Historical record of the Ninety-second Regiment, originally termed "The Gordon Highlanders" and numbered the Hundredth Regiment

by Richard Cannon

George, Marquis of Huntly, son of Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, choosing the profession of arms, was appointed to a commission in the thirty-fifth regiment in 1790. In the same year he raised an independent company of Highlanders; and exchanging, in January, 1791, to the forty-second regiment, he brought with him a fine band of young Highlanders. On the 11th of July, 1792, he was promoted to captain-lieutenant and lieutenant-colonel in the third Foot Guards. He accompanied the detachment of Foot Guards to Flanders in the spring of 1793, was at the action of St. Amand on the 8th of May, and was engaged in driving the French from the position at the village of Famars on the 23rd of May. He was subsequently employed at the siege of Valenciennes, which fortress surrendered to the Duke of York in July. On the 18th of August he was engaged at Lincelles; and he afterwards served at the siege of Dunkirk. When the army went into winter quarters, the Marquis of Huntly returned to England, and in the following year was raised a corps of Highlanders, which was numbered the hundredth regiment, now the NINETY-SECOND, of which he was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant on the 10th of February, 1794. He accompanied his regiment to Gibraltar; and on his return to England, he was captured by a French privateer. He afterwards rejoined his regiment at the island of Corsica, where he served upwards of a year; and on the 3rd of May, 1796, he was promoted to the rank of colonel. On the breaking out of the rebellion in Ireland, in 1798, he joined his regiment in that country, where he served as brigadier-general, and was actively employed against the rebels, particularly in Wexford. He accompanied the expedition to Holland in 1799, was at the landing at the Helder, and continued actively employed until the 2nd of October, when he was wounded at the battle of Egmont-op-Zee. On the 1st of January, 1801, he was promoted to the rank of major-general; and in 1803 he was appointed to the staff of North Britain, where he served three years. In January, 1806, he was appointed to the colonelcy of the forty-second, or the Royal Highlanders; and in April, 1808, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. He commanded a division in the expedition to Holland in 1809; and in August, 1819, he was advanced to the rank of general. In 1820 he was removed to the first,—the Royal Regiment of Foot,—and in a few months afterwards he was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath. In 1827 he succeeded, on the decease of his father, to the dignity of Duke of Gordon: he was also appointed Governor of Edinburgh Castle, and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. In 1834 he was removed to the Scots Fusilier Guards. He was distinguished as a kind-hearted and gallant nobleman and soldier,—contributing largely to many charitable institutions. His social, private, and public virtues, endeared him to his family and friends; and a succession of uninterrupted acts of philanthropy procured him universal esteem. He died on the 28th of May, 1836; and his remains, by especial command of his Majesty King William IV., were escorted by the first battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards from London to Greenwich, where they were placed on board a steam-vessel, for the purpose of being conveyed to Scotland for interment in a mausoleum erected on the paternal estate. By his Grace’s decease the dukedom became extinct.

John, Earl of Hopetoun, G.C.B.

Appointed 3rd January, 1806.

