“I beg you will intimate to the Officers, that their attention to their duties, and to the good order and management of their companies, is very apparent; and that, from the direction thus given to the men, in the care and keeping of their arms, accoutrements, and appointments, and in everything relating to their equipment and personal appearance, arise, in my opinion, the good humour and contentment, and consequent regularity and discipline, which characterise the regiment.
“To the Non-Commissioned Officers and Men, I desire you will state, that I am perfectly satisfied with them, individually, as clean, smart, and well-behaved soldiers, and collectively as a corps, highly creditable to the King’s service.
“In conveying these observations to the Eighty-Eighth regiment assembled on parade, you will, Sir, receive yourself the best testimony I can give, to the care and attention with which you have discharged your own superior duties.
“I have, &c.
(Signed) “A. Woodford,
“Major-General.
“To Major O’Hara, Commanding
Eighty-Eighth Regiment.”
Nothing of importance connected with the history of the regiment, occurred from the date of its return to Corfu, with the exception of the melancholy circumstance of Captain the Honourable Charles Gustavus Monckton having been assassinated by a villain, private James Clarke, on the 9th August, 1831, under the impression, as it is believed, that his being accidentally met out of barracks at a late hour of the night, by Captain Monckton, when in the act of committing felony, might tend to his conviction thereof.
The constitution of a regiment is such that the acts of individuals, more or less, reflect honour or disgrace on the whole corps, and much of the fame and high character to which the Eighty-Eighth regiment has claim, would perhaps be tarnished, if grounds existed for imagining that any other individual belonging to it was concerned in this diabolical act; the feelings evinced by the soldiers of the regiment, particularly those of the company to which the assassin belonged, when forgetful of the forbearance due to religion and to the laws, they were with difficulty restrained from taking vengeance, as well as their subsequent conduct in requesting to be permitted to subscribe one dollar (4s. 4d.) per man, to erect a monument to the memory of their much-lamented officer, and thereby make known to posterity, their horror and indignation at the disgraceful occurrence, are convincing proofs that no other soldier was implicated in this disgraceful transaction.
The request of the regiment was acquiesced in; at the same time it was deemed prudent to limit the subscription of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, to one day’s pay each, with which a monument has been erected in the military burial-ground of Corfu.
The following notification was made to the regiment on this occasion:—
“Corfu, 15th March, 1833.