During the period the King's Own were engaged in the defence of Fort St. Philip, the colonelcy of the regiment was conferred on Alexander Duroure from the thirty-eighth regiment, by commission dated the 12th of May, 1756.
The regiment embarked from Minorca immediately after the surrender of Fort St. Philip, and proceeded to Gibraltar, where it remained a few weeks, and subsequently embarked for England. It landed at Torbay in November, and immediately on its arrival it was augmented to two battalions.
1758
On the 21st of April, 1758, the SECOND BATTALION of the King's Own was constituted the Sixty-second Regiment, under the command of Colonel William Strode.
The war with France being continued, an armament was fitted out in the autumn of 1758 for the attack of the French settlements in the West Indies; the King's Own were selected to take part in this service, and embarked nine hundred strong under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Crump, an officer of distinguished merit, whose services proved of great value to his king and country: the land forces were under the orders of Major-General Hopson, and the navy under Captain Hughes.
This expedition sailed from England in November, and arrived at Carlisle bay in the island of Barbadoes in the beginning of the following year.
1759
In the middle of January, 1759, the fleet arrived off the French island of Martinico, and a landing was effected between the bay of Cas des Navieres and Point Negro; but numerous difficulties were experienced; the enemy had ten thousand men, including the militia, to oppose an invading army of about four thousand five hundred men, and the nature of the ground facilitated the defence.
On the 17th of January, the grenadiers, under the command of Colonel Crump of the King's Own, attacked a large body of the enemy, who retired into a thick wood, from whence the colonel could not force them. The sixty-first regiment (late second battalion of the third foot) advanced to support the grenadiers; but the trees and bushes afforded such excellent cover, that after repeated attempts, it was found impracticable to dislodge the enemy.
The numerous obstructions occasioned the King's Own and other corps to be re-embarked; and the fleet subsequently bent its course to Guadaloupe, one of the Caribbee or Leeward islands, settled by the French in 1635. Basse Terre, the capital of the island, with the batteries near the shore, having been destroyed by the fleet, the King's Own and other troops landed on the 24th of January: the French governor, M. Nadan D'Etreil, abandoned the citadel, and trusting to the natural strength of the country and the unwholesomeness of the climate, retired to the mountains, and summoned the militia of the island, with all the settlers and their armed negroes, to join him. An irregular warfare of detachments followed, in which the British troops were usually victorious; but they purchased every advantage at an immense sacrifice of life. At length Major-General Hopson died, and the command devolved on Major-General Barrington, who embarked the troops on board of transports, (excepting the sixty-third regiment, late second battalion of the eighth foot, and a detachment of artillery left in garrison,) to attack other parts of the island.