52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot
Prior to this, the British Army had relied on irregulars and mercenaries to provide most of its light infantry or, when conditions demanded it, temporarily seconded regular line companies.[27] Tasks of the light infantry included advance and rear guard action, flanking protection for armies and forward skirmishing.En route the ship ran aground in dense fog in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near the coast of Nova Scotia; the wreck remained intact enough for all on board, including the soldiers' wives, to disembark safely, transferring their effects and regimental provisions to shore.[32] Major-General William Howe led the main assault at Bunker Hill with Brigadier Robert Pigot leading the 52nd and 43rd Foot in support.[36] Hyder died in 1782, and was succeeded by his son, Tipu Sultan, who continued the war through some minor campaigns until a peace treaty was signed in 1784.[39] In December that year, the flank companies from the 52nd and 76th Foot, with sepoy grenadiers, formed the storming party during the assault on Savandroog; the defenders abandoned the fortress, and it was successfully taken at the cost of just one British soldier wounded.[40] The 52nd were also present at the February 1792 siege of Seringapatam, where the battalion's grenadier company received heavy casualties while crossing the Kaveri River.A force commanded by Colonel James Stuart, of the 72nd Foot, and including the 52nd, left India for Ceylon, laying siege to Trincomalee; by February 1796 the island was in British hands.[45] The core of this Reserve, commanded by Edward Paget, consisted of the 1/52nd and 1/95th battalions,[46] who displayed none of the ill-discipline which plagued other regiments during the retreat, but "made a stand at every defile and riverline, buying time for the rest of the army to get away.[50] Alighting in Lisbon and hearing of the army's engagement with the French, they undertook a forced march to Talavera, arriving mere hours after the battle.[56] For the rest of the year, both battalions of the 52nd, with the Light Division, manned outposts, which were constantly moved to mark the changing French positions.Companies from the Light Division, under the 52nd's Colonel Colborne, captured the Francisco redoubt on 9 January, and thereafter built trenches for the main assault, under enemy fire.For a month the armies marched and counter-marched against each other, seeking advantage, and on 22 July Wellington attacked in the Battle of Salamanca, achieving a comprehensive victory.Diversions were set up, including the "Light Division Theatre", in which the 52nd were described as "highly gentlemanly men, of steady aspect; they mixed little with other corps, but attended the theatricals of the 43rd with circumspect good humour, and now and then relaxed."[60] In spring, 1813, the army returned to the offensive, leaving Portugal and marching northwards through Spain to Vitoria where the French stood in preparation for battle, which took place on 21 June.[61] The battle proved an overwhelming victory for the British, and the following day the 1/52nd, with the Light Division, were sent in pursuit of the retreating French, skirmishing with the enemy rearguard.[61] Over this later period, the 2/52nd, who had left the Peninsula, were bolstered with new recruits and were sent to Holland in 1813–14, as part of Sir Thomas Graham's force which made an unsuccessful attack on Bergen op Zoom in March 1814.[12] Once peace agreements had finally been settled – the French Governor of Bayonne being the last, on 26 April – the army left the Peninsula; the infantry marched to Bordeaux for transportation to their new postings.[68] Wellington's forward army engaged the French at Quatre Bras on 16 June, but he later fell back to remain in contact with his Prussian allies, who had retreated following the Battle of Ligny, and took position near the village of Waterloo.[71][72] In this position the 52nd endured a heavy bombardment, of which Ensign Leeke of the 52nd reported afterwards "the old officers, who had served during the whole of the Peninsular War, stated that they were never exposed to such a cannonade as the 52nd squares had to undergo on this occasion for 2½ hours from French artillery ½ mile to the front".[72] [After the advance towards the end of the battle] Leeke, who carried the King's colour, found a foot and a half of the pole wet with blood; Holman, ..., had three musket balls through his sword blade, and wore it for many years Activity was happening elsewhere on the field, however, and as the battle drew to a close, Napoleon's Middle Guard launched an assault on the British line, to the 52nd's left, and were met by a number of regiments including the 1st Foot Guards, who repulsed the 3rd Chasseurs, but had to themselves retreat when the 4th Chasseurs moved forward to threaten their left.