Cheshire Regiment

Early wars , the regiment's founder Following the 1688 Glorious Revolution and the exile of James II, Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk, raised a regiment at Chester on behalf of the new regime. The experience of the 1638-1652 Wars of the Three Kingdoms meant many considered standing armies a danger to individual liberties and a threat to society itself. Until the mid-18th century, regiments were considered the property of their Colonel, changed names when transferred and were disbanded as soon as possible. In September 1689, Sir Henry Belasyse became Colonel and as '''Belasyse's Regiment of Foot''', the unit went to Ireland as part of an Anglo-Dutch force commanded by Frederick Schomberg. When inspected at Dundalk in October 1689, it was reported as having '...hardly any good officers and an entire absence of good order...but Belasyse expected to work reforms.' During the 1689-1691 Williamite War in Ireland, it fought at The Boyne, Aughrim, and the Second Siege of Limerick that ended the war in August 1691. The regiment was transferred to Flanders in October, where it spent the rest of the Nine Years War, fighting at the Battle of Landen in 1693 and during the 1695 Allied siege of Namur. After the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, the Tory majority in Parliament was determined to reduce costs and by 1699, the English military was less than 7,000 men. However, England, Ireland and Scotland were then separate entities with their own Parliaments and funding; Belasyse's Regiment of Foot avoided disbandment by being transferred onto the Irish military establishment. On the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, the regiment was posted to Jamaica; this was a notoriously unhealthy location and Sir Henry Belasyse transferred his Colonelcy to William Selwyn. The regiment spent the next twelve years in the West Indies; soon after arrival in April 1702, Selwyn died and was replaced by Thomas Handasyd, both as Colonel and Governor of Jamaica. Thomas returned to England and was succeeded as Colonel by his son Roger Handasyd in 1712, a position he retained until 1730. although a detachment was present at the Battle of Dettingen in June 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession. By 1751, the regiment had become the 22nd Regiment of Foot. In 1758, it took part in the Siege of Louisbourg in French Canada. The regiment also took part in General Wolfe's victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759. They then took part in the conclusive three pronged attack against Montréal which capitulated in September 1760. American Revolutionary War The regiment was sent to North America for service in the American Revolutionary War in 1775. Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie, commanding the regiment, embarked in advance of the rest of the regiment at the request of General Thomas Gage and arrived in Boston just before the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he was killed in action. and then returned to New York City in 1779; the bulk of the regiment remained there until the end of the War. Although the County designation existed unofficially as early as 1772, the regiment was retitled the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment of Foot in 1782. In January 1800 the regiment was posted to South Africa, before moving to India. There it suffered heavy losses during the assault on Bhurtpore in 1805. In 1810, the regiment took part in the occupation of Mauritius. The Victorian era '' by Edward Armitage, 1847 The regiment took part in the Battle of Meeanee in February 1843, the Battle of Hyderabad in March 1843 and the conquest of Sindh in summer 1843 during further Indian service. The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Chester Castle from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms the regiment became The Cheshire Regiment on 1 July 1881. The reforms added the following units: 1st Royal Cheshire Light Infantry Militia, 2nd Royal Cheshire Militia, 1st Cheshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, 2nd (Earl of Chester's) Cheshire RVC, 3rd Cheshire RVC, 4th Cheshire (Cheshire and Derbyshire) RVC, and the 5th Cheshire RVC. Its recruiting area was confirmed as being the County of Cheshire. to the men of the Cheshire Regiment who died in South Africa Both battalions of the regiment served in Burma between 1887 and 1891, while the 2nd Battalion saw active service in South Africa from 1900 to 1902, during the Second Boer War. The 3rd (Militia) battalion was also embodied for active duty in South Africa, with 450 men reported as returning home after the end of the war in September 1902. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and four Territorial battalions. It took part in the Battle of Mons in August 1914, the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the First Battle of the Aisne also in September 1914, the Battle of La Bassée in October 1914, the Battle of Messines also in October 1914 and in the First Battle of Ypres also in October 1914. It also saw action at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915 and the Battle of Hill 60 also in April 1915. In 1917 they fought at the Battle of Arras in April 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele in July 1917. It then took part in the Battle of the Lys in April 1918 and the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance in Picardy later in the year. The 2nd battalion, which was recalled from India in December 1914, landed at Le Havre as part of the 84th Brigade in the 28th Division in January 1915 for service on the Western Front; it moved to Egypt in October 1915 and then on to Salonika. Post-war After the War, the 1st and 2nd Battalions were amalgamated and became a depot battalion in 1948. The regiment was deployed to Cyprus and to Egypt in 1951 and to Malaya in 1957. and in 1979 the regiment moved to Tidworth. The regiment then spent two years, from 1984 to 1986, in Hong Kong. ==Regimental museum==