On the 12th of August 1824, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, C.B., was appointed Lieut.-Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment, in consequence of the retirement of Colonel Cavendish Sturt; Brevet-Major Donald McPherson succeeded to the vacant majority.
The regiment marched to Buttevant, in the county of Cork, in the beginning of October 1824, and in this place was at length brought together, having been continually broken into small detachments during the whole of its service in Ireland, with the exception of a few months while stationed in Dublin.
1825.
On the 25th of March 1825, the regiment, in common with the rest of the infantry, received an augmentation of two companies, raising its establishment to forty-two serjeants, fourteen drummers, and seven hundred and forty rank and file. These companies were given to the two senior subalterns, Lieutenants Simon Newport and Francis Henry Hart, whose commissions as captains were dated 7th and 8th of April 1825. At this period it was directed that each battalion of infantry in the United Kingdom, as well as those on foreign stations (the East Indies excepted), should consist of six service companies of eighty-six rank and file each, and four dépôt companies of fifty-six rank and file each, making seven hundred and forty in all. The dépôts of such regiments as were serving at home, continued united with their respective corps.
An order was received on the 10th of July 1825, intimating that the regiment was destined to proceed to New South Wales, and ultimately to India. On the 19th of July, it marched to Cork to be embarked for Chatham, from whence it was ordered to proceed to New South Wales, as guards over convicts. The first division left Cork on the 19th, and the head-quarters on the 30th of September.
A detachment, consisting of one captain, one subaltern, one serjeant, and twenty rank and file, embarked in the “Woodman” convict ship on the 4th of November 1825, and proceeded to Van Diemen’s Land and Sydney.
The last division of the regiment arrived at Chatham from Cork, on the 25th of November 1825.
1826.
Several detachments of the regiment proceeded to New South Wales during the year 1826.