in October 1800 before it was sent to fight French forces in Egypt.
In March 1801, the regiment served at the Battle of Alexandria and as a result, it was accorded the honour of incorporating a sphinx and the Egypt battle honour onto their regimental colour. The unit remained in Egypt until June 1803 when it returned to Gibraltar.
The regiment disbanded in 1815 following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Henry Fox
Born 04.03.1755 – Died 18.07.1811
TERM: 1804, 17th December – 1806, June
General Henry Edward Fox was an officer in the British Army.
He fought in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Irish Rebellion of 1803.
He was the Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar between 1804 and 1806 acting for The Duke of Kent.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1805
57th Regiment
(See Arabin’s Regiment 1732, Cunynghame’s Regiment 1757 & 1760)
1755: Formed as the 59th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot to form the Middlesex Regiment
RAISED: In Somerset and Gloucester by Colonel John Arabin as the 59th Regiment of Foot in 1755 for service in the Seven Years’ War. It was re-ranked as the 57th Regiment of Foot, following the disbandment of the existing 50th and 51st regiments in 1756.
GIBRALTAR: The regiment’s first posting was to Gibraltar during the Seven Years War (1756-63), from where it operated for a time as marines along the coast of Spain. It was moved to Minorca in 1763 and then to Ireland five years later.
A second battalion was raised in 1803 to increase the strength of the regiment. In November 1805, the 1st battalion embarked for the Mediterranean Sea, spending four years at Gibraltar, before leaving for Portugal for service in the Peninsula War in 1809.
COLONEL: General John Campbell (1727 – 28 August 1806) was Colonel of the regiment from 1780 to 1806.
MORE INFO: [JOHN CAMPBELL] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
42nd Regiment
1751: 42nd Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
Independent Companies of militia were raised in 1725 by General George Wade from loyalist Highland clans for policing and peacekeeping duties. These companies were commonly known as ‘The Black Watch’, due to their unpopular nature and their dark green government-issue tartan kilts.
In March 1743, the regiment was assembled at Perth and sent to Flanders. This was contrary to a general understanding that the regiment would serve in Scotland, as underlined to the British Government by Scottish officials, including Duncan Forbes, then Lord President of the Court of Session. This perceived deception, caused significant anger and when allied to rumours that the regiment would go to the West Indies, a place notorious for high mortality rates, a mutiny, led by Corporals Malcolm and Samuel McPherson and Private Farquhar Shaw, occurred.
The mutineers attempted to reach Scotland but were intercepted at Oundle on 22 May before being intercepted and surrendered in return for a free pardon; The three leaders were shot and those that had surrendered were given a free pardon. 200 were distributed to garrisons in Jamaica, Gibraltar and Minorca and the remainder were shipped to Flanders.
In 1802, on the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, the regiment was placed upon a peace establishment, however, in the spring of 1803, war was again declared with France.
In September 1805 the 1st Battalion embarked for Gibraltar. The regiment remained until August 1808 when it left for Portugal.[ref]
COLONEL: General Sir Hector Munro (1726 – 27 December 1805) was Colonel of the regiment from 1762 to the time of his death in 1805.
MORE INFO: [HECTOR MUNRO – Parliamentary History 1754 – 1790 & 1790 – 1820 / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM] [OTHER SOURCES]
48th Regiment
(See 1799)
1751: 48th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Northamptonshire Regiment
RAISED: In 1741 by Colonel James Cholmondeley as James Cholmondeley’s Regiment of Foot, the regiment was sent to Scotland in 1745 and fought during the Jacobite rising. Ranked as the 59th Regiment of Foot in 1747, but re-ranked as the 48th Regiment of Foot in 1751.
COLONEL: General Lord Charles FitzRoy (17 July 1764 – 20 December 1829) was Colonel of the regiment from 1805 to 1829.
MORE INFO: [CHARLES FITZROY – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [MALTA GARRISON]
BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR
21st October 1805
The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1796–1815).
Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under the French Admiral Villeneuve in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, near the town of Los Caños de Meca. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. It was the most decisive naval battle of the war, conclusively ending French plans to invade England.
The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the eighteenth century and was achieved in part through Nelson’s departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy. Conventional practice, at the time, was to engage an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy, to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the enemy fleet, with decisive results.
