Early history , founder of the regiment, by
Sir Thomas Lawrence The regiment was raised by
Francis Humberston MacKenzie,
Chief of the Clan Mackenzie and later
Lord Seaforth, as the
78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (or The Ross-shire Buffs) on 8 March 1793. First assembled at
Fort George in July 1793, It saw action at the defence of
Nijmegen in November 1794. The regiment moved to England in April 1795 and then sailed to France for the
Battle of Quiberon Bay in June 1795 and the landing at
Île d'Yeu, off the
Brittany coast, in September 1795, after which it was stationed in England. 100 men of the regiment took part in
a 1812 punitive expedition against the
Sultanate of Sambas, but the expedition was forced to return upon encountering shore batteries, with the complement insufficient to take the defenses by storm. A second expedition, involving the
14th Regiment and
Sepoy troops, would be launched in 1813 with success. Also in 1813, part of the regiment would be engaged in the suppression of a
peasant rebellion in East Java, which had seen two officers of the regiment killed. Leaving Java in September 1816, the vessel the battalion was travelling on, , was wrecked off
Preparis, Burma, on 5 November on the way to Bengal. There were relatively few deaths and the rescued most of the survivors, who it carried to
Calcutta; cruisers from the British East India Company rescued the remainder.
Prince Blucher carried a part of the battalion on to England, arriving at Portsmouth in June 1817. A second battalion was again raised in May 1804. Returning home in January 1808, a draft from the battalion were present at the disastrous
Dutch Walcheren Campaign in autumn 1809, which suffered substantial losses due to
malaria. Although under strength, the battalion embarked for
Holland in January 1814, and routed a larger French force during a skirmish at
Merksem, near
Antwerp. Remaining in Belgium on garrison duty, the battalion was in reserve at
Nieuwpoort during the
Waterloo campaign, returning home in February 1816. By 1817 both the 1st and 2nd battalions were stationed in Scotland, where they were amalgamated the same year. The regiment was then posted to Ireland until 1826.
The Victorian era memorial to the 78th Highlanders in
St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh The regiment embarked for a tour in
Ceylon in April 1826 and did not return home until February 1838. After home service that included responding to industrial riots in Lancashire in 1840, the 78th travelled to India in April 1842, To make up for the losses, replacements were recruited from across the United Kingdom, reducing the proportion of Scots in the regiment from 91% to under half. After service in India and
Aden, the 78th moved to
Persia in January 1857, and took part in the
Battle of Khushab in February 1857 during the brief
Anglo-Persian War. and then took part in the
reinforcement of Lucknow, strongly defending the residency until it was relieved in November 1857. and was hailed as the 'saviour of British India' and feted for its conduct at Lucknow. This included being commemorated by poets such as
John Greenleaf Whittier and
Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The regiment returned home in September 1859. Each summer, men from the regiment camped at
Bedford to practise musketry at the military range. On their departure in 1871, a farewell ball was hosted by the Grandmaster of the Masonic Lodge of Nova Scotia,
Alexander Keith. The regiment, together with 17 young local women who had married soldiers, embarked for
Ireland in the troopship
HMS Orontes in November 1871. In 1871 the regiment moved to Ireland, where it helped to keep order during sectarian rioting, before a number of postings in Scotland and England. In March 1879 the 78th arrived in India, moving to Afghanistan to undertake garrison duty at
Kandahar over the winter of 1880–81 at the end of the
Second Afghan War. As part of the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, single-battalion regiments were linked together to share a single depot and recruiting district. The 78th was linked with the
71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot, and assigned to district no. 55, with its depot at
Fort George, near
Inverness. On 1 July 1881 the
Childers Reforms came into effect, and the regiment ended its link with the 71st, and amalgamated with the
72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders to form the
Seaforth Highlanders, with the 78th becoming the second battalion. ==Legacy==