Historical Record of the Thirty-ninth, or the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1853.

by Richard Cannon

Appointed 2nd July 1794.

This officer entered the army on the 27th of January 1761, as an ensign in the Fourth Foot, was promoted Lieutenant on the 15th of November 1765, and advanced to the rank of Captain in the regiment on the 26th of January 1770. He was at the battle of Bunker’s Hill on the 17th of June 1775, where he was wounded. Captain Balfour was present in the action on landing at Long Island and taking of Brooklyn, in August 1776. The capture of New York occurred shortly afterwards, on which occasion he was sent home by the Commander of the Forces in North America, Major-General the Honorable Sir William Howe, with the public despatches, and in consequence received the brevet rank of Major.

In the spring of 1777 Major Balfour was in the action near Elizabeth Town, in the Jerseys. He was promoted Major in the Fourth Foot on the 4th of June 1777; and was present in the actions of Brandywine and Germantown on the 11th of September and 4th of October of that year. On the 31st of January 1778 he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel of the Twenty-third Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and was present at the siege of Charlestown; and after the surrender of that place in May 1780 he served under Lieut.-General Earl Cornwallis, part of the campaign in South Carolina. On the 20th of November 1782 he was appointed Aide-de-camp to His Majesty King George III., with the rank of Colonel in the army. Colonel Balfour served part of the campaign of 1794 in Flanders and Holland under His Royal Highness the Duke of York. On the 12th of October 1793 Colonel Balfour was advanced to the rank of Major-General, and was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 2nd of July 1794. He was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General on the 1st of January 1798, and to that of General on the 25th of September 1803. He died on the 16th of October 1823.

Sir George Airey, K.C.H.

Appointed 28th October 1823.

This officer commenced his military career as Ensign in the late Ninety-first regiment, to which he was appointed on the 6th of December 1779, and in January following proceeded with it to the West Indies. After serving for a year at St. Lucia, Ensign Airey returned home, on account of ill-health, a short time previously to the regiment being drafted, in which, however, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 6th of July 1781. Lieutenant Airey exchanged from the Ninety-first to the Forty-eighth regiment on the 2nd of January 1782, and in January 1788 proceeded with the latter corps to the West Indies. On the 19th of November following he was promoted to a company in the Forty-eighth, and returned to England on leave of absence, but rejoined the regiment in 1792. Prior to the expedition against the French West India Islands under General Sir Charles (afterwards Earl) Grey in the beginning of 1794, the Forty-eighth regiment was drafted, when Captain Airey volunteered his services, and was employed in the succeeding campaign, during which he commanded the light company of the Sixty-fifth regiment, in the third battalion of Light Infantry. On the conclusion of the campaign he rejoined his regiment at Plymouth in October 1794. In December Captain Airey re-embarked with the regiment for the West Indies, but, from sickness, it was with several others re-landed. He was subsequently appointed Aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Patrick Tonyn, with whom he remained until the Forty-eighth regiment was ordered on foreign service, and with which, in the winter of 1795, he sailed to the West Indies, serving there as Assistant Adjutant-General. He was promoted to a majority in the Sixty-eighth regiment on the 1st of May 1796, and returned to England, and on the 4th of May 1798 was advanced to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel of the Eighth Foot. In May 1799, Lieut.-Colonel Airey proceeded with the Eighth regiment to Minorca, which had been captured in the previous year from the Spaniards, and in August 1800 he embarked with his corps, which composed part of the expedition under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, against Cadiz. Upon arrival at that place the enterprise was abandoned, in consequence of a contagious disease carrying off great numbers of the inhabitants, and the fleet, to avoid infection, sailed to Gibraltar, and subsequently to Malta, when Lieut.-Colonel Airey returned to Minorca as Deputy Quartermaster-General, under Lieut.-General the Honorable Henry Edward Fox, and afterwards proceeded to Elba, as Commandant of the British troops serving in Porto Ferrajo, while that place was besieged by the French, and retained possession of that island until the Peace of Amiens in 1802. For his services in Porto Ferrajo he was created a Knight of the Tuscan Order of St. Joseph. Lieut.-Colonel Airey then rejoined Lieut.-General Fox as Deputy Quartermaster-General, and remained with that officer until his return to England, Minorca being restored to Spain by the treaty of peace. Lieut.-Colonel Airey served as Assistant Quartermaster-General in Ireland from the 1st of August 1803 to the 24th of September 1804, when he accompanied General the Honorable Henry Edward Fox to Gibraltar as Military Secretary. He proceeded with the General to Sicily in 1806, where (with the exception of going to Egypt with the expedition under Major-General Alexander Fraser in 1807) he served until the year 1813 as Deputy Adjutant-General. On the 25th of April 1808, he was promoted to the brevet rank of Colonel. In the year 1810 he commanded a brigade in Sicily, in addition to his duties as Deputy Adjutant-General, and was employed with the troops, of which the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth formed part, in the defence of the coast during the threatened invasion of General Joachim Murat, King of Naples. On the 12th of February 1811, Colonel Airey was appointed Brigadier-General in Sicily, when he vacated the duties of Deputy Adjutant-General. On the 4th of June 1811, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and was from that date appointed Major-General on the staff of Sicily, and in December following was ordered to proceed to Zante to take the command of the Ionian Islands, where he remained until succeeded by Lieut.-General James Campbell in 1813, who was appointed Commander and Civil Commissioner.

Major-General Airey was appointed Quartermaster-General to the forces in Ireland on the 2nd of September 1813, which he held until the 24th of June 1822. On the 19th of July 1821, he had been advanced to the rank of Lieut.-General. He had also received the honor of knighthood, and had been constituted a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. On the 28th of October 1823, Lieut.-General Sir George Airey, K.C.H., was appointed by His Majesty King George IV. to be Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment, which he retained until his decease at Paris on the 18th of February 1833.

The Honorable Sir Robert William O’Callaghan, G.C.B.

Appointed 4th March 1833.