Pottered History - 1st Bn York & Lancs

2 Bn 12th Regiment of Foot

1756 - London
1758 - Renamed 65th

65th Regiment of Foot

1758 - West Indies
1759 - Guadeloupe
1762 - Martinique, Cuba
1764 - England
1769 - Massachusetts, Boston
1755 - Bunker Hill
1776 - England
1780 - Margate, Kent
1782 - Renamed

65th (2ndYorkshire North Riding) Regiment of Foot

1782 - Gibraltar
1783 - Ireland
1784 - Canada
1791 - Nova Scotia
1793 - West Indies
1794 - England & Scotland
1800 - South Africa (Regt split into 2 Coys Ceylon & 2 Coys Kandian)
1803 - Bombay, Surat
1804 - Baroda, Indore, Kotah, Malwa
1805 - Bhurtpore, Dholpore, Bundelcund, Kotah
1806 - Surat
1809 - Surat
1810 - Bombay (see note 1)
1811 - Bombay
1812 - Dhewrah
1813 - Baroda
1815 - Fort Anjar, Kutch, Booj
1816 - Booj, Ahmednuggar (see note 2), Bombay
1817 - Kirkee, Coryguam, Poona
1818 - Coryguam (see note 3)
1819 - Fort George, Kutch, Sirur
1820 - Kirkee, Poona, Kutch, Surat
1821 - See note 4
1822 - Bombay
1822 (Aug) - England & Scotland

1824 - Ireland
1845 - England

1829 - West Indies & Demerara

1837 - Nova Scotia

1841(Aug) - England
1843 - Ireland
1845 - New South Wales
1847 - Wellington
1851 - England, Chatham

1853 (May) - Tasmania

1853 (July) - Wellington
1863 - Auckland
1865 (Oct) - Depart NZ for England
1867 - Ireland
1871 - India
1873 - Pontefract, England
1881 - Renamed (See Note 5)

1st Bn York & Lancs Regiment

1881 - India: Bengal

1882 - Aden
1884 (Feb) - Sudan
1884 (Sept) - England: Dover

1885 - Sheffield

1888 - Ireland: Birr

1891 - Cork

1895 - England: Colchester

1899 - South Africa 11 Bde

1902 - India: Mhow

1905 - Quetta

1910 - Karachi

1913 - Jubbulpore

1915 - France and Flanders 28 Div

1915 - Macedonia
1919 - Tidworth
1921 - Ireland: Clomel
1922 - Germany
1924 - Aldershot
1928 - Londonderry
1932 - Portsmouth
1935 - York
1936 - Egypt
1937 - Palestine, York
1939 - France & Belgium (BEF)
1940 - UK & Norway
1942 - India, Persia & Iraq
1943 - Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Sicily & Italy
1944 - Egypt, Palestine & Syria
1945 - NW Europe, Germany
1948 - (see note 6)
1952 - Sudan & Egypt
1955 - UK
1956 - Suez, UK
1958 - Aden
1959 - Berlin
1962 - Germany: Munster
1963 - Swaziland
1965 - Cyprus
1966 - 1 x Coy Aden (B Coy)
1968 - UK, North Weald, Essex
1968 - Disbanded

Notes

1. 1809 The 65th was sent from Bombay to Arabia as part of an expeditionary force to suppress Qawasim pirates who preyed on shipping in the Persian Gulf. After destroying several pirate forts it returned to India.

2. The action in Arabia of 1809 only served to suppress Arabic pirate activity for a few years, and did not destroy it completely. In 1817, the 65th was again sent to the Persian Gulf and this time they succeeded in destroying all pirate forts and forcing the Arab chiefs of the pirates to submit to British dominion. For this action, and the one of 1809, the 65th was awarded the unique battle honour 'Arabia'.

3. The 65th Regiment of Foot played a significant part in the Pindari Campaign or 3rd Mahratta War

4. The 65th were again called to Arabia to fight pirates, this time members of the Beni Bu Ali tribe. Once more, all the pirate forts and ships were destroyed.

5. Amalgamated with 84th to form 1st & 2nd Bn York & Lancs Regiment

6. Amalgamated with 2nd Bn without change of Title.

Roll of Honour (Sudan) - 1st Battalion York and Lancaster

Below is a list of those Officers and men of the 1st battalion York and Lancaster Regiment killed in action Sudan February - March 1884.

