The reserve battalion of the Seventy-first, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel James England, embarked at Portsmouth in Her Majesty’s troop ship “Resistance,” which sailed for Canada on the 13th of August, 1842, and the battalion landed at Montreal on the 23rd of September, where the first battalion was likewise stationed, under the command of Major William Denny, who, upon the arrival of Lieut.-Colonel England, took charge of the reserve battalion.
1843.
The reserve battalion marched from Montreal to Chambly on the 5th of May, 1843, and arrived there on the same day.
The first battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel England, embarked at Quebec for the West Indies in the “Java” transport, on the 20th of October, 1843. The head-quarters disembarked at Grenada on the 15th of December following.
It is a circumstance worthy of record that all the men of the first battalion who were married without leave were replaced by volunteers from the reserve battalion, thereby preventing the separation and consequent misery of those families, and that all permanent volunteers for Canada, and old soldiers who were permitted from general good character to remain in the colony after discharge, or who were found unfit for service in a tropical climate, were replaced by volunteers from the reserve battalion.
1844.
The head-quarters of the first battalion embarked on the 25th of December, 1844, at Grenada, for Antigua. Lieut. Francis P. Stewart Mackenzie died of yellow fever at Grenada, on the 21st of December, much regretted by his brother officers.
1845.
During the year 1845 the head-quarters of the first battalion continued at Antigua.
The head-quarters and three companies of the reserve battalion marched from Chambly on the 11th of May, 1845, and arrived at Kingston, in Canada, on the 14th of that month.