19th century . The regiment was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the
100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot and the
109th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Infantry). The amalgamation of the two regiments into one with the title '''Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians)''', was part of the
United Kingdom government's reorganization of the
British Army under the
Childers Reforms, a continuation of the
Cardwell Reforms implemented in 1879. It was one of eight
Irish regiments raised largely in
Ireland, with its home depot at
Birr Barracks in
Birr. The regiment recruited mainly in the
province of
Leinster. Militarily, the whole of Ireland was administered as a separate command within the
United Kingdom with Command Headquarters at Parkgate (
Phoenix Park) in
Dublin, directly under the
War Office in London. The 1st Battalion, which had been in India, moved to Ireland in 1894. A detachment took part in the
Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War in 1895, but the rest of the battalion remained in Ireland until moving to
Halifax, Canada, in 1898. The 2nd Battalion moved to Ireland in 1882 and to England in 1888. It transferred to
Malta in 1894, and joined the
Bermuda Garrison the following year. In 1897, it moved to Halifax, and in 1898 to the
West Indies. The 1st battalion stayed until the end of the war, following which 370 officers and men left
Cape Town on the SS
Englishman in late September 1902, and arrived at Southampton in late October, when they were posted to
Fermoy. The
3rd (King's County Militia) Battalion, formed from the former
King's County Royal Rifle Militia, was embodied in early 1900 for service in South Africa. 520 officers and men embarked from Southampton on the in early March 1900, returning to Ireland after more than two years in late May 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 three Special Reserve but no Territorial battalions. The 2nd Battalion landed at
Saint-Nazaire as part of the
17th Infantry Brigade in the
6th Division in September 1914 for service on the Western Front.
Disbandment Due to substantial defence cuts and the establishment of the
Irish Free State in 1922, it was agreed that the six former
Southern Ireland regiments would be disbanded, The six regiments were then all disbanded on 31 July 1922. Serving personnel of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment were given the option of transferring to other units if they wished to continue to serve in the British Army. In recognition of their Canadian roots, the officers of the 1st Battalion decided to give their officers' mess silver 'in trust' to the Government of Canada "as a token of the regard for the Great Dominion which gave birth to the Battalion to be held in trust until such time as the Battalion is again raised". The silver, known as "The Leinster Plate", was deposited for safe keeping at the
Royal Military College of Canada in 1923 at the suggestion of
Edward Mortimer Macdonald and
James MacBrien, Canada's
Minister of National Defence and
Chief of Staff respectively. The silver is on display at Royal Military College of Canada in the Senior Staff Mess and Museum (Fort Frederic). In 2013 the Regimental Association erected a memorial to commemorate the regiment's strong linkages with the Birr area, particularly to
Birr Barracks. ==Battle honours==