The establishment of the regiment for the ten companies serving in India, was fixed as follows:—One colonel, with an allowance in lieu of a company; one lieut.-colonel and captain, one major and captain; eight captains, twelve lieutenants, eight ensigns, one chaplain, one adjutant, one quarter-master, one surgeon, one surgeon’s mate, thirty serjeants, forty corporals, twenty drummers, two fifers, and seven hundred private men. The company kept at home for recruiting consisted of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, six serjeants, eight corporals, four drummers, and seventy private men: in all nine hundred and nineteen.
On the 11th of August 1786, Major-General William Medows was appointed to be colonel of the SEVENTY-THIRD, in succession to Major-General Sir George Osborn, Bart., who was removed to the fortieth regiment.
1789
The insatiable ambition of Tippoo Sultan, the powerful ruler of the Mysore, soon involved the British Government in India in another war; he appeared near the confines of Travancore, at the head of a powerful army, made unreasonable demands on the Rajah, a British ally, and commenced hostilities towards the end of December 1789.
1790
This caused the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment to be removed from the Presidency of Bengal, and it joined the troops under Major-General Robert Abercromby, which consisted of His Majesty’s seventy-fifth and seventy-seventh regiments, in addition to other corps belonging to the East India Company.
1791
The Mahratta armies having advanced to Seringapatam in May 1791, later than the appointed period, their delay, and other unforeseen circumstances, compelled General Charles Earl Cornwallis, K.G., to destroy his battering train, after having defeated Tippoo on the 15th of May, in a pitched battle, and obliged his lordship to lead back his army, leaving the siege of the enemy’s capital to be the object of another campaign.
The Bombay army, of which the SEVENTY-THIRD formed part, commanded by Major-General Abercromby, had, with infinite labour, formed roads, and brought a battering train, with a large supply of provisions and stores, over fifty miles of woody mountains called Ghauts, that immense barrier separating the Mysore country from the Malabar coast. This army, after surmounting all its difficulties, had therefore to retrace its steps, worn down by sickness and fatigue, and exposed to the incessant rains which then deluged the western coast of India.
The troops under Major-General Abercromby were again ordered to act from the same quarter as in the former campaign; they marched on the 5th of December towards the Poodicherrim Ghaut, and took possession of the pass on the 15th of that month.