During the battle, Nelson was shot by a French musketeer; he died shortly thereafter, becoming one of Britain’s greatest war heroes. Villeneuve was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Admiral Federico Gravina, the senior Spanish flag officer, escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle. Villeneuve attended Nelson’s funeral while a captive on parole in Britain.
Image: The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the starboard mizzen shrouds of the Victory. J. M. W. Turner (1806–1808)
HMS VICTORY
28th October 1805
The HMS Victory was towed into Gibraltar bringing Nelson’s body aboard. The Trafalgar Cemetery still exists today in Gibraltar.
Image: HMS Victory in Portsmouth, 1900
GIBRALTAR MADE A CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC VICARIATE
1806
Gibraltar was made a Catholic Apostolic Vicariate (until then Gibraltar belonged to the See of Cadiz). Since 1840 the vicar has always been the Bishop of Gibraltar.
John Baptist Nosardy Zino appointed the first Vicar Apostolic by Pope Pius VII on 25 January 1816.
Image: John Baptist Nosardy Zino
James Drummond
TERM: 1806, June – November
James Drummond served his first term as acting Governor of Gibraltar between June 1804 and November 1806 acting for The Duke of Kent.
He would serve a second term starting in 1808.
Hew Dalrymple
Born 03.12.1750 – Died 09.04.1830
TERM: 1806, November – 1808, August
Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, GCB, was a British Peer, politician and General in the British Army.
In 1806 he was posted to Gibraltar to serve under Lieutenant-General Fox. After Fox’s departure he was made Acting Governor of Gibraltar, replacing Gordon Drummond from November 1806 to August 1808.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1807
1881: Amalgamated with the 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gloucestershire Regiment
RAISED: In 1756 following the outbreak of the Seven Year’s War (1756 – 1763), a 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Foot was raised. In 1758, it became a regiment and numbered 61st Regiment of Foot.
GIBRALTAR: In 1793 the French Revolutionary government declared war on Great Britain. At the beginning of 1794, the garrison in Gibraltar comprised of the 46th, 50th, 61st and 68th Regiments of Foot. The 61st was dispatched to the Caribbean, landing in Martinique in December 1794. The regiment suffered heavy casualties in 1796 in St Lucia and returned to England in October to recruit to bring the regiment up to strength.
In 1807, the regiment returned to Gibraltar, before joining the Peninsular War (1808-14) in 1809.
COLONEL: General Sir George Hewett (11 June 1750 – 21 March 1840) was Colonel of the regiment from 1800 to 1840.
MORE INFO: [GEORGE HEWETT] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM] [SOLDIERS OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE]
THE PENINSULAR WAR
2nd May 1808 – 17th April 1814
The Peninsular War was a military conflict between Napoleon’s empire and the allied powers of Spain, Britain and Portugal, for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war started when French and Spanish armies invaded and occupied Portugal in 1807, and escalated in 1808 when France turned on Spain, previously its ally. The war on the peninsula lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814, and is regarded as one of the first wars of national liberation, significant for the emergence of large-scale guerrilla warfare.
The War overlapped with what the Spanish-speaking world calls the Guerra de la Independencia Española (Spanish War of Independence), which began with the Dos de Mayo Uprising on 2 May 1808 and ended on 17 April 1814. The French occupation destroyed the Spanish administration, which fragmented into quarrelling provincial juntas.
A reconstituted national government, the Cádiz Cortes—in effect a government-in-exile—fortified itself in Cádiz in 1810, but could not raise effective armies because it was besieged by 70,000 French troops. British and Portuguese forces eventually secured Portugal, using it as a safe position from which to launch campaigns against the French army and provide whatever supplies they could get to the Spanish, while the Spanish armies and guerrillas tied down vast numbers of Napoleon’s troops. These combined regular and irregular allied forces, by restricting French control of territory, prevented Napoleon’s marshals from subduing the rebellious Spanish provinces, and the war continued through years of stalemate.
Image: 2nd May 1808: the defenders of Monteleón make their last stand
James Drummond
2nd TERM: 1808, August – 1809, May
Having already served a first term as acting Governor, he served a second term from August 1808 to May 1809.
John Smith
TERM: 1809, August – October
John Smith served as acting Governor, (for The Duke of Kent) between this time.
