“Sir,
“In transmitting the enclosed Copy of the General Order of the 30th of October last, granting leave of absence to officers, and furloughs to non-commissioned officers and men, to the 10th of March next, I have it in command to intimate to you, that the Commander-in-Chief, duly considering the glorious and important services recently performed by the regiment under your command, as well as its protracted service abroad, has been pleased to direct that furloughs may be forthwith granted to such of the non-commissioned officers and men recently returned from India, without limitation as to numbers, as may be desirous of availing themselves of that indulgence, so as to enable them immediately to visit their friends; and that leave of absence may, in like manner, be extended to as large a portion of the officers as can be spared from the duties of the regiment.
“I have, &c.
(Signed) “John Macdonald,
“Adjutant-General.”
The usual directions were given by the Secretary at War for reducing the establishment of the regiment, in order to assimilate it to that of other regiments on home duty, from the 6th of December, 1846.
After transferring to the Invalid Depôt the men selected for discharge on account of wounds and other disabilities, and incorporating the depôt with the other companies, the regiment was removed from Chatham to Walmer, where it arrived on the 20th of December, and was received at Deal and in the neighbouring parts, with the same honors and marks of distinction as had been evinced on its arrival in the garrison of Chatham.
1847
The remainder of the regiment, consisting of five officers, viz., Lieutenants Plaskett, Law, Pilkington, and Noel, Assistant-Surgeon Massey, and 111 men, arrived at Gravesend on the 13th of January, 1847, on board of the Plantagenet freight ship: the delay in their arrival was occasioned by that vessel having sprung a leak, which compelled her to put back to Calcutta. This division proceeded from Chatham on the 20th of January, to join the head-quarters of the regiment at Walmer.
On the 30th of June, 1847, the regiment was apprised by the Adjutant-General, that her Majesty had been pleased to approve of its bearing on the regimental colour and appointments the words Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon, in commemoration of the distinguished conduct evinced by the THIRTY-FIRST at those battles.
Lieut.-General the Honorable Henry Otway Trevor was appointed to the colonelcy of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment on the 12th of July, 1847, in succession to General Sir Colin Halkett, G.C.B., who was removed to the forty-fifth regiment.
On the 6th of September, 1847, Lieut.-General Sir Henry Smith came to Walmer to see the regiment, before he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, of which colony he had been appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief. On the 7th of September he reviewed the regiment, and expressed his satisfaction at seeing its discipline so perfect, considering that only a few months had elapsed since it returned home a mere skeleton.