“Head-Quarters,
“Halifax, N. S., 8th January, 1838.
“The Major-General commanding cannot allow the Thirty-fourth Regiment to quit the command, without expressing his perfect satisfaction with the discipline and regularity with which the corps has uniformly conducted itself; and his Excellency desires that Major Ruxton will convey to the officers and soldiers, under his command, his best wishes for their future welfare, assured as he is, that in whatever service the corps may be employed, they will continue to display those qualities which have secured to them so high a character as soldiers.
“(Signed) J. S. Snodgrass,
“A. D. A. General.”
This year the regiment lost a valuable officer, Major Mark McLeod Tew, whose many excellent qualities occasioned him to be highly esteemed by the officers and soldiers of his corps. He entered the regiment as ensign in 1800, was promoted lieutenant in the same year, captain in 1809, major by brevet in 1830, and major in the regiment in 1837. His distinguished services with the flank battalion, during the Mahratta and Pindaree war, from 1817 to 1820, are set forth in the record of his regiment. The state of his health occasioned him to retire from the service in August, 1837; but his decease occurred in October, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, before he could embark for England.
In transmitting to his brother, Captain J. McLeod Tew, Twenty-second Regiment, an account of his effects, &c., Captain E. Broderick expressed himself in the following affectionate terms:—“One of the snuff-boxes found among his effects, has been retained by the officers, as a memento of him who had been so long the father of the regiment, and who was so deservedly loved and respected by us all: it is a wooden box, presented to him by Mr. Markham, which the officers intend to place in a case, with a suitable inscription.
“The officers intend to erect a monument to our respected friend, to be placed in one of the churches. The men of the regiment have also subscribed to the erection of this monument, and I can assure you, that every officer and soldier feels that in your late brother he has lost a friend.”
1838
On the 8th January, 1838, the head-quarters, and remaining four companies, consisting of one field officer, three captains, four subalterns, three staff, twenty-two serjeants, eight drummers, and two hundred and eighty-one rank and file, under Major Ruxton, embarked in Her Majesty’s ship “Cornwallis,” and sailed the following day for St. John’s, New Brunswick, where they landed on the 14th of the same month.