ARMY REGIMENTS GIBRALTAR 1809
30th Regiment
(See Bissett’s Regiment 1723 & 1763)
1751: 30th Regiment of Foot
1881: East Lancashire Regiment
The regiment was re-raised in Lincolnshire in 1702 by Colonel Thomas Sanderson as Thomas Sanderson’s Regiment of Marines. The unit took part in the capture and defence of Gibraltar in July 1704.
In 1727 the regiment was one of the four regiments that made up the sparsely defended Gibraltar garrison until reinforcements arrived, before returning to Ireland, returning to Gibraltar again, serving from 1763 to 1771.
A 2nd Battalion was formed in 1803. During the Peninsular War (1808 – 1814), the 2nd Battalion remained in Ireland until March 1809, when they sailed to Lisbon, and were immediately transferred to Gibraltar.[ref]
COLONEL: General Robert Manners (2 January 1758 – 9 June 1823) was the Colonel of the regiment from 1799 to 1823.
MORE INFO: [ROBERT MANNERS – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [MALTA GARRISON]
1881: Amalgamated with the 94th Regiment of Foot to form the Connaught Rangers
RAISED: In 1793 in Connaught, Ireland, by John Thomas de Burgh, 13th Earl of Clanricard as the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers), in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution (1789 – 1799).
A second battalion was raised in Dumfries in November 1805 and served during the Peninsular War (1808 – 1814). It was sent from Lisbon to Gibraltar in 1809, and from Gibraltar to Cadiz.[ref]
COLONEL: General William Carr Beresford (2 October 1768 – 8 January 1854) was the Colonel of the regiment from 1807 to 1819.
MORE INFO: [WILLIAM CARR BERESFORD – Parliamentary History / Wikipedia] [NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM]
47th Regiment
1751: 47th Regiment of Foot
1881: Amalgamated with the 81st Regiment of Foot (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers) to form the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)
RAISED: In 1741 in Scotland by Colonel Sir John Mordaunt as Sir John Mordaunt’s Regiment of Foot.
GIBRALTAR: In 1809, the 2nd battalion was deployed to Gibraltar and then to Portugal in 1811 for service in the Peninsular War.[ref]
COLONEL: General Richard FitzPatrick (24 January 1748 – 25 April 1813) was the Colonel of the regiment from 1807 until his death in 1813.
MORE INFO: [RICHARD FITZPATRICK – Parliamentary History 1754 – 1790 / 1790 – 1820 / Wikipedia]
Alex Fraser
TERM: 1809, October – November
Alex McKenzie Fraser served as acting Governor for just 1 month in 1809.
Colin Campbell
Born 1754 – Died 1814
TERM: 1809, November – 1814, 2nd April
Colin Campbell was a Lieutenant General in the British Army.
He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar. During the Peninsular War (1807 – 1814), he insisted on keeping Gibraltar well garrisoned and also regarded Tarifa as within his command and denied it to the French invading force there.
SPANISH FORTS REMOVED
14th February 1810
The Governor of Gibraltar removed the Spanish forts of San Felipe and Santa Barbara, located on the northern boundary of the neutral ground. Fearing that the forts might fall into French hands, Lieutenant General Sir Colin Campbell instructed Royal Engineers to blow the forts up. Such a task was carried out on 14 February together with the demolition of the rest of the fortifications of the Spanish Lines. On the evening of 14 February 1810, thousands of people crowded onto Gibraltar’s walls and bastions to watch the demolitions taking place.
The London Chronicle noted, “every part of the garrison facing the Spanish Lines was crowded with Spectators, to witness the explosion which was truly grand and picturesque … the entire front of [Forts San Felipe and Santa Bárbara] being blown into the ditch, and the whole rendered a complete mass of ruins.” The line of fortifications between the two forts was also demolished, along with various other Spanish fortifications around the bay. The debris was hauled away by volunteers from Gibraltar, British soldiers and allied Portuguese sailors from ships in the bay. The demolition achieved its desired objectives; the lines could no longer be used to besiege Gibraltar and they could not be rebuilt by the French without enduring British cannon fire and Spanish guerilla attacks in their rear lines. The French made no attempt to attack Gibraltar and focused their efforts on Cádiz and Tarifa instead.
Image: Spanish Lines at the time of the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83) Click here to enlarge
