Two companies of the first battalion, consisting of one captain, four subalterns, six serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and fifty rank and file, under the command of Major Edward R. King, proceeded to Cephalonia on the 30th of August 1849, for the purpose of suppressing an insurrection in that island, and returned to Corfu on the 17th of November following.
Two companies of the reserve battalion, under Captain Charles Wilson Carden, were, in February, employed in aid of the civil power at St. Gerasimo for the purpose of enforcing payment of the fines inflicted on the villages concerned in the insurrection of the 26th of September of the previous year; this party returned to head-quarters on the 26th of February. A company under Captain James Nugent likewise proceeded to St. Gerasimo in May 1849 in aid of the civil power, and to assist in pursuit of banditti; it rejoined the head-quarters in August. A company under Captain John Pratt proceeded in May to Scala in aid of the civil power, and to assist in enforcing the embargo, and rejoined the head-quarters on the 22d of June.
A company of the reserve battalion under Captain Henry J. Coote was detached to Sissi on the 29th of August in aid of the civil power, and was subsequently employed in very arduous services under the proclamation of martial law, which lasted from the 31st of August, to the 27th of October 1849, and in suppressing the outbreak in Cephalonia. Privates Taylor and Green of this company were wounded in a skirmish with the insurgents. A company under Lieutenant Rickard Lloyd proceeded in September to Sissi to reinforce the detachment under Captain Coote, and after serving in conjunction therewith, returned to head-quarters with it on the 15th of October. One company under Captain Nugent proceeded to Faraclata on the 16th of September, and assisted in the pursuit of the outlawed rebels; a portion of this detachment, under Ensign Alfred Macdonald, was employed as a flying column, and scoured the country in chase of the three outlawed rebel chiefs for twenty-three days, during the whole of which time it was subjected to the most fatiguing marches and labour. The reserve battalion during the period of martial law from the 31st of August to the 27th of October 1849, which was administered by Lieut.-Colonel Trollope, was frequently employed in pursuit of rebels (parties, varying from forty to a hundred, being despatched into the country for this purpose) in disarming turbulent and refractory villages, and in guarding the town of Argostoli, the men having very seldom more than one night in bed.
1850.
In April 1850 it was directed that the regiment should be reduced to a thousand rank and file; the reserve battalion at Cephalonia was in consequence broken up, and consolidated with the first battalion at Corfu, where the regiment was stationed during this year.
1851.
In March 1851, four companies embarked at Cephalonia for England for the purpose of forming the depôt, which was afterwards stationed at the Isle of Wight, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Trollope.
The service companies, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Ashmore, embarked at Corfu for the West Indies on the 21st of March 1851 in the freight ship “Java,” and arrived at Barbadoes on the 16th of May following, where they were stationed during the remainder of the year.
Major-General the Lord Frederick FitzClarence, G.C.H., was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-sixth regiment on the 23d of July 1851, in succession to General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, Bart., deceased.