“To the Provost, Magistrates, Clergymen, and Inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Bandon.
“Bandon, 3rd May, 1836.
“Gentlemen,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your very flattering address of the 2nd inst.
“That the conduct of the men of the Eighty-Eighth regiment, since they have been quartered here, has elicited the approbation of so numerous and highly respectable a body of the inhabitants, is to me, as I am sure it will be to every officer of the corps, a source of the greatest gratification.
“The regret you express at the departure of the detachment, and the satisfaction it would afford, should the Connaught Rangers at any future period return to Bandon, must be fully participated in by every individual who has had the good fortune to be stationed here, where the officers have received such general and friendly attention, and where the men have witnessed such cordiality and good feeling.
“With a deep sense of the honour you have conferred, not only on me, but the Eighty-Eighth regiment if generally,
“I have the honour to remain,
“Your very obedient humble servant,
(Signed) “H. W. Rutherford,
“Capt. 88th, Commandg. Detach.”
The depôt marched from Nenagh to Buttivant on the 9th June, where it arrived on the 14th, and received orders to hold itself in readiness to embark for England, which it did in September following, on board the Athol troop ship, and joined the service companies at Portsmouth, on the 23rd of that month, when they landed from Corfu.
1837
The regiment continued to do duty in the garrison of Portsmouth nearly eleven months, in the course of which time it was twice inspected by Major-General Sir Thomas M‘Mahon, K.C.B., who, on each occasion, expressed his most unqualified approbation of it in every particular, and his intention to report accordingly to the General Commanding-in-Chief. Whilst at Portsmouth the regiment discharged nine serjeants and ninety-two rank and file, most of them after long service, worn out and unfit for further service; those numbers were, however, recruited in the course of fourteen weeks, forty-one of whom were chosen from disbanded soldiers of Evans’s legion on their return from Spain, and the regiment discontinued to recruit. It marched for Weedon Barracks, Northamptonshire, in three divisions, on the 14th, 15th, and 16th August, 1837, and on the 20th of September, it was inspected by Lord Hill, General Commanding-in-Chief, when his Lordship was pleased to express himself in high terms of approbation. After a stay of only seven weeks at this most desirable station, it again marched in four divisions into Lancashire, on 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, of October, to Bolton (head-quarters), Wigan, Haydock Loch, and Liverpool.