During the year 1840 the service companies were stationed at St. John’s, Lower Canada. The depôt companies proceeded from Stirling to Dundee in April.
1841.
Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., was removed from the colonelcy of the eighty-seventh Royal Irish fusiliers to that of the Seventy-first or Highland regiment on the 15th of March 1841, in succession to Lieut.-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham, K.C.B. and K.C.H., deceased.
In May 1841 the depôt companies proceeded from Dundee to Aberdeen.
Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Charles Grey exchanged to half-pay with Lieut.-Colonel James England on the 8th of April 1842.
1842.
The service companies proceeded from St. John’s to Montreal, in two divisions, on the 27th and 28th of April 1842.
In consequence of the augmentation which took place in the army at this period, the Seventy-first regiment was ordered to be divided into two battalions, the six service companies being termed the first battalion, and the depôt, augmented by two new companies, being styled the reserve battalion. The depôt was accordingly moved from Stirling to Chichester in 1842, and after receiving one hundred and eighty volunteers from other corps, was there organised into a battalion for foreign service.
The reserve battalion of the Seventy-first, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel James England, embarked at Portsmouth in Her Majesty’s troop-ship “Resistance,” which sailed for Canada on the 13th of August 1842, and the battalion landed at Montreal on the 23d of September, where the first battalion was likewise stationed, under the command of Major William Denny, who, upon the arrival of Lieut.-Colonel England, took charge of the reserve battalion.
1843.