1756
War commenced between Great Britain and France in 1756, when a French armament attacked the island of Minorca, which was captured in 1708, and ceded to the British crown at the peace of Utrecht in 1713. Lieutenant-General Fowke received orders to send a detachment from Gibraltar, to reinforce the garrison of Port Mahon; but he called a council of war, which passed a resolution against sending the detachment. He was sentenced to be suspended for nine months, for disobeying the order, and King George II. dismissed him from the service. His Majesty afterwards conferred the colonelcy of the Fourteenth Regiment on Colonel Charles Jefferies, from colonel-commandant of the third battalion of the Sixtieth Regiment, who had distinguished himself in the defence of Port Mahon.
1759
1760
1761
In December, 1759, the regiment was relieved from garrison duty at Gibraltar, and embarking for England, arrived, in January, 1760, at Plymouth, from whence it marched to Canterbury, and in the summer it was encamped, with the Nineteenth and Twenty-first Regiments, on Barham Downs under Lieutenant-General Campbell. In October the Fourteenth struck their tents, and marched to Dover Castle, where they remained during the following year.
1762
1763
The regiment marched to Maidstone, and furnished a guard over French prisoners of war at Sissinghurst in October, 1762; in December it proceeded to Exeter; from whence it was removed in March, 1763, to Plymouth.
1764
Leaving Plymouth in March, 1764, the regiment proceeded to the vicinity of London, and was reviewed on Wimbledon Common: on the 7th of May it was reviewed in Hyde Park by King George III., who was pleased to express his high approbation of its appearance and discipline; after the review it marched to Chatham and Dover.
1765
Major-General Jefferies died in May, 1765, and the King conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on Major-General the Honorable William Keppel, fourth son of William Anne, second Earl of Albemarle, from the Fifty-sixth Foot.