1834
The service companies remained at Colombo until 16th October, 1834, when they embarked for Trincomalee.
1837
On the 22nd May, 1837, the regiment sustained a loss of three officers, viz., Lieutenants Shaw and Harkness and Ensign Walker, who were unfortunately drowned, while on a shooting excursion, by the upsetting of a boat, in a squall off Cottiac.
The service companies re-embarked for Colombo in July, and after being inspected by Major-General Sir John Wilson, they marched for Kandy, where they arrived on the 22nd August, 1837.
1838
On the promotion of Colonel Edward Darley to the rank of major-general, on the 28th June, 1838, Major Charles Forbes was advanced to the lieutenant-colonelcy, and the command of the service companies devolved on Major Simmonds.
While on duty at Kandy, the following order was inserted in the Regimental Record Book, by Lieutenant-General Sir John Wilson, K.C.B., in his own hand-writing, viz:—
“Being on the eve of my departure from Ceylon, I feel much pleasure in adding to the honourable testimonies contained in the regimental records, the expression of my approbation of the general good conduct and military discipline manifested by the Sixty-first Regiment, during a period of seven years that it has served under my orders, it having been, during a great part of that time, under the command of the present Major-General Darley.
“It is gratifying to me to be able to state, that at the present half-yearly inspection, after a lapse of so many years, I find the regiment in the same high state of moral and military discipline, in which I had the satisfaction of finding it on my arrival to assume this command, and which had previously called forth the highest eulogiums from my predecessor.