(extract from the Army and Auxiliary Forces, Colonel C. Cooper King, R.M.A. , 1894)
This regiment was raised in 1793, on the outbreak of hostilities with France; but a 2nd battalion was added in 1804, and formed at Dumfries in 1805. The latter had some foreign though little active service, and disappeared in 1816. The regiment early assumed its present name, and had originally yellow facings, with the harp and crown, and its motto "Quis separabit," on its colours. The old 88th embarked for the Netherlands in 1794, sharing in the battle at Alost, and in the retreat by way of Bergen-op-Zoom to the sea, and was then transferred to Nimeguen, returning home in 1795; but in the autumn of the same year it sailed for the West Indies under Abercrombie. The disastrous voyage is part of our national history. The fleet was practically destroyed; some ships foundered, some were captured, and the regiment was dispersed with it. One detachment was blown back into the Mediterranean as far as Carthagena, and so injured was the transport that when it reached Gibralter, "on loosening the frapping, the transport fell to pieces." Two companies reached their destination, and were engaged at St.Lucia and Grenada; but the regiment was not re-formed as such until the end of 1796.
Under Sir David Baird it sailed foe Egypt from Bombay, and, landing at Cosseir, made a fourteen days' march to Kennah, on the Nile, and reached Cairo by boats the day the place surrendered. It took part in the Monte Video expedition of 1807, where an eight-pounder gun was captured, and marked by a soldier's bayonet as the prize of the 88th; but this was their success. In the storming of the town the defence was so well organised that there was no choice in the end for the assailants but surrender. Some of the men had even no flints in their Brown Besses, and 20 officers and 220 men were killed or wounded.
In 1809 the regiment served under Beresford on the Upper Douro in the difficult country of the Tras os Montes, and took part in the battle of Talavera, losing 6 officers and 130 men killed and wounded. While with Crawford's brigade "a regimental mess was formed;" and that this incident is recorded shows the rarity of such an institution in those days. Later on, in Picton's "fighting division," it fought at Busaco, with bravery so marked that Wellington himself shook Colonel Wallace by the hand and said, "Wallace, I never saw a more gallant charge than that just now made by your regiment;" but the battle cost 9 officers and 124 men. From Torres Vedras it moved in pursuit of Massena (when, to hide the fact of retreat, the French substituted dummy sentries for real ones), and saw continuous fighting throughout the campaign at Foz d'Aronce, Sabugal, Fuentes d'Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo (where the "Rangers of Connaught" were told by Picton to "do this business with the cold iron"), Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse.
Sailing from France to Canada in 1814, one company did well at Savannah, and returned to France to garrison Valenciennes; but though serving in different quarters of the world, it saw no further service until the Russian War, when it was present at the Alma, Inkerman, and Sevastopol. The "Rangers" in 1818 instituted a regimental "Order of Merit," in three classes, to reward old soldiers who had been (1) in twelve general actions; (2) in six to twelve such battles; and (3) in less than six. So distinguished had been the active service of the regiment, that of these classes, 70, 145, and 217 were respectively issued.
The badge of the harp and crown, with the motto "Quis separabit," though time had sanctioned it's use, was not fully confirmed until 1830, shortly after which "Pyrenees," which had been omitted from the official battle-roll, was also granted. The last services of the 1st battalion of the present regiment were in India in 1858, at Bhoguepore, Lucknow, Calpee, Selimpore, Jamoo, and Birwah-for which "Central India" stands on their colours-and, finally, in South Africa from 1877 to 1880, during which time Major H.G. Moore gained the Cross for Valour for saving the life of Private Giese, being at the same time wounded in the arm by an assegai.
The 2nd battalion of the regiment was originally the 94th, of which number there had been three predecessors-the Royal Welsh Volunteers of 1760-63, the 94th of 1780-83, and the "Scottish Brigade" of 1794, which, at first four battalions strong, fought in India under Baird and Wellesley, and in the Peninsula from Torres Vedra to Toulouse. This latter force received the title of the "94th" in 1803, and was disbanded in 1818; but the regiment, with the same number, was restored in 1823, and the officers of the previous battalion were all appointed to the newly-raised battalion. After a long period of comparatively uneventful service in India it was transferred to the Cape in 1879. It was present or represented at Ulundi; in the attack on Sekukuni's kraal-where Privates Flawn and Fitzpatrick won the Victoria Cross for saving the life of Liuetenant Dewar; at the disastrous affair of Bruncker's Spruit the opening phase of the Boer War, when all the officers were hit, and shortly after which Captain Elliot was treacherously shot by the Boers when crossing a river; and at Majuba and Lydenberg, where Lieutenant Leng with seventy men held out agaist hundreds for twelve weeks.
The buttons of the scarlet, green-faced uniform bear within a shamrock-wreath the harp over the elephant; the elephant alone (a reminiscence of the services of the "Scottish Brigade" in India) on the collar; and the harp crowned, with the regimental motto, "Quis Separabit," on the helmet-plate. Another regimental badge is the Sphinx and "Egypt." The Militia battalions are the South and North Mayo (combined in one), the Galway, and the Roscommon. The 88th gained the names of the "Rangers," and the "Devil's Own," either from their bravery in battle or their irregularity at other times; the 94th were called the "Garvies," from the spareness of their recruits. The depot was at Galway.
