Sir A. Alison's Committee—General Ewart's Committee—Marlborough's forgotten victories—Wellington's minor successes—Losses at Douai—Peninsula, 1705—Gibraltar, 1727—Peninsula, 1762—Belleisle—Dominica—Manilla—Cape of Good Hope, 1795—Indian Honours—Pondicherry—Tanjore—Madras troops—An unrewarded Bombay column—The Indian Mutiny—Punjab frontier force—Umbeyla—Naval honours.

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Until some thirty years ago, the names inscribed on the colours and appointments of our regiments were mainly in recognition of services between the years 1793 and 1815, or for campaigns in India. It so happened that many regiments which had done good service in the wars of the Austrian or Spanish Succession were debarred from sharing in the honours so generously distributed for the Peninsular campaign, owing to the fact that they were at the time employed in garrisoning our distant dependencies, or in holding threatened points in other quarters of the globe. Several regiments had no names on their colours, although they had borne their share in the important victories won by Marlborough, or had fought in the no less arduous wars later in the eighteenth century. It was felt that such names as Blenheim and Malplaquet were as deserving of recognition as, let me say, Bushire or Surinam. In the year 1881 a Committee, under the presidency of the late General Sir Archibald Alison, was appointed to consider the subject, and, after much deliberation, came to the conclusion that "the names of such victories only should be retained as either in themselves or by their results have left a mark in history which render their names familiar, not only to the British army, but also to every educated gentleman."

The result of Sir Archibald Alison's Committee was that four of Marlborough's victories were added to the battle honours of the army—Blenheim, Oudenarde, Ramillies, and Malplaquet. What led to the selection of two out of these four names will ever remain a mystery. At Oudenarde the twenty-two regiments present lost but 168 officers and men killed and wounded. At Ramillies the casualties were only slightly heavier. On the other hand, during the same campaign we had lost far more heavily at Ath, Douai, Liège, Lille, Maestricht, Menin, and Namur. Until the present year (1910), the 18th (Royal Irish) was the only regiment which bore any reference to Namur on its colours, and the other names are still lacking.

Within the last few months another Committee, under the able presidency of the Adjutant-General, has been adjudicating on the same subject. To this Committee the regiments of the army owe a deep debt of gratitude. Its labours are confessedly incomplete. It has rescued from oblivion some long-forgotten campaigns in the West Indies; it has given due credit to the regiments which participated in the costly capture of Namur by William III.; it has to a certain extent satisfied the amour propre of our cavalry regiments by adding to their appointments three somewhat unimportant actions, and has placed on the colours of a few distinguished corps the names of battles in Flanders and the Peninsula to which they were justly entitled. The task of such a Committee is by no means a light one. The haphazard way in which battle honours have hitherto been granted, and the difficulties of obtaining accurate records of many of the earlier campaigns, have added not a little to its labours. It would appear that the Committee has been guided by two main principles in the selection of fresh battle honours—the one that no distinction should be granted unless the headquarters of the regiment had been present in the engagement, and that honours should only be conferred on regiments with a continuous history from the date of the action, a break in the direct genealogical succession invalidating the claim.

These decisions rule out many regiments otherwise eligible, and hitherto they have never been enforced. Indeed, in one case, at any rate, General Ewart's Committee has evaded its own ruling. "Gibraltar, 1704-05," has been awarded to both the Grenadier and to the Coldstream Guards; yet it was a composite battalion, only 600 strong, made up from the two regiments, which was sent from Lisbon to assist Prince George of Hesse in the defence of the Rock. In earlier days battle honours were not seldom bestowed on regiments which had been represented in actions by single troops or companies. A troop of the 11th Hussars acted as personal escort to the Commander-in-Chief during the Egyptian campaign of 1801, yet the battle honour was conferred on the regiment. The three regiments of Household Cavalry bear the honours "Egypt, 1882," and "South Africa, 1899-1900"; yet it was a composite regiment, made up of a squadron from each regiment, which earned the battle honour. The headquarters of the 35th were not present at Maida, nor of the 69th at St. Vincent, yet the Royal Sussex and the Welsh have been awarded these battle honours.

When we come to the question of direct representation, the same anomalies crop up. A regiment, which I need not further particularize, affords, perhaps, the most striking instance. It was disbanded at the close of the eighteenth century for acts of alleged disloyalty and indiscipline. The order for disbandment was read at the head of every troop and company in the army. That order contained such strong expressions as "seditious and outrageous proceedings," "atrocious acts of disobedience," "insubordination," "indelible stigma," and generally commented on the conduct of the regiment in the strongest possible terms. Half a century later a new corps bearing the same number sprang into existence, and was permitted to bear the battle honours that would have accrued to its predecessor. A similar privilege was conferred on the 19th and 20th Hussars, when they were taken over from the East India Company, and on the 18th Hussars and 100th Royal Canadians when they were resuscitated some fifty years ago. But there is a long list of regiments to whom this privilege will now be denied, amongst them the 76th (Middlesex), 90th (Scottish Rifles), and 98th (North Staffords), which accompanied General Ruffane from Belleisle, and were present at the capture of Martinique and Havana. The 79th, which was with Draper at Wandewash, Pondicherry, and the capture of Manilla; the 84th—Eyre Coote's famous regiment—which took part in all the earlier battles in India, and which, with the 78th and 91st, captured the Cape of Good Hope in 1795; the 103rd and 104th, which were granted the battle honour "Niagara" at the same time as the 19th Hussars and the 100th Regiment. This list could be added to almost indefinitely. I give these few instances to show how regiments will be affected by the strict application of the ruling of General Ewart's Committee.

The halo that surrounds the name of the great Duke of Wellington has led many to suppose that the battles fought in the Peninsula were combats of giants. When we come down to hard facts, and study the casualty returns, and then reflect on the result of many of these actions which are inscribed on our colours, it is clear that they can hardly be described as "having by their results left their mark on history." In no less than ten engagements in the Peninsular War for which battle honours have been granted our losses were less than those at Oudenarde, the least costly of all Marlborough's battles, whilst in three, the aggregate of killed only reached sixteen men.

The following table is, I venture to think, instructive as showing the scanty recognition accorded to the regiments which fought under Marlborough, the generous recognition of those which fought under Wellington:

Marlborough's Battles for which no Battle Honours have been granted.
Engagements.Officers.Men.
K.W.K.W.
Schellenburg32856381,419
Liège1120142365
Menin34805511,994
Lille17434471,093
Douai13616381,093