Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Steele, C.B., sold out of the regiment on the 29th July, after a service of twenty-eight years in the 83rd. He died in London on the 6th August, only eight days after he had been gazetted out.
Major A. Barnard Hankey succeeded to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the regiment.
In August the regiment was reviewed by Lieutenant-General Viscount Melville, K.C.B., who commanded it for several years in Canada and England.
Several drafts of recruits, both officers and men, joined head-quarters from the depôt at Chatham, and brought up the strength of the regiment, which had been reduced to a mere skeleton by the volunteering at Belgaum, and the discharge of many men on its arrival at Dover.
In October the regiment was inspected on the Castle Hill parade ground by H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief, who, in a complimentary speech, expressed his approval of its appearance, and of the rapid manner in which the regiment had been brought forward since its arrival in England.
In October a large number of the men were sent up to see the Great Exhibition of 1862 by the officers.
1863.
The 83rd remained quartered at Dover until the 23rd April, when it marched to the camp at Shorncliffe, where it relieved the 69th Regiment, which had been sent to the Cape, and was quartered in C lines.
In May the regiment was inspected by Brigadier-General Sutton, Lieutenant-Colonel Hankey commanding.