Tangier, 1662-1680.
In the year 1910, just two centuries and a half after the event, the regiments which upheld British honour on the coast of Morocco were authorized to bear the above battle honour on their colours and appointments:
Royal Dragoons, 1662-1680.
Grenadier Guards, 1680.
Coldstream Guards, 1680.
Royal Scots, 1680.
The Queen's, 1662-1680.
The King's Own Lancaster Regiment has been unaccountably omitted from this list; but there is no doubt that the 4th (King's Own), under Colonel Kirke took part in the final series of actions with the Moors prior to our evacuating the fortress.
Tangier passed into our hands, together with Bombay, as a portion of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza on her marriage with Charles II. At that time there were many who considered it the more valuable of the two acquisitions, commanding as it did the entrance to the Mediterranean. Immense sums were spent in strengthening the fortifications and in improving the harbour. The inveterate hostilities of the Moors, however, only increased with time. The one regiment first raised for the garrison, then styled the "Regiment of Tangier" (now The Queen's Royal West Surrey) was from the outset of its career engaged in a long series of engagements waged against desperate odds. Soon it was found necessary to raise a regiment of horse to supplement the task of the infantry in dealing with the Moorish horsemen. The Royal Dragoons then came into existence, and laid the foundations of that reputation for dash and discipline which has never left them. Later on, owing to the persistent hostility of the Moors, the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstreams, and the 2nd Tangier Regiment (now the 4th King's Own) were sent as reinforcements; and a reference to the Tangier Papers shows that men from the fleet were continually employed against the enemy. On one occasion Sir Cloudesley Shovel, with 600 seamen, took a leading part in the defence. Casualty returns were not so carefully prepared in the seventeenth as in the twentieth century, and I have found it impossible to discover the total losses incurred during our occupation. Between the years 1660 and 1664 there was scarcely a month in which our troops were not fighting for their lives, and on one occasion at any rate they were so hard pressed that the Governor applied, and successfully, to the Spaniards at Gibraltar for assistance. Thus it comes about that in the casualty list which has come down to us of the action on October 27, 1680, the Spanish Horse figures side by side with the Grenadier Guards.
Casualties in Action at Tangier, October 27, 1680.
| Regiments. | Officers. | Men. | ||
| K. | W. | K. | W. | |
| Royal Dragoons | - | 2 | 11 | 35 |
| Grenadier Gds. | - | 1 | 7 | 51 |
| Royal Scots | 4 | 15 | 36 | 100 |
| The Queen's R. W. Surrey | 2 | 10 | 34 | 120 |
| Spanish Horse | 5 | 4 | 12 | 22 |
A few weeks after this action the King's Own (Lancaster Regiment), then commanded by Colonel Kirke, arrived as a reinforcement, and later in the year the Coldstream Guards. In 1684 the place was evacuated, having cost us many millions in money and many thousand valuable lives.
THE COLOURS OF THE TANGIER REGIMENT, 1684.
(Now The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment.)