In commemoration of the meritorious services performed during the Peninsula war, his Majesty was also graciously pleased to authorise the word Peninsula, to be borne upon the colours and appointments of the Queen's Royal.
The division of the Queen's Royal serving on the continent embarked at Barsac in June, and landing at Cork marched to Fermoy, where it stayed about a month, after which it proceeded to Plymouth, and subsequently joined the head-quarters at Chichester.
1815
During the whole of the year 1815 the regiment was stationed at Gosport; and in January 1816 it was moved to Chatham, and from thence, on the 11th of April, to Portsmouth, where it embarked for the West Indies on the 24th of April, 1816, having previously received 300 general service men from the depôt in the Isle of Wight. It landed at Barbadoes on the 5th of June, where it was quartered in barracks at St. Anne's.
Some time before the Queen's arrived in Barbadoes, martial law had been proclaimed in consequence of an insurrection among the negroes, which, however, was soon quelled. The sickly season, which usually sets in about the month of September, was this year one of the most fatal remembered for a long period, and the Queen's Royal felt all its severity. In October the yellow fever broke out and raged with unabated fury until Christmas, during which short space it carried off 11 officers, upwards of 200 men, and more than half the women and children of the regiment. The officers who fell victims to its fury were Major Conolly, Captain Gordon, Lieutenants Clutterbuck, M'Dougall, Grey, Norman, and Grant; Lieutenant and Adjutant Spencer, Assistant-Surgeon Pendergrast, and Ensigns Massie and Richmond, to whose memory their surviving brother-officers erected a handsome marble monument in the Cathedral Church of Bridgetown.
1817
In 1817, the right wing of the regiment embarked for St. Vincent, and the left for Grenada; the men continued to suffer from dysentery, and other complaints which followed the ravages of the fever, and many were carried off. Amongst the number was Lieutenant Adams, who died of fever in Grenada.
1819
1820
In April, 1819, the regiment embarked for Demerara and Berbice, the head-quarters with seven companies being stationed at the first, and the three other companies at the latter place. The men were very healthy at the time of their arrival, but the climate of these colonies (originally settled by the Dutch), the soil of which lies below the level of the sea, soon, and severely, affected both officers and privates. They suffered first under intermittent fever, but the yellow fever afterwards made its appearance, and carried off great numbers. The detachment stationed at Berbice, which remained perfectly healthy until the month of November 1820, was, in a few subsequent weeks, nearly annihilated by that baneful malady, amongst whose victims were Major Thistlethwaite, the commandant, and Lieutenant Glasson.
About this time the regiment received a new pair of colours, which were consecrated, in due form, on the parade ground near Eve Leary barracks, on the 10th of November, 1820, and presented by Mrs. Jordan, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel John Jordan, then commanding the regiment. After the ceremony a splendid entertainment was given by the officers.