Seven Years' War Under threat of French invasion during the
Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. An
adjutant and
drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the
Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits. Pembrokeshire was given a quota of 160 men to raise. Some of the Welsh counties were slow to complete their regiments: the problem was less with the other ranks raised by ballot than the shortage of men qualified to be officers, even after the requirements were lowered for Welsh counties. On 29 July 1758
Sir William Owen, 4th Baronet, of
Orielton, the
Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, advertised for suitably qualified men to come forward, and must have obtained a sufficient number: he appointed his eldest son,
Hugh Owen (later 5th Baronet) as colonel. The militia ballot was then enforced and the Pembrokeshire regiment received its arms on 7 September 1759. It was embodied for permanent service at Haverfordwest, Pembroke Town and
Narberth on 15 December that year. After a short period of training and organised into four small companies the regiment marched off in January 1760 to take up garrison duties at
Bristol. In February it was posted to
Monmouthshire, where it alternated between
Monmouth and
Chepstow until the end of May. It was then posted to
Carmarthen, arriving on 6 June, and remained there before returning to Pembrokeshire in October. The following spring it served in
Cardiganshire, with companies in various towns including
Cardigan and
Aberystwyth. It went back to Pembrokeshire in August 1761, with various detachments until it concentrated at Haverfordwest in November 1762. The war was coming to an end, and the warrant to disembody the regiment was executed on 4 December 1762. The disembodied regiment was kept up to strength by means of the ballot over subsequent years, but it was rarely assembled for training. On 1 May 1778 the regiment was ordered to Bristol, and from there it was marched to
Coxheath Camp near
Maidstone in
Kent. This was the army's largest training camp, where the Militia were exercised as part of a division alongside Regular troops while providing a reserve in case of French invasion of South East England. The understrength militia units from small counties (
Montgomery,
Radnor and Pembroke) were attached to guard the artillery park of the division. On 4 November the camp broke up and the Pembrokeshires marched into Maidstone for winter quarters, sending parties back to Haverfordwest to collect recruits. The regiment spent the summer of 1779 in
Essex, where it joined other militia regiments at
Warley Camp. By November detachments were
billeted in villages north and east of London, but the regiment then marched off to winter quarters in Haverfordwest, arriving on 18 December. Colby took command of the regiment in January 1780 with the rank of
lieutenant-colonel. In addition to its balloted companies, the regiment now had two companies enlisted from volunteers, one of which was designated the Light Company. The regiment moved to Pembroke in January, and then in May marched to
Tiptree Camp in Essex. The
Gordon Riots broke out in London in June, and the Pembroke Militia was called out in aid of the civil power, with short deployments to
Brentwood and
Romford, without any clashes occurring. In the winter the regiment was quartered across Essex with detachments including
Harwich and
Wivenhoe. In February 1781 the Harwich detachment relieved the
Radnorshire Militia at
Landguard Fort and the Wivenhoe detachment moved into
Ipswich. The following winter the regiment was again distributed across Essex towns and villages. In spring 1782 the Pembrokeshires returned to Coxheath Camp, where it became part of a brigade including the
Brecknockshire and
Merionethshire Militia regiments and
Sir John Leicester's Dragoons, all commanded by Lt-Col Colby. The Pembrokeshires remained in Kent for the winter, with two companies at
Dover, one at
Folkestone and the remainder at
Hythe and
Sandgate. Much of the duty involved guarding
prisoners-of-war. A
peace treaty had been agreed and the war was now coming to an end, so warrants to disembody the militia were issued on 28 February 1783. The Pembrokeshires marched back to Haverfordwest where they were disembodied in mid- March. The Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire,
Richard Philipps, 1st Lord Milford, became
Colonel of the Regiment on 10 June 1786, but John Colby remained lieutenant-colonel. The
French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the
British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners-of-war, and for internal security, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by the
Volunteers and mounted
Yeomanry. From July to October 1793 the Pembrokeshire Militia was at Warley Camp, then returned to Romford and Hare Street for the winter, during which it received a draft of newly balloted men from Pembrokeshire. Between February and June 1794 it was quartered across various Essex villages before concentrating at Warley. In November it transferred to
Yarmouth in
Norfolk, where all ranks were billeted in public houses and inns until May 1795. That month it moved into a tented camp outside the town. In October and November it went to various village before settling at
Holt for the winter. In April 1796 the regiment joined the garrison at Landguard Fort where it provided 'additional gunners'. . In a fresh attempt to have as many men as possible under arms for home defence in order to release regulars, in 1796 the Government created the Supplementary Militia, a compulsory levy of men to be trained in their spare time, and to be incorporated in the Regular Militia in emergency. Pembrokeshire's new militia quota was fixed at 331 men. Lieutenant-Col Colby went back to Pembrokeshire to supervise the training of the county's supplementaries and was on the scene on 22 February 1797 when a French force landed at
Fishguard on the north Pembrokeshire coast. A force of militia, yeomanry and volunteers was quickly gathered at Haverfordwest under the command of
Lord Cawdor to oppose this invasion. Colby sent his Pembroke supplementaries to relieve a detachment of the
Cardiganshire Militia guarding the prisoners at Pembroke Dock, allowing the better-trained Cardigan men to join Cawdor. Colby himself was probably with Cawdor as an adviser during the minor skirmishing that followed (the
Battle of Fishguard) and the subsequent negotiations for the French surrender. By July the Pembroke supplementaries had completed their training, and those who did not accept a bounty to join the Regular Army were marched off to join the regiment at Landguard Fort. On 13 September the regiment marched to take over garrison duties at Bristol. It was now under Lt-Col Owen Philipps who had become commandant on 2 July 1802. However, he joined the regiment late, and it was marched from Haverfordwest to
Chelmsford, Essex, under Maj John Mathias in mid-May. It then established regimental headquarters (HQ) at
Colchester with detachments across Essex, and was brought up to strength by a draft of supplementary militiamen. The HQ remained at Colchester until the summer of 1806, when the detachments were called in and the regiment concentrated at
Maldon before joining the Harwich garrison. In June 1808 the regiment transferred to the Bristol garrison. The following month the Royal Pembrokeshires (except one man) volunteered to be attached to the
43rd (Monmouthshire) Light Infantry for service with
Sir John Moore in the
Peninsular War in Spain. Although the offer was not taken up, the regiment was thanked by both the
Secretary at War and
King George III. ==1852 Reforms==