Roll Of Honour 1st Bn York & Lancaster Regiment

1. 1568 Pte Samuel Le Blaneq - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

2. Pte Robert Brightmore - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

3. 2070 Pte Thomas Brook - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

4. 1190 Pte John Brophy - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

5. 1156 Pte Robert Burnet - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

6. 2085 Pte Robert Cripps - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

7. 766 Pte William Earnshaw - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

8. 2120 Pte Alfred Fennell - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

9. 887 Pte John Fisher - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

10. 297 Pte Charles Head - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

11. 2191 Pte George Higginson - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

12. 171 Pte Isaac Hops - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

13. 1657 Sgt Samuel Johnson - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

14. 300 Pte Andrew Kirby - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

15. 693 Pte James Law - "reported dead" at Tamaai 13th March 1884

16. 735 Pte Peter Malloy - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

17. 1616 Cpl William James Maynard - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

18. 1286 Lance-Corporal Richard Mayors - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

19. 2339 Pte McCombe - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

20. 30 Pte Albert Pinn - Killed at Tamaai 14th March 1884

21. 1830 Pte John Richards - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

22. 2739 L/Cpl George Robinson - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

23. 1840 Pte Charles Rookyard - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

24. 1665 Pte John Roy - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

25. 2762 Pte John Sheldon - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

26. 2121 Pte Benjamin Smith - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

27. 1583 Pte John Steele - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

28. 1522 Pte James Storey - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

29. 2788 Pte John Taylor - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

30. 1262 Pte William Webb - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

31. 593 Pte William West - Killed at Tamaai 13th March 1884

32. *Captain H.G.W. Ford - Killed at Suakin 14th March 1884

*Captain Harry George Wakelyn FORD was born in 1848. He was gazetted as Ensign to the 11th Foot in 1865, but did not join this regiment. He subsequently served in the 7th {the Royal Fusiliers}, in the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, and in this became Lieutenant in 1871. He afterwards joined the 56th {"the Pompadours"} and the York and Lancaster Regiment, to which he was gazetted Captain in 1880, and with which he was killed in action at Tamasi. Captain FORD was the youngest son of William M. FORD, Staff Surgeon A.M.D., who died at Cephalonia, Ionian Islands, in 1850, in the exercise of the profession during the outbreak of cholera among the British troops there, and who had seen active service in China and at the Cape of Good Hope during the Kaffir War. Captain FORD was grandson of the late Lieut.-Colonel Charles SMITH, of Whittlesea, J.P.and D.L. of the Isle of Ely, who was wounded at Waterloo, where he fought with his brothers, the late Lieut.-General Sir Harry G.W. SMITH, Baronet of Aliwal, G.C.B., and the late Colonel Thomas Lawrence SMITH, C.B., for many years Barrack-master at Chatham and Aldershot.

Sudan - March 1884

The 1st Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment also took part in the battle of Tamani which occurred in March 1884. A naval officer wrote the following account of the battle:

Battle of Tamani - 1884

When the column arrived within half a mile of the position occupied by the main force of Osman Digma, they encamped for the night. At eight in the evening, Commander Rolfe, R.N., performed a most daring action; he started alone to reconnoitre the camp of the enemy, and made his way close up to their fires, and was able to bring back the news that the enemy were quiet and evidently meditated no immediate attack; the men were therefore able to lie down quietly and sleep for a while. At one o’clock, however, the enemy gathered round the position and kept up a fire all night.

The next day the advance was made, not in squares as before, but in two brigades. In the first of these, with the 42nd and 65th, were the marines and Naval Brigade. As the brigade advanced, the enemy swarmed down to the attack, and the soldiers with their rifles, and the sailors with their machine guns, opened a tremendous fire upon them; but the Arabs still came on with desperate bravery. The brigade was in square, and the 42nd, who were in front, charged the enemy at the double, cheering loudly; but this movement left a gap between them and the 65th, who formed the right face of the square, and, before the gap could be closed up, great hordes of Arabs charged down and burst into the square.

For a while all was confusion. The 65th fell back on the marines. The Naval Brigade, surrounded by the broken soldiers, were unable to use their guns, and, as the confused mass fell back, had to leave these behind them; but with great coolness they removed portions of the machinery, so that when the guns fell into the hands of the enemy they were unable to use them against us.

Wildly the Arabs pressed down upon the retreating troops, but the second brigade, under General Buller, came up in splendid order, their volleys sweeping away the enemy. This gave the retreating troops time to reform their ranks, and they at once advanced again in line with Buller’s brigade; and the enemy were put to flight, after suffering a loss of over 5000 men.

Amongst those who fell in this action were Lieutenant Montresor, R.N., Lieutenant Almack, R.N., and Lieutenant Houston, R.N., with seven of their men who were killed at their guns.

York & Lancaster Regiment

I'm researching a distant relative who served in the 1st battalion York and Lancaster Regiment between 1871 and 1888. I've got Muster rolls for 1877 until 1888. I'm really after any information prior to this can anyone help?