Serious disturbances having arisen amongst the convicts in the Bathurst district in August 1830, large detachments of the regiment were ordered to proceed thither, where Major Donald McPherson was stationed in command, and Captain Horatio Walpole was directed to pursue a body of those deluded men, who had fled from their employment, and furnishing themselves by plunder with arms and horses, bade defiance to all law and authority. He succeeded in ascertaining the direction which they had taken, and following them for several days over a large tract of country, finally succeeded in capturing the whole gang without any loss on the part of his detachment.
In the month of October of the same year, Lieut.-General Ralph Darling addressed a letter to Colonel Lindesay, to ascertain if the immediate services of Captain John Douglas Forbes could be dispensed with by the regiment, as it was his wish to place him in command of the mounted police; to which a reply was sent by Colonel Lindesay, stating his consent to Captain Forbes being withdrawn from his regimental duties; “for that, although he could ill be spared, yet he did not wish to deprive the colonial government of the services of an officer who, he had every reason to believe, would prove both valuable and efficient.” The result fully realized his anticipations; and on the 16th of October, Captain Forbes was by a general order placed in command of this corps; a body of men drawn in equal numbers from the regiments in garrison, and mounted by government, for the more effectually assisting of the civil power, by dispersing them over the various settled parts of the colony. They had, at the time of Captain Forbes’s appointment, no recognized commanding-officer, but were nominally under the superintendence of the Major of Brigade, whose various avocations rarely allowed him to examine into their interior economy; consequently, their discipline had become relaxed, and their duties were but too often performed with carelessness.
Soon after Captain Forbes assumed the command, a manifest change took place; the mounted police rapidly became an efficient and highly disciplined body of men, and their utility and zeal in the discharge of their duty were universally acknowledged.
1831.
New colours were presented to the Thirty-ninth by Lieut.-General Ralph Darling, in the Barrack Square of Sydney, on the 16th of May 1831, being the anniversary of the battle of Albuhera, in which engagement the second battalion of the regiment had twenty years before distinguished itself. On this occasion the following speech was delivered by the Lieut.-General, the ceremony of consecration having been first performed by the Venerable Archdeacon Broughton:—
“Thirty-ninth! It is highly gratifying to me to present you, on the part of your Colonel, with these colours, henceforth the proud record of your general and distinguished services.
“It is unnecessary for me, Thirty-ninth, to emblazon your achievements; your friends will ever remember, and your enemies can never forget, that during the Peninsular War, which in its results was as glorious to the British Arms as it was important to the general interests of Europe, you, led on by your present gallant Commander, fought at Albuhera, of which battle this is the twentieth anniversary; that you were also engaged with, and defeated, the enemy at Vittoria, at the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive, and at Orthes. You have indeed, Thirty-ninth, nobly redeemed the pledge which your predecessors in arms first gave at the battle of Almanza[29], now one hundred and twenty-four years ago, which was as admirably seconded in the glorious field of Plassey, as it was successfully followed up at the memorable defence of Gibraltar!
“Soldiers! It is not necessary to the fame of your corps, that you should augment the honors which it has so gallantly acquired; but I am sure, whenever your King and country shall require your services, you will add fresh laurels to the noble wreath which now so proudly adorns your banners.
“Gentlemen! In addressing you more particularly to whom this sacred trust, the immediate charge of these colours is especially confided, I need only point out, that they will be the objects to which the eyes of your corps will be directed. You will protect them with your lives; and may the Almighty, who alone can shield you in the day of battle, guide and preserve you in the faithful discharge of this sacred duty!”
Colonel Lindesay having made a suitable reply to the foregoing address, the ceremony was concluded in the usual manner.