“The Colonel commanding has much pleasure in announcing to the regiment, that the Monument to the memory of the late Honourable Captain Monckton has been completed, and now stands over the grave of that much-lamented officer, in the military burial-ground of this garrison. This mark of esteem and regard for the deceased reflects much credit and honour upon the regiment, more especially, as the expense attending it has been paid by the voluntary subscriptions of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers who generously offered one dollar per man towards it, which Colonel O’Malley feels quite assured they would as cheerfully have paid, if necessary, and if permitted to do so, as they have readily contributed one day’s pay, to which it was deemed prudent to limit their contribution.”
The monument bears the following inscription in English, and in Greek, viz.:—
SACRED
To the Memory of
THE HONOURABLE CHARLES GUSTAVUS MONCKTON,
Late Captain in
His Majesty’s Eighty-Eighth Regiment (or Connaught Rangers),
Who died by the hand of an Assassin, on the 9th August, 1831,
Aged Twenty-Six years.
This Monument is erected by the Non-Commissioned Officers and Private
Soldiers of the Regiment, in testimony of their respect and regard
for this most lamented young Officer, and to record their
abhorrence of the atrocious act by which he was
deprived of life.
The feeling of grief and indignation, strongly and universally expressed
by the Regiment, was only moderated on witnessing the prompt
punishment of the murderer, Private James Clarke, who
was executed on the 11th August, 1831.
1833
It may be here told, in further justice to the feelings of the men of the company to which this assassin Clarke belonged, that such was the horror of the wretch’s memory amongst them, that not one of those soldiers could be prevailed with, unless positively ordered, to receive, and do duty with the arms and accoutrements which had been in his charge, and this having come to the knowledge of the Commanding Officer, in March, 1833, when a draft of men was received from the reserve companies, which made it necessary to bring in use some spare arms and accoutrements, Colonel O’Malley (in proof of his acquiescence in the feeling) caused the accoutrements and appointments in question to be cut in pieces on the parade of the regiment, and the objectionable firelock was delivered into the Ordnance stores in exchange for another.
1834
The ceremony of presenting new colours to the regiment, took place at Corfu on the 27th of February, 1834, the anniversary of the battle of Orthes, in which the Eighty-Eighth regiment bore a distinguished part, and suffered a severe loss in officers and men.
The presentation of colours, which is under any circumstances interesting, caused on the present occasion an unusual excitement, it being known that they were to be given by Lady Woodford, the wife of Major-General Sir Alexander Woodford, commanding the troops in the Ionian Islands. A vast concourse of people, with all the beauty and fashion of the place, assembled at an early hour on the esplanade of the citadel, which is finely situated, commanding a view of the rugged and snow-topped mountains of Albania, of the sea, and of the fertile hills of the island covered with olives, and green with the opening vegetation of an early spring. The fineness of the day was in unison with the beauty of the scenery, and nature herself seemed to smile on the expected ceremony. The Lord High Commissioner, Lord Nugent, the President of the Senate, and the Senators with their families, and the nobility and gentry of the island, honoured the corps with their presence.
The regiment being assembled and drawn up in line, at about eleven o’clock Lady Woodford arrived in her carriage, attended by the Major-General and his Staff on horseback; and on her Ladyship’s descending in front of the line, the regiment presented arms, the band playing “God save the King.” The grenadier company then moved from the right, and drew up facing the centre of the battalion: having opened its ranks, it presented arms to the old colours, of which it took charge, and escorted them to the citadel, the regiment presenting arms to them. Shortly afterwards the grenadiers returned with the new colours, which had been consecrated on the previous Sunday, and had remained in the garrison chapel. These were delivered by the Rev. Charles Küper to the Major and senior Captain, by whom they were borne to the parade, where those officers placed themselves on either side of Lady Woodford, continuing to hold the colours unfurled. The grenadiers having resumed their place on the right of the line, the regiment formed three sides of a square, leaving the fourth open to the public. During this formation, in order that a suitable impression might be made on their young minds, the school children of the regiment (boys and girls), neatly and uniformly dressed in green, moved into the square.
Ensigns Herbert and Honeywood, upon whom the honour of receiving the colours devolved, were then ordered to advance towards Lady Woodford, when her Ladyship delivered the colours to those officers, with the following exhortation:—