1828
During the prevalence of the contagious and dreadful fever which visited Gibraltar in the year 1828, the SEVENTY-THIRD were encamped with the twenty-third Royal Welsh Fusiliers on Europa Flats, from the 10th of October to the 17th of January, 1829.
1829
The casualties in the SEVENTY-THIRD were, compared with the other regiments in that garrison, fortunately limited to a small number. Out of nine officers and one hundred and ninety-six privates, who were attacked with the disease, only two officers and thirty-five men proved fatal cases. Lieutenant Hedworth Huddleston Williamson, and Assistant Surgeon John Gordon Fraser were the officers; the latter, though a very young assistant, fell a victim to his zeal for the service.
Whether the comparatively few casualties were attributable to the successful practice of the Surgeon George Martin, or some other accidental cause, can be only matter of conjecture. One thing, however, is certain, that His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, as well as numerous other officers unconnected with the regiment, acknowledged, in the most public manner, the talents and attention of Surgeon Martin, of the SEVENTY-THIRD, on this trying occasion.
Major-General Sir Frederick Adam, K.C.B., was appointed colonel of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment on the 22nd of May, 1829, in succession to General George Lord Harris, G.C.B., deceased.
In December, 1829, the service companies embarked for Malta, where the last division arrived on the 31st of that month.
On the departure of the SEVENTY-THIRD from Gibraltar, His Excellency the Lieut.-Governor, General Sir George Don, G.C.B., issued the following order:—
“Head Quarters,
Gibraltar, 2nd December, 1829.
“His Excellency the Lieut.-Governor is desirous to express to the SEVENTY-THIRD, on their departure from this garrison, the satisfaction afforded him by their regular and orderly conduct during the period of upwards of two years that they have been under his command, and he feels peculiar pleasure in noticing, that in no instance has any individual of this corps been reported to him for any irregularity on duty during the above period.