The "Order of Merit," which has been so long held by the regiment, consecrated and enhanced by purity and justice of distribution, and the real worth of the meritorious though humble individuals who earn so honourable a mark of good conduct, and brightened by the numerous distinguished services of the Fifth Regiment since its foundation, is thus confirmed by the sanction of the Sovereign, the legitimate fount of honour, distinction, and reward.
1833
On the 27th of July, in this year (1832), the reserve companies of the regiment marched from Fermoy to Kilmallock, and in August to Bruff, where they continued until the 24th of January, 1833, when they proceeded to Nenagh: and from thence, in October to Templemore.
On the night of the 24th of April, 1833, whilst at Gibraltar, the roof of the Line Wall House, in which were the mess-rooms and the quarters of Lieutenant-Colonel Sutherland, suddenly burst out into an immense blaze of fire, in consequence of one of the wooden wall-plates, which had been carelessly built into the flue of a chimney, imperceptibly igniting the joists, lathing, couples, and lining of the roof over the ceiling: from the quantity of timber used in its construction, the house burnt with such fierceness and rapidity, that the ceilings of the rooms, almost instantly falling in, it was found impossible, notwithstanding the utmost exertions of the garrison, to save even the colours of the regiment, which were thus unfortunately, although accidentally, consumed.
1834
In June and July, 1834, that scourge, the cholera, attacked the garrison with such violence that the Fifth lost one officer, two serjeants, one drummer, forty-one privates, three women, and four children, in all fifty-two souls, some of the former being among the finest and best-conducted young men in the regiment, whilst it may be mentioned, as a somewhat singular fact, that during the whole period of its ravages, not one case of cholera occurred in the Provost prison, at that time crowded with the most dissipated characters of the garrison, although it raged in the Artillery barracks, and the civil habitations in its immediate vicinity—an undeniable proof of the efficacy of abstemiousness and temperance, even though forced, on such occasions.
In the autumn of this year, the regiment having received orders to be prepared for removal to Malta, on the eve of embarkation the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir William Houstoun, G.C.B. and G.C.H., expressed his approbation of its conduct whilst under his command, in the following flattering terms:—
"Head-Quarters, Gibraltar,
14th October, 1834.
Garrison Orders.
No. 1. "His Excellency, the Lieutenant-General Commanding, cannot suffer the Fifth Regiment to embark from hence, without expressing his approval of the general conduct of this corps, during the period it has been under his command in this garrison, and he desires to offer his thanks to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of this regiment, and more particularly, he begs to acknowledge his sense of the zealous and constant exertions of Lieutenant-Colonel Sutherland, which have so essentially contributed to maintain the discipline and good order of the corps under his command."