The Honorable John Hope, son of John, second Earl of Hopetoun, evinced a predilection for the profession of arms from his youth, and served as a volunteer in his fifteenth year. On the 28th of May, 1784, he was appointed cornet in the tenth Light Dragoons; two years afterwards, he was nominated lieutenant in the twenty-seventh foot, and in 1789, captain in the seventeenth Light Dragoons; in 1792, he was promoted major in the first foot, and in the following year, lieutenant-colonel in the twenty-fifth regiment, with which corps he served in the West Indies, where he was appointed adjutant-general, and served the campaigns of 1794, 1795, 1796, and 1797, with great distinction, being particularly noticed in the orders and public despatches of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and other commanders. In 1796, he was elected a member of parliament for the county of Linlithgow. He was nominated deputy adjutant-general to the expedition to Holland in 1799, and was severely wounded at the landing in North Holland on the 27th of August. In 1800, he was appointed adjutant-general to the army in the Mediterranean, under Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and served in the expedition to Egypt: he was at the actions of the 8th and 13th of March, 1801, and was wounded before Alexandria on the 21st of March, when Sir Ralph Abercromby received a wound, of which he died on the 28th of March. Brigadier-General Hope recovered, and requesting to have a brigade, was succeeded as adjutant-general by Colonel Abercromby. On the 16th of June, he joined the army before Cairo, with the twenty-eighth and forty-second regiments, and he afterwards evinced ability in conducting the negotiations for the surrender of the capital of Egypt by the French troops, under General Belliard. He continued in the command of a brigade until the deliverance of Egypt was accomplished, and received the second class of the Order of the Crescent established by the Grand Seignior. In 1802, his services were rewarded by the colonelcy of the North Lowland Fencible Infantry, and the rank of major-general; to which was added, in June, 1805, the appointment of deputy-governor of Portsmouth; but he resigned this appointment soon afterwards, to accompany the troops sent to Hanover under Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart. In October, 1805, he was appointed colonel commandant of a battalion of the sixtieth regiment; and in 1806, he succeeded the Marquis of Huntly in the colonelcy of the NINETY-SECOND regiment. On the 25th of April, 1808, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. He was nominated second in command of the expedition to the Baltic, under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, and afterwards accompanied the troops to Portugal. He commanded a division of the army which advanced into Spain, under Sir John Moore, and shared in that campaign; and in the battle of Corunna, when he succeeded to the command of the army,—Sir John Moore being killed, and Sir David Baird wounded—he was successful in repulsing the attack of the French under Marshal Soult. On the embarkation of the army, he took particular care to prevent any soldier being left behind, and was the last man who went on board the fleet. His despatch contains an interesting account of the battle.[20] He was thanked for his distinguished services by parliament, was honored with the approbation of his Sovereign, and the admiration and applause of his country; and was nominated a Knight of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath. After his return from Spain, he served with the Walcheren expedition, under General the Earl of Chatham, and was subsequently appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, from which he was removed, in 1813, to the appointment of second in command in the peninsula. Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope, commanded the left wing of the army at the battle of the Nivelle on the 10th of November, and signalized himself at the battle of the Nive, in December; on which occasion the British commander stated in his public despatch—“I cannot sufficiently applaud the ability, coolness, and judgment, of Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope.” He passed the Adour with the left wing of the army in February, 1814, and blockaded the important fortress of Bayonne,—in which service he evinced great ability and perseverance: and he remained in the command of the blockading force until the termination of the war. After Napoleon had abdicated, the French commandant at Bayonne not believing the news, made a sortie on the night of the 14th of April, and gained some advantage. Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope coming up with some troops in the dark, encountered the enemy, when his horse being shot, fell upon him, and he was wounded and taken prisoner. The French were, however, repulsed. At the restoration of peace, he returned to England with a high reputation. He received the thanks of parliament; a medal and a clasp for the battles of Corunna and the Nive; was elevated to the peerage of the United Kingdom by the title of Baron Niddry, of Niddry, in the county of Linlithgow, and was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath. He afterwards succeeded to the dignity of Earl of Hopetoun. In 1819, he was promoted to the rank of General, and was appointed colonel of the forty-second, or the Royal Highlanders, in 1820. He died at Paris on the 27th of August, 1823.

Sir John Hope, G.C.H.

Appointed 29th January, 1820.

John Hope entered the Dutch service, as a cadet, in one of the regiments of the Scots Brigade (Houston’s) in the service of the United Provinces, in 1778, and served at Bergen-op-Zoom and Maestretcht, going through the subordinate ranks of corporal and serjeant. In 1779 he was appointed ensign, and in 1782 he was promoted captain of a company; but, being called upon to renounce his allegiance to the British monarch, he quitted the Dutch service, and in 1787 he was appointed captain in the sixtieth foot, but his company was soon afterwards reduced. On the 30th of June, 1788, he was appointed captain in the thirteenth Light Dragoons, and in 1792 he was nominated aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir William Erskine, in which capacity he served the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, in Holland, and returned to England in 1795, when he was promoted to the majority of the twenty-eighth Light Dragoons, and in 1796 to the lieut.-colonelcy of the same corps, with which he embarked for the Cape of Good Hope in the same year. He served at the Cape until 1799, when his regiment was incorporated in other corps, and he returned to England. In April, 1799, he was appointed to the thirty-seventh foot, which corps he joined, in 1800, in the West Indies, where he remained until 1804, when he returned to England, and exchanged to the sixtieth regiment. In 1805 he was nominated assistant adjutant-general in Scotland, and in 1807 he served as deputy adjutant-general to the expedition to Copenhagen, under Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart. He was appointed brigadier-general on the staff of North Britain in 1808, and subsequently deputy adjutant-general in that part of the United Kingdom. He was promoted to the rank of major-general in 1810, and appointed to the staff of the Severn district, from whence he was removed to the staff of the Peninsula in 1812, and served with the army under the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Salamanca, for which he received a medal. He subsequently served on the staff of Ireland and North Britain until 1819, when he was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general. He was honored with the dignity of Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. In 1820 he was appointed colonel of the NINETY-SECOND regiment, from which he was removed, in 1823, to the seventy-second Highlanders. He died in August 1836.

Honorable Sir Alexander Duff, G.C.H.

Appointed 6th September, 1823.