It embarked at the Cove of Cork on the 17th of June, 1808, its strength consisting of 52 sergeants, 22 drummers, and 874 rank and file.
In June, 1808, His Majesty King George III was pleased to approve of the Seventy-first bearing the title of Glasgow in addition to the appellation of Highland regiment.[6]
In the first instance, the Seventy-first were brigaded with the Fifth, Thirty-eighth, and fifth battalion of the Sixtieth Regiment, under Brigadier-General Henry Fane, and sailed for Portugal, in conjunction with the forces destined to aid the Spaniards and Portuguese, on the 12th of July. After a favourable passage, the troops anchored in Mondego Bay in the beginning of August, and a landing was effected in the vicinity of the village of Frejus.
Early in the morning of the 4th of August a small picket of the enemy stationed in the neighbourhood fell back, and the operation of disembarking the troops was carried into effect without opposition. The army then moved on to a position across a deep sandy country, where it halted and encamped for the night.
At this period a change took place in the arrangement of the brigades, and the first battalion of the Seventy-first was placed, with the Thirty-sixth and Fortieth Regiments, in that commanded by Major-General Ronald Craufurd Ferguson.
The division under Major-General Sir Brent Spencer, K.B., from Cadiz, consisting of about 4,000 men, joined on the 8th of August; and, after a short halt, the army was again put in motion to occupy a more forward position, where it remained for some days. On the 17th August the enemy, commanded by General Laborde, was encountered near Roleia. The position was attacked and carried with great loss to the French, who retreated to Torres Vedras.
The light company of the Seventy-first was the only part of the regiment engaged, the remainder being employed in manœuvring on the right flank of the French. It suffered a trifling loss, having but 1 man killed and 2 wounded.
The Seventy-first subsequently received the Royal authority to bear the word “Roleia” on the regimental colours and appointments, in commemoration of this victory.
Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, after the battle of Roleia, did not pursue the enemy by the high roads, but, keeping to the right near the sea, marched to Vimiera to cover the landing of a brigade commanded by Major-General Anstruther, which was effected on the 20th of August.
The morning of the 21st of August was given up to the troops, in order to prepare and repose themselves. The men were engaged in washing and cleaning their equipments, when the approach of the enemy, moving to the left, was discovered at eight o’clock in the morning, and the brigades commanded by Major-General Ferguson, Brigadier-Generals Nightingall, Acland, and Bowes, were consequently moved across a valley from the heights on the west to those on the east of Vimiera.