[75][76] William Hay, a Light Dragoon watching from the right, later recalled that "so well-directed a fire was poured in, that down the bank the Frenchmen fell and, I may say, the battle of Waterloo was gained.[87] The regiment found the heat and dust of India gruelling, and Major John Arthur Bayley of the 52nd, who published an account of the regiment's operations in India[88] and described the great clouds of dust which rose over their columns in the march from Allahabad to Umballa in 1853–4; "it was worse in the rear than in the front; so, in order that everyone should have a fair chance, the order of march was changed daily.The 52nd received the following honours: Hindoostan,[43] Vimeiro, Corunna, Bussaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, Peninsula,[55] Waterloo and Delhi 1857.The 52nd, however, offered its own recognition: those who survived the Forlorn Hope at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz were entitled to wear on their right arm a badge displaying a laurel wreath and the letters "V.S."From that date until the 52nd merged with 43rd in 1881, two soldiers from the 52nd were awarded the Victoria Cross, both at Delhi in 1857: Bugler Robert Hawthorne and Lance Corporal Henry Smith.[90] Once the charges had been detonated, Hawthorne sounded the advance, and then attended to a wounded officer from the explosion party, all the while enduring intense fire from the city's defenders.[99] The 52nd did not adopt the "Belgic cap" but retained the stovepipe shako throughout the Napoleonic period; it was adorned with the brass bugle badge and green plumes of the light infantry.In 1841, the light bob's situation was compared unfavourably with his enemy's light marching order: "Buckle him up in a tight red jacket, when the thermometer is about 80°; place across his breast two buff-leather belts, about a quarter of an inch in thickness, and each what the milliners call a nail in breadth; hang to one of them a cartouche-box containing sixty rounds of ball cartridges, each of these about above an ounce in weight; strap across his shoulders a square well-packed wallet, containing four shirts, with or without frills, and other notions; plant a cap on his head which in point of weight is equal to an iron pot; then place over his shoulder a musket and bayonet weighing a stone; with three days' provisions in his haversack, and a couple of quarts of liquid in a canteen.[124] He believed that the actions taken by Sir John Colborne (Lord Seaton) and the 52nd to defeat the Imperial Guard at the close of the battle had been unjustly overlooked in official dispatches and histories, and wrote his memoirs so that "the truth, with regard to what we knew the 52nd had achieved at Waterloo, [should] see the light".
Kingdom of Great BritainBritish ArmyLine infantryLight infantrybattalionCowley BarracksOxfordAmerican Revolutionary WarLexington and ConcordBunker HillSiege of BostonLong IslandWhite PlainsNewport, Rhode IslandFort WashingtonPrincetonBrandywinePhiladelphia campaignFort MontgomerySecondThird Anglo-Mysore WarsCannanoreBangaloreSeringapatamFrench Revolutionary WarsPondicherryCeylonQuiberonFerrolPeninsular WarVimeiroCorunnaBussacoSabugalFuentes de OñoroCiudad RodrigoBadajoz (1812)SalamancaVitoriaPyreneesSan MarcialBidassoaNivelleOrthezToulouseWalcheren CampaignWaterlooIndian MutinySir John ClaveringCyrus TrapaudSir John MooreSir John ColborneAmerican War of IndependenceAnglo-Mysore WarsNapoleonic WarsLight DivisionPeninsula campaignSir William NapierNapoleonImperial Guardline regiment43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of FootOxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light InfantrycavalryregimentsHousehold Divisionslieutenant colonelcompaniesflank companiesgrenadiercaptainslieutenantsensignssubalterns96th FootBadajozWaterloo campaignHistory of British light infantryirregularsmercenariesDuke of YorkchasseursGermanyLow Countriesthe Netherlands95th Riflesline regimentsShorncliffe Camp43rd Foot85th, or The King's Regiment of Light Infantry (Bucks Volunteers)riflesrifledmusketvoltigeurs54th Foot50th FootColonel John ClaveringCork, IrelandQuebecGulf of St. LawrenceNova ScotiaGeneral MurrayHoward Pyle22nd FootBostonLexingtonWilliam HoweRobert PigotMadrasHyder AliMysoreTipu SultanSir Martin HunterLord Cornwalliswas appointed Governor-generalPollighautcherryArakere76th Footgrenadiersassault on Savandroogsiege of SeringapatamKaveri Rivera treatyBatavian RepublicDutch colony at Ceylon72nd Foot