1744
In the spring of 1744, the regiment marched to Richmond, and other towns near Hounslow Heath, and was reviewed by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland. "The regiment gained great reputation by its discipline and good appearance, and had the pleasure of being assured of His Royal Highness' approbation."[29] After the review, the regiment marched to Fareham, and mounted guard over the French and Spanish prisoners at Portchester Castle.
1745
At the battle of Fontenoy, the British troops, supporting the interests of the house of Austria against the power of France and Bavaria, were repulsed in their attempts to raise the siege of Tournay, and sustained severe loss; and the ROYAL IRISH regiment was ordered to join the British army in Flanders. The EIGHTEENTH embarked at Gravesend, with a detachment of foot guards and the fourteenth regiment, landed at Ostend, and, advancing up the country, joined the army, commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, at the camp at Lessines, in May, 1745. The French, having a great superiority of numbers, captured several strong towns, and besieged Ostend, when the ROYAL IRISH were selected to reinforce the garrison of that fortress. The regiment accordingly marched to Antwerp, where it embarked on board of Dutch billanders, in which it sailed to Flushing, where it was removed on board of transports that conveyed it to Ostend, which town was found abandoned by the inhabitants, and besieged by a numerous French force. The garrison did not exceed three thousand men, a number very inadequate to the defence of the place; the fortifications had been neglected and were out of repair; and the Austrian governor permitted the enemy to gain possession of the sluices before he had inundated the country round the town. The means of a long defence were wanting, and, after holding out until the ammunition was nearly expended, and the guns of the fortress dismounted, the governor capitulated, on condition that the garrison should march to the quarters of the allied army. The writer of the continuation of General Stearne's journal complains of the treacherous conduct of the French on this occasion, in causing the garrison to make a considerable détour, employing agents to induce, by promises of reward, the soldiers to desert, and, after a march of twenty miles in one day, delivering the garrison up at a frontier village cantonment about seven in the evening, and having a numerous force ready to cut off the fatigued men at an early hour on the following morning. This was, however, defeated; the Duke of Cumberland sent a General officer to take charge of the troops on their arrival, and, instead of allowing the tired soldiers to go into quarters, he ordered them to load their muskets, fix their bayonets, and march for Mons. The writer, before alluded to, states, "As we every moment expected the enemy, we continued our march in the greatest order; not a whisper was to be heard: the officers who were present will always remember with pleasure the discipline and good disposition every regiment showed on that occasion." ... "So narrow was our escape, that the French got to their ground within an hour of our passing it, and we saw them in the morning encamped about two miles from Mons."
The EIGHTEENTH regiment, and other corps from Ostend, remained at Mons about three weeks, watched by a numerous French force; but on the approach of a detachment from the allied army, the enemy retired: the regiments then marched out at midnight, arrived at Charleroi on the following day, and afterwards joined the army near Brussels.
In the autumn of this year, Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, raised the standard of his father in Scotland, and, being joined by a number of Highland clans, penetrated into England. On this occasion the ROYAL IRISH regiment marched to Williamstadt, where it embarked for England, and, arriving at Gravesend on the 5th of November, landed and joined the camp at Dartford, where it remained several weeks, and lost the surgeon and a number of men from diseases produced by being exposed to severe weather in a camp in the winter months.
1746
The regiment returned to Gravesend in March, 1746, and embarked for Scotland, with the twelfth, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth foot. These corps arrived at Leith on the 19th of April, as the guns of Edinburgh castle were firing for the victory gained over the rebels at Culloden, and this terminated the rebellion.
The regiment waited at Leith until the return of an express from the army, when it received orders to sail northward; it landed at Nairn on the 1st of May, was cantoned in the neighbourhood of that place three weeks, and afterwards joined the army at Inverness, at which place the regiment was encamped until the autumn, when it marched into quarters at Nairn, Elgin, &c.
1747