Royal Fusiliers


The Royal Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881.
The regiment served in many wars and conflicts throughout its long existence, including the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the other regiments of the Fusilier Brigade – the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers and the Lancashire Fusiliers – to form a new large regiment, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
The Royal Fusiliers War Memorial, a monument dedicated to the almost 22,000 Royal Fusiliers who died during the First World War, stands on Holborn in the City of London.

History

Formation

It was 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, later the Royal Regiment of Fuziliers. Most regiments were equipped with matchlock muskets at the time, but the Ordnance Regiment were armed with flintlock fusils. This was because their task was to be an escort for the artillery, for which matchlocks would have carried the risk of igniting the open-topped barrels of gunpowder. The regiment was also known by the names of its colonels until 1751.
The regiment went to Holland in February 1689 for service in the Nine Years' War and fought at the Battle of Walcourt in August 1689 before returning home in 1690. It embarked for Flanders later that year and fought at the Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 and the Battle of Landen in July 1693 and the Siege of Namur in summer 1695 before returning home.
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. The regiment served as Marines aboard Royal Navy ships in 1703.
In 1747 the regiment was known as the Royal English Fuziliers and was given the precedence of 7th in the Infantry of the Line. On 1 July 1751 it was redesignated as the 7th Regiment of Foot . When county titles were added in August 1782 the subtitle '' was added, but this was never used and was later given to a different regiment.

American War of Independence

The Royal Fusiliers were sent to Canada in April 1773. The regiment was broken up into detachments that served at Montreal, Quebec, Fort Chambly and Fort St Johns. In the face of the American invasion of Canada in 1775/76, the 80 man garrison of Fort Chambly attempted to resist a 400-man Rebel force but ultimately had to surrender, losing its regimental colours as a result. The bulk of the regiment was captured when St John's fell. A 70-man detachment under the command of Captain Humphrey Owens assisted with the Battle of Quebec in December 1775.
The men taken prisoner during the defence of Canada were exchanged in British held New York City in December 1776. Here, the regiment was rebuilt and garrisoned New York and New Jersey. In October 1777, the 7th participated in the successful assaults on Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery and the destruction of enemy stores at Continental Village. In late November, 1777 the regiment reinforced the garrison of Philadelphia. During the British evacuation back to New York City, the regiment participated in a diversionary raid in the days leading up to the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. The 7th participated in Tryon's raid in July 1779.
In April 1780, the Royal Fusiliers took part in the capture of Charleston. Once Charleston fell, the regiment helped garrison the city. Three companies were sent to Ninety-Six to assist with the training of Loyalist militia companies. An 80-man detachment also sent to Camden, South Carolina to help build that town's defences. The detachments were recalled to Charleston for refitting in late August 1780. They were then mounted and sent to join Charles Cornwallis's Army as it advanced towards Charlotte, North Carolina in early September 1780. The 7th, mounted on horses, along with two regiments of Loyalist militia, cleared the region north of Georgetown, South Carolina of partisans while en route. The Royal Fusiliers turned the horses over to Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's British Legion upon uniting with Cornwallis in late September and then served as the Army's rearguard.
Between October 1780 and early January 1781, the regiment, having lost about one third of its officers and men to sickness and disease, protected the communication and supply lines between Camden and Winnsboro, South Carolina. On 7 January 7, 1781, a contingent of 171 men from the Royal Fusiliers was detached from Cornwallis's Army and fought under the command of Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781. The Royal Fusiliers were on the left of the line of battle: Tarleton was defeated and the regiment's colours were once again captured, stored in the baggage wagons. A 19-man detachment from the regiment fought through North Carolina participating in the Battle of Guilford Court House in March 1781 and ultimately the Siege of Yorktown, where it served with the regiment's Light Infantry Company. There was another detachment, composed largely of men recovered from the hospital and recruits, which remained in the South under the command of Lt Col. Alured Clarke: these men remained in garrison in Charleston, until they were transferred to Savannah, Georgia in December 1781. The regiment returned to England in 1783.

