“By order of His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief.
(Signed) “G. Haythorn, Colonel,
“Adjutant-General.”
The losses of the regiment during the seven years it was quartered in India were Captain W. F. Smith, Captain R. B. Aldridge, Lieut. Wyndham Neave, and Ensign C. B. Murray, 2 sergeants and 24 rank and file killed, 1 officer, Colonel W. Hope, C.B., 4 sergeants, and 50 rank and file wounded. Major H. Loftus, Lieut. and Adjutant Cowburn, Ensign Swainson, and Surgeon W. Simpson, and about 250 men, died of disease. About a half of the loss incurred by disease occurred during the six weeks that the Central India campaign lasted, and during the six weeks that the cholera was raging in the regiment in 1860.
The depôt companies joined the regiment in Edinburgh, and the establishment of the regiment was fixed at 12 companies, with 54 sergeants, 31 buglers and pipers, and 700 rank and file.
In October occurred the death of Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Parker, of typhoid fever, after a service of 23 years in the regiment.
1866.
In February, authority was received from the Commander-in-Chief for the officers of the regiment to wear a sword with a cross hilt instead of a basket hilt on all occasions except at levees, &c.
In the same month the regiment embarked at Granton, for Aldershot, where it arrived on the 19th, and remained stationed there till December, when it proceeded to Portsmouth, and embarked on board Her Majesty’s ship “Tamar” for Ireland, where it arrived on the 14th. The head-quarters and five companies proceeded to Fermoy, detaching three companies to Cork and two to Ballincollig. During the whole of this year, when a Fenian outbreak was anticipated, the regiment was much broken up into detachments, having at different times sent detachments to the following places:—Cork, Ballincollig, Mallow, Millstreet, Dungarvan, Mitchelstown, Tralee, Limerick, Killarney, and Rathkeale. On the 27th of November Colonel W. Hope, C.B., retired on half-pay, after a service of 32 years in the regiment, and after having commanded it for eight years, much and deservedly respected and regretted by all ranks. The command now devolved on Major J. J. Macdonell.
1868.
The regiment proceeded to Dublin on the 30th April, 1868, at which time its establishment was increased to 800 privates. On the 22nd of July the regiment proceeded to the Curragh Camp, and remained there till the 17th of October, when it embarked on board Her Majesty’s ship “Simoom” for Gibraltar, where it arrived on the 22nd of the same month.