Historical Record of the Seventy-Third Regiment / Containing an account of the formation of the Regiment from the period of its being raised as the Second Battalion of the Forty-Second Royal Highlanders in 1780 and of its subsequent services to 1851

by Richard Cannon

Conclusion.

---

The earlier services of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, originally formed as a second battalion to the forty-second Highlanders, are connected with the wars against Hyder Ali and his son, Tippoo Saib, the powerful sultans of the Mysore territory: the word “Mangalore,” granted by royal authority for the gallant defence of that fortress in 1783, and the word “Seringapatam” for the share taken by the regiment in the capture of the capital of Tippoo’s country in 1799, when that sovereign terminated his career by a soldier’s death, are borne on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of these arduous campaigns in India.

Other services were, however, performed by the regiment in the East, among which may be named the capture of the French settlement of Pondicherry in 1793, and that of the Dutch island of Ceylon in 1796, when the French Directory had caused Holland to become involved in hostilities with Great Britain.

After a service of twenty-four years in India, the regiment returned to England, and arrived at Greenwich in July, 1806.

In 1809 the regiment proceeded to New South Wales, when a second battalion was added to its establishment.

Brief as was the career of the second battalion, namely from 1809 to 1817, it added the imperishable word “Waterloo” to the regimental colour and appointments, that distinction being conferred by the Sovereign to commemorate its services in that battle, which gave a lengthened peace to the powers of Europe.

In 1814 the first battalion embarked from New South Wales for Ceylon, in the capture of which island the regiment had formerly participated.

The regiment returned to England in 1821, and continued on home service until 1827, when it embarked for Gibraltar, from which fortress it proceeded to Malta in 1829, and in 1834 to the Ionian Islands, whence it returned to Gibraltar in 1838, and embarked for North America.

In 1841 the regiment returned to England, and, in 1845, proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, where it is now employed in active operations against the Kaffirs.