Memoirs and Services of the Eighty-third Regiment, County of Dublin, from 1793 to 1907 / Including the Campaigns of the Regiment in the West Indies, Africa, the Peninsula, Ceylon, Canada, and India

by Edward William Bray

On the 25th February, 1822, the regiment was reduced to the following numbers, viz., 1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors, 8 captains, 16 subalterns, 5 staff, 29 sergeants, 12 drummers, and 576 rank and file.

1823.

Agreeably to general orders issued by Major-General James Campbell, C.B., the head-quarters of the regiment, consisting of 1 field officer, 4 captains, 3 staff, 12 sergeants, 14 drummers, and 303 rank and file, embarked on the 22nd January, 1823, under the command of Major Summerfield, for Trincomalee, and arrived at that station on the 8th of the following month.

On the 20th March, 1823, Lieutenant-General John Hodgson succeeded to the colonelcy of the regiment vice General James Balfour, deceased.

1824.

The head-quarters, etc., of the regiment embarked at Trincomalee, on board several vessels, between the 26th March and 31st October, 1824, and were all landed and collected at Colombo on the 6th November following.

A few months previous to the regiment leaving Trincomalee, the Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Barnes, received orders for its return to England, but the Burmese War having broken out, the battalion was detained, and ordered to proceed to Kandy, to relieve the 45th Regiment, which corps had been a considerable time under orders for India.

1825.

On the 25th September, 1825, the establishment of the regiment was increased to 10 companies, consisting of the following numbers: 6 service companies—2 field officers, 6 captains, 12 subalterns, 5 staff, 30 sergeants, 10 drummers, and 516 rank and file; 4 depôt companies—1 field officer, 4 captains, 8 subalterns, 1 staff, 12 sergeants, 4 drummers, and 224 rank and file.

The regiment was stationed in Kandy from January, 1825, to October, 1825, when it received the route for Colombo, preparatory to embarkation for England, on board the transports Amity and Arab; the former vessel, with the head-quarters division, under Lieutenant-Colonel Cother, C.B., sailed on the 4th December, and the latter, under Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly, with the remainder of the regiment, a few days afterwards.