Name : King's Royal Rifle Corps Started : 1830 Ended : 1966 Previous Regiment Lineage(s) : ---------------------------------------- 62nd (Royal American) Regiment (1756 - 1757) 60th (Royal American) Regiment (1757 - 1815) Duke of York's Own Rifle Corps (1815 - 1830)
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Subsequent Regiment Lineage : ---------------------------------------- Royal Green Jackets (1966 - 2007) The Rifles (2007 - Present)
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This, like the Rifle Brigade, is one of the exceptional regiments in the "Army List", in having more than two battalions. At present it possesses four, the first of which was raised about 1755 in America, and was composed of Swiss and German Protestants; but, later, it was increased to four, of which two were twice reduced and restored before 1788. A fifth battalion was added in 1797, created from Hompesch's Mounted Rifles and Loewenstein's Chasseurs. By 1813 there were eight battalions, but after the war they were reduced to two - the Rifle and the Light Infantry battalions (originally the 2nd battalion of the force raised in 1795, and the 3rd of the increase in 1787), to which a third was added during the Crimean War, and a fourth after it. So mixed, however, were the recruits in 1824, that in that year it was decided to collect all British-born subjects into the 1st battalion, leaving the 2nd battalion to the aliens.
Its glorious battle roll records its valuable services since its formation, and is a history too lengthy to be more than briefly summarised. Its first important service was naturally in the American War of 1757-60, when it saw much continuous frontier fighting, besides being engaged at Louisburg, Ticonderoga, Quebec, Abraham Plains, defence of Quebec, and at Montreal; while, interspersed with active service at Martinique and Havannah, at Jamaica and St Vincent, it shared materially in the great War of American Independence on Hobkirk Hill, Guildford, and York Town; after this other detachments of the regiment were still employed in the West Indies - at Martinique, St Lucia, Guadaloupe, Trinidad, and Porto Rico.
Meanwhile the other battalions were earning honours at Surinam in 1804, at Bergen and in Denmark in 1799 and 1807; and especially in the Peninsula, where the "green jackets" were present at Obidos, Lorinda, Roleia, Vimiera, Corunna, Douro, Oporto, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Albuhera, Pombal, Casal Nova, Olivenza, Badajoz, El Bodon, Aldea de Ponte, Arroyo dos Molinos, siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, escalade of Badajo, Almarez, Fort St Cayetano, Castragon, battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, St Jean de Luz, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, Alba de Tormes, passage of Bidassoa and Adour, Fort St Michael, Burgos, and Bayonne.
Again in the West Indies in 1809, the regiment appeears at Los Saintes and Guadaloupe; in Portugal in 1826; and in India between 1846 and 1850, when it served at the siege of Mooltan, at Goojerat, in the Eusufzie expedition, and against the Afridis. The then 2nd battalion served also in the Kaffir War of 1851-53. The 1st and 2nd battalions took an active part in the Mutiny, from the outbreak at Meerut to Hindun and Delhi; with the Rohilcund and Oude expeditions; at Bareilly, and numerous other "affairs", and in the jungles of Jugdespur. Soon after this the 2nd battalion was sent to China, in 1860, and assisted in the capture of the Taku forts, the occupation of Pekin, and the other operations that led to peace.
So varied and extensive are the services of the regiment that it is, as we have said, only possible to enumerate the chief battles in which it has borne so distinguished a part. Up to 1854 there had been only two battalions, increased in 1855 to three, and to four in 1856. The 1st battalion took part in the arduous, though bloodless, Red River Expedition of 1870; the 2nd, in 1878, shared in the Afghan War at Ahmed Khel, Ghuzni, Arza, and the march to and battle at Kandahar; the 3rd, in South Africa, fought at Ginghlovo, the relief of Ekowe, and Ulundi; in the Transvaal at the disastrous skirmish of Ingogo (where Sergeant-Major Wilkins was specially mentioned for coolness by Sir George Colley); and in North Africa in the campaign of 1882, when it was under fire at Tel-el-Mahuta and Kassassin, as well as being in second line at Tel-el-Kebir. The same battalion also took part in the operations round Suakim, at El-Teb and Tamai, and, finally, returning again to Egypt proper, shared in the labours of the Nile Column.
Victoria Crosses have been won in 1857-58 by privates Bambrick, Divane, Turner, Thompson, Sergeants Waller, and Garvin, Bugler Sutton, and Lieutenant Heathcote; in 1879 by Captain Redevers H Buller at Inhlobane during the Zulu War; and in 1884 Lieutenant Scrope Marling won it at Tamai.
The uniform when General Wolfe, in 1759, gave the regiment its motto of "Celer et audax" was red with royal blue facings, and so it remained until the present century, when one battalion at least had assumed the green jacket; and the whole regiment was clad by 1816 in "a green jacket with short skirts, lapels lined with red," etc. There has been a tradition that the present dark colour of the jacket was selected as best matching the tint of the foliage of the cork woods in Spain; but there is no authoritative foundation for the statement as far as can be gathered. In the "forties" the pelisse seems to have been worn. The general character of the dress has necessarily followed that of the British army, colour of uniform excepted. The facings are red. The button bears the bugle crowned within a wreath. The Maltese Cross - a survival possibly of the time when the mounted riflemen of Hompesch, a relation of the last Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, joined the ranks - bears the regimental battle roll, as rifle regiments have no colours; these having been abandoned in 1824, at which time they bore the royal cypher crowned. The head-dress is of sealskin or astracan, and has a red and black plume.
The Militia battalions are the Huntingdon, Royal 2nd Middlesex, the Carlow and North Cork battalions; a 6th battalion, mentioned in some books, does not appear in the present "Army List", and was disbanded in 1889. The Volunteer battalions are the 1st Middlesex - Victoria and St George's (green with scarlet facings), the 2nd South Middlesex (grey and scarlet), the 4th Middlesex - West London (ditto); the 5th West Middlesex and 9th Harrow (grey and scarlet, and green with green facing respectively); the 12th, Civil Service, and 25th, Bank of England (clad in grey and blue and in rifle green); the 13th, Queen's Westminster (grey and scarlet); the 21st Finsbury Rifles (green and scarlet); the 22nd, Central London Rangers (ditto); and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd City of London Rifle Volunteer Brigade (green with green facings, green with scarlet, and scarlet with buff facings, respectively).
Their usual name is the "Royal Rifles", or the "Green Jackets"; but the regiment was once known as the "Royal Americans", and to distinguish their dark dress, with red facings, from the Rifle Brigade, have been called the "Sanguinary (or B----y) Sweeps". The depot is at Winchester.
Extract from "The British Army and Auxiliary Forces" Colonel C. Cooper King, R.M.A., 1894.
