Early years , who commanded the regiment at the
Battle of Plassey The regiment was first raised by
Adam Loftus, 1st Viscount Lisburne as '''Viscount Lisburne's Regiment of Foot
in 1689 but was disbanded in 1697. It was re-raised in Ireland, without lineal connection to the previous regiment, by Colonel Richard Coote as Richard Coote's Regiment of Foot''' in August 1702. It saw action at the
Battle of La Gudina in May 1709 and then remained in
Portugal until 1713 when it embarked for
Gibraltar and then moved to
Menorca later in the year. It was posted to Ireland in 1719 and sailed to Gibraltar in 1726 to reinforce the garrison. The regiment sailed for
Jamaica in 1729 and then returned to Ireland in 1732. The regiment served as marines from March 1744 to September 1746 when it took part in the
Raid on Lorient during the
War of the Austrian Succession. The regiment then spent another two years serving as marines and then returned to Ireland. On 1 July 1751 a royal warrant was issued which provided that in future regiments would no longer be known by their colonel's name, but would bear a regimental number based on their precedence: the regiment became the
39th Regiment of Foot. Under the command of Major
Eyre Coote, the regiment played a major part in capturing the fort of
Katwa at the
Battle of Plassey in June 1757. The regiment returned to Ireland in autumn 1758 and was engaged in the
Great Siege of Gibraltar in 1779 and the following three years.
Napoleonic wars In 1782 the regiment took a county title as the
39th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot. The regiment sailed for the West Indies took part in the capture of
Martinique in March 1794, the capture of
Saint Lucia in April 1794 and the attack on
Guadeloupe in June 1794 during the
French Revolutionary Wars. The British troops at Guadeloupe were forced to surrender in December 1794 and were held in captivity for over a year. The regiment was reformed in Ireland the following year by absorbing the short-lived 104th Regiment of Foot (Royal Manchester Volunteers). to
Barbados in December 1802 and then returned to England in March 1803. In 1803 a 2nd battalion was raised. In 1807 a number of regiments had their territorial affiliations shuffled, with the East Middlesex title passing to the
77th Foot and the 39th taking the Dorsetshire title previously held by the
35th (Sussex) Regiment of Foot to become the
39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot. the
Battle of Bussaco in September 1810 and the
Siege of Badajoz in May 1811 as well as the
Battle of Albuera in May 1811 Meanwhile, the 1st battalion deployed to the Peninsula in August 1811 and saw action at the
Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 and across the Pyrenees, including the
Battle of Sorauren in July 1813. It then pursued the French Army into France and fought at the
Battle of Nivelle in November 1813, the
Battle of the Nive in December 1813 as well as the
Battle of Toulouse in 1814. and took part in the
Battle of Plattsburgh in September 1814 before returning to England in July 1815. The regiment formed part of the Army of Occupation in France from 1815 to 1818 when it embarked for Ireland.
The Victorian era The regiment arrived in the British colony of
New South Wales toward the end of 1825 and saw service guarding convicts and establishing settlements at
Hobart,
Sydney,
Swan River Colony and
Bathurst, where in 1830 it helped suppress the
bushranging insurgency known as the
Bathurst Rebellion. The regiment left for
India in July 1832. It saw action at various skirmishes in spring 1834 during the
Coorg War and at the Battle of Maharajpore in December 1843 during the
Gwalior campaign. It embarked for the
Crimea in spring 1854 and saw action at the
Siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854 before returning to
Canada in 1856 and moving on to
Bermuda in 1859; it returned to England in 1864 and was posted back to India in 1869. As part of the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, where single-battalion regiments were linked together to share a single depot and recruiting district in the United Kingdom, the 39th was linked with the
75th (Stirlingshire) Regiment of Foot, and assigned to district no. 39 at
Dorchester Barracks in
Dorchester. On 1 July 1881 the
Childers Reforms came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the
54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot to form the
Dorsetshire Regiment. ==Battle honours==