Guzerat, 1778-1782.
This distinction is borne by the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. There is, however, considerable doubt as to the propriety of the Munsters bearing the honour. Colonel P. R. Innes, the painstaking and accurate historian of that regiment, maintains that the old 1st Bengal European Regiment has no right to it, and if the honour was granted, as it undoubtedly was, for the operations conducted by General Goddard in Guzerat in the years 1778-1782, it is very certain that the 1st Bengal Europeans never were with Goddard. The early part of the year 1778 found the army of the Bombay Presidency hard pressed, and help was solicited from Bengal, where all for the moment was quiet. Warren Hastings at once despatched a force consisting of six battalions of sepoys (none of which are now remaining), a couple of batteries of artillery, and 500 Afghan horsemen, to Bombay. The march was an arduous undertaking—to cross India from east to west, with a possible and very probable combination of Mahratta chieftains to bar its progress. The officer originally nominated to the command was soon superseded by Brigadier-General Goddard, an officer who had received his early training in the 84th under Coote, and who, on that regiment being ordered to England, had been offered increased rank in the army of the East India Company. Goddard marched via Cawnpore and Kalpee, which he stepped aside to capture, to Hoshungabad, finally co-operating with a column sent up from Bombay, which included the 1st Bombay European Regiment, now the Royal Munster Fusiliers, as well as some battalions of native infantry. Later the Madras Presidency was also called upon to assist, and 500 men of the Madras Europeans, now the 1st Battalion of the Dublins, with a battery of artillery and a sepoy battalion, was sent round by sea to Surat, to which place Goddard had advanced. For close on two years the little army was constantly engaged. It captured Bassein on December 11, 1780, Ahmadabad in the following month, and in the space of a little more than a year after the arrival of the Madras troops Goddard had reduced the provinces of Guzerat and the Concan. The Bengal troops were now allowed to return, and once more they marched across India, reaching Cawnpore in April, 1784.
To commemorate their services the supreme Government struck a medal, which was distributed to all ranks, officers receiving gold and the sepoys silver, medals. According to Mayo, this was the first occasion in which a medal was granted to the private soldiers of our army.
I regret that I have been unable to ascertain the casualties of all the forces engaged. Stubbs, in his invaluable history of the Bengal Artillery, gives the names of the officers of his corps who were killed, but Begbie ignores the fact that Madras artillery were employed. Colonel Harcourt does not allude to the losses of the Madras European Regiment in his history of the old "Blue Caps." The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, then the 1st Bombay Regiment, lost 3 officers and 19 men killed, and 14 officers and 41 men wounded, in the course of these operations, and there is no doubt that the campaign in Guzerat was attended with considerable loss.
Sholinghur, September 27, 1781.
This battle honour, which commemorates the defeat of the Mysorean Army of Hyder Ali and its expulsion from the Carnatic by Sir Eyre Coote, is borne by the following regiments:
Highland Light Infantry.
Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
Royal Munster Fusiliers.
27th Light Cavalry.
2nd Queen's Own Sappers and Miners.
63rd Light Infantry.
64th Pioneers.
66th Punjabis.
69th Punjabis.
72nd Punjabis.
73rd Carnatic Infantry.
74th Punjabis.
75th Carnatic Infantry.
76th Punjabis.
79th Carnatic Infantry.
80th Carnatic Infantry.
The total casualties in the action were by no means heavy. They fell principally on the British troops. Unfortunately, although Sir Eyre Coote alludes to a casualty return in his despatch announcing the battle, all trace of this has disappeared, so that the losses sustained by individual regiments must, in the case of Sholinghur, as in those of Marlborough's earlier battles, always remain unrecorded.