The regiment was raised in East Anglia by Colonel Lord Lucas as Lord Lucas's Regiment of Foot in February 1702 to fight in the War of Spanish Succession.[2] The regiment embarked for Spain in May 1702[3] and took part in the siege of Barcelona in September 1705.[4] The regiment was then garrisoned at Tortosa before returning to England in spring 1707.[5] The regiment then embarked for France in July 1708 and fought at the siege of Lille in autumn 1708,[6] the siege of Douai in spring 1709[7] and the siege of Bouchain in summer 1711.[8] The regiment returned to England after the Treaty of Utrecht and was disbanded in spring 1713.[9] The regiment was reformed without loss of precedence in 1715.[2] It sailed in September 1719 and took part in the capture of Vigo in October 1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance and then returned home later in the year.[10]
Soldier of 34th regiment, 1742
The regiment embarked for Flanders in June 1744 and saw action at the Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession.[11] It was ordered home in September 1745 as part of the government response to the Jacobite rebellion[12] and were in the right wing of the front line at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746.[13] In 1751 a royal warrant declared that regiments should no longer be known by the name of their colonel, but their number in the order of precedence, and Conway's duly became the 34th Regiment of Foot.[2]
Posted to Menorca in 1755, the regiment deployed a detachment of 26 officers, 29 sergeants, 19 Drummers, and 678 other ranks as part of Lord Blakeney's garrison (with the 4th, 23rd and 24th Regiments).[14] As such they were besieged by a larger French force under Marshal Duke De Richelieu and retreated to Fort St Phillip. After a defence of two months' duration, at one point watching themselves being abandoned by the fleet under Admiral Byng, the British forces capitulated and retreated to Gibraltar.[15] A second battalion was formed in 1757 to serve as marines.[2] The regiment then took part in the raid on St Malo in June 1758, the raid on Cherbourg in August 1758 and the Battle of Saint Cast in September 1758.[16]
The regiment departed with the British expedition against Cuba and was part of the besieging force which took Fort Morro in July 1762 and Havana in August 1762.[17] The following year it proceeded to Florida, which had been ceded by Spain to the United Kingdom, before returning to England in 1768.[17]
American Revolutionary War
The regiment was dispatched to Canada in spring 1776 and, while participating in numerous small skirmishes, drove out the American forces and forced them to abandon Fort Ticonderoga in July 1777.[18] A detachment of the regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger also took part in the unsuccessful siege of Fort Stanwix.[19] Captain Alexander Fraser, a veteran of the French and Indian War serving with the regiment, commanded what became known as the Company of Select Marksmen and saw action as skirmishers during the Saratoga campaign in autumn 1777.[20] A number of other officers and other ranks, including Lieutenant Bright Nodder, were captured by the American forces and held as part of the Convention Army.[21]
On 31 October 1780 the brig-sloopHMS Ontario was foundered during a violent storm and was sunk east of Fort Niagara on Lake Ontario with the loss of 80 lives including one officer, 34 other ranks, four women and five children from the regiment.[22] The resting site of HMS Ontario remained a mystery until 2008 when the nearly pristine brig "was discovered resting partially on its side, with two masts extending more than 20 metres above the lake bottom", in approximately 150 meters of water "off the southern shore".[23]
The regiment was granted the county title as the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot in 1782[2] but did not return to England until 1786.[19]
Napoleonic Wars
The Battle of Albuera, during which the regimental colours were successfully recovered after the colour-bearer was shot, in May 1811
The regiment was posted to the West Indies in February 1795 and was based in Saint Lucia where it defended the island from French forces and then suppressed a rebellion in Saint Vincent.[24] The regiment returned to England in July 1797.[25] It was posted to the Cape of Good Hope in 1800 and to India in 1802.[26] It remained in India campaigning against the Maratha Empire for nineteen years before returning home.[27]
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 26th was linked with the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot, and assigned to district no. 2 at Carlisle Castle.[44] On 1 July 1881 the Childers Reforms came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot to form the Border Regiment.[2]
Probert, Rebecca, ed. (2014). Catherine Exley's Diary: the life and times of an army wife in the Peninsular War. Kenilworth: Takeway (Publishing). ISBN978-0-9563847-9-9.
