Historical Record of the Eighteenth, or the Royal Irish Regiment of Foot / Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1684, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1848.

by Richard Cannon

The regiment arrived at Calcutta on the 10th of January, 1848, and occupied the barracks at Fort William, where it continued to be stationed on the 1st of June, 1848, at which period the record is concluded.

The foregoing pages, after diligent research, contain, as far as possible, a faithful detail of the services of the EIGHTEENTH, ROYAL IRISH, REGIMENT OF FOOT.

The career of this highly honorable corps can only be appreciated as a public body, and as a portion of the military force of the British empire, after a perusal of its gallant deeds in the various situations and services on which it has been employed.

The circumstance of its first formation in the reign of King Charles II.,—of its adhesion to King James II. on his succeeding to the British throne in 1685,—and of the severe test to which the army was exposed at the Revolution in 1688,—all prove the value of the corps, and the difficulties with which its principal officers had to contend at a period when the English nation was endeavouring to rid itself of a sovereign of Popish principles, and to establish a Protestant Government.

The decided conduct of the EIGHTEENTH, ROYAL IRISH, regiment on the commencement of the Revolution in 1688, and throughout the contest in Ireland until 1691, evinced a steady loyalty and determination, on which King William III. found he could rely.

The same confidence was placed in this regiment by King William during the campaigns in Flanders from 1691 to 1697, for which the most distinguished honours were conferred by His Majesty on the corps on account of its heroic services.

In the war of the Spanish Succession, during the reign of Queen Anne, from 1702 to 1712, the EIGHTEENTH, ROYAL IRISH, regiment is recorded as having shared in the numerous sieges and victories under the Duke of Marlborough, as detailed in the Regimental Record.

After the cessation of hostilities by the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the services of the regiment were equally efficient and useful in the British possessions, particularly at the island of Minorca, from whence it proceeded in 1727 to Gibraltar, when the Spaniards again besieged that fortress.

The ROYAL IRISH REGIMENT was again employed in Flanders during the war of the Austrian Succession, from 1743 to 1748.