Napoleonic Wars

The regiment embarked for Holland and saw action at the Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807 during the Gunboat War. It was then sent to the West Indies and took part in the capture of Martinique in 1809. It embarked for Portugal later that year for service in the Peninsular War and fought at the Battle of Talavera in July 1809, the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810. and the Battle of Albuera in May 1811.
The regiment then took part in the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, the Siege of Badajoz in spring 1812 and the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812 as well as the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813. It then pursued the French Army into France and fought at the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813, the Battle of Orthez in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. It returned to England later that year before embarking for Canada and seeing action at the capture of Fort Bowyer in February 1815 during the War of 1812.
A 2nd Battalion was formed in 1804 and also took part in the Peninsular Campaign from 1809 to 1811. Both battalions took part in the 1811 Battle of Albuera. The 2nd Battalion was disbanded after the war.

Victorian and Edwardian eras

The single-battalion Regiment embarked for Scutari for service in the Crimean War on 5 April 1854, and saw action at the Battle of Alma in September 1854, the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and the Siege of Sebastopol in winter 1854. It returned to Britain from the Crimea on 27 June 1856, embarked for India on 21 July 1857, and took part in the Ambela Campaign in 1863. In 1865 it was at Ferozepore. It returned to Britain from India on the 27 December 1870. It embarked for Gibraltar in 1885, and in 1886 and 1887 was at Egypt. From 1888 until 1901, it was posted to various locations in India, including Poona, Karachi, Mhow, Nusseerabad, Bombay, Quetta, Bengal, Neemuch, and Nusserabad.
The newly re-formed 2nd battalion, which had been at Preston, embarked for Gibraltar on 27 May 1858. It was deployed from Malta to Upper Canada in October 1866 and helped suppress the Fenian raids and then embarked for India on 1 October 1873, and saw action at the Battle of Kandahar in September 1880 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. It was subsequently stationed at various locations in India, including Cannanore, Madras, Wellington, before returning to Britain from India on 29 March 1889, when it was posted to Dover. In 1892 it moved to Woolwich. In 1894 it was posted to Guernsey, and in 1896 to Belfast, Ireland. In 1898 it moved to the Curragh, Ireland.
The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Hounslow Barracks from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms, the regiment became The Royal Fusiliers on 1 July 1881. The regiment was now organised into the following:
Regulars
Militia
Volunteer Infantry
In 1901 the 1st Battalion moved from India to Mandalay, Burma.
The regiment's 2nd regular battalion took part in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902. The battalion, which had previously been stationed the Curragh in Ireland, embarked for South Africa on the 22 October 1899, and served there throughout the war, which ended with the Peace of Vereeniging in June 1902. Four months later 350 officers and men of the 2nd battalion left Cape Town on the SS Salamis in late September 1902, arriving at Southampton in late October, when the battalion was posted to Aldershot.
A 3rd regular battalion was formed on 6 April 1898 at Dover and embarked for the Imperial fortress of Malta on 1 December 1898, then moved to Crete, the Imperial fortress of Gibraltar in 1900, and Egypt and Sudan in 1901. It was subsequently posted to the Bermuda Garrison, with 16 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 937 NCOs and men arriving at the Imperial fortress of Bermuda under Lieutenant-Colonel R. B. Gaisford, CMG, from Egypt aboard the, and Majors CJ Stanton, FMF Scoones, Lieutenant F. Moore, and Second-Lieutenant GE Hawes arriving aboard the SS Dominion, in the week ending Saturday, 5 December 1903. the battalion replaced the Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Boaz Island, and departed Bermuda again for Cape Town, South Africa, aboard the HMT Soudan on the 18 December 1905. The battalion was in South Africa and Mauritius until the First World War.
A 4th regular battalion was formed on 31 February 1900 at Dover, and received colours from the Prince of Wales in July 1902. In 1903 it was at Woolwich.
In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve. The Royal Fusiliers' 1st to 4th Volunteer Battalions were transferred to the new all-territorial London Regiment, with the Royal Fusiliers itself now consisting of:
Regulars
  • 1st Battalion in 1908 based at Albany Barracks, thereafter sent to Kinsale.
  • 2nd Battalion in 1908 based in Jubbulpore
  • 3rd Battalion formed in 1898, in 1908 based in Mauritius and South Africa, thereafter sent to Meerut.
  • 4th Battalion formed in 1900, in 1908 based at Columb Barracks. Thereafter sent to Aldershot, then garrisoned Albany Barracks at Parkhurst from 27 January 1913.
Special Reserve
  • 5th Battalion, based in Hounslow, former 5th Battalion
  • 6th Battalion, based in Hounslow, former 7th Battalion
  • 7th Battalion, based in Finsbury, former 6th Battalion