On quitting Jersey, the “States of the Island” transmitted to the commanding officer of the 79th an address, praising the regiment in the highest terms for its exemplary conduct while stationed in the island.
The 79th remained in Ireland till August 1825, being quartered successively at Fermoy, Limerick, Templemore, Naas, Dublin, and Kilkenny, furnishing detachments at each of these places to the district and towns in the neighbourhood. The regiment seems to have discharged its unpleasant duties as delicately and satisfactorily as did the 42nd Highlanders, and to have merited the esteem and respect of the people among whom it was stationed. On leaving Limerick, where it was quartered for nearly two years, the magistrates and council presented an address to the commanding officer, Lt.-Colonel Douglas, in which they say,—
“The mild manners and military deportment of the officers, as well as the excellent discipline and moral order of the brave men whom you so well command, are happily evinced in the general order which their uniform good conduct has excited in this city; and we beg of you to convey to them the expression of our highest approbation.”
In April 1825, the regiment was augmented from eight to ten companies, of 740 rank and file, and in August, the six service companies embarked at Cork for Canada, under the command of Colonel Sir Neil Douglas, arriving at Quebec in the month of October, where they remained till June 1828. During this time, with the exception of a few months in Glasgow, the dépôt companies were stationed at various places in Ireland.
On the 24th of March 1828, Lt.-General Sir R. C. Ferguson, G.C.B.,[527] was appointed colonel of the regiment, in succession to Lt.-General Sir Alan Cameron, K.C.B., who had died at Fulham, Middlesex, on the 9th, after being connected with the regiment for about thirty-five years.
On the 18th of June 1828, the anniversary of Waterloo, the 79th, which in that month had removed to Montreal, was presented with new colours, the gift of its new Colonel, Lt.-General Ferguson. The presentation, which was performed by Lady Douglas, took place on the Champs de Mars, in presence of a very numerous assemblage of the élite of the inhabitants of Montreal.
The regiment returned to Quebec in 1833, where it remained till its embarkation for England in 1836. In the October of that year, the service companies were joined at Glasgow by the dépôt companies, which had in the meantime been moving about from place to place in Ireland, England, and Scotland, being stationed for most of the time at various towns in the last mentioned country.
In September 1833, by the retirement of Sir Neil Douglas on half-pay, Brevet Lt.-Colonel Duncan Macdougal succeeded to the command of the regiment; and on the latter’s retirement in March 1835, he was succeeded by Major Robert Ferguson.
The regiment remained in Glasgow till June 1837, removing thence to Edinburgh, where it was stationed till the following June, when it proceeded to Dublin. On account of the disturbed state of the manufacturing districts in the north of England in 1839, the regiment was ordered to proceed thither, being quartered at various places. Here it remained till about the end of 1840, when it was again ordered on foreign service, embarking at Deptford for Gibraltar, where it arrived in January 1841, and where it remained performing garrison duty till June 1848.
In April 1841, on the death of Sir R. C. Ferguson, Major-General the Honourable John Ramsay was appointed Colonel of the 79th, and was succeeded, on his death in July 1842, by Lt.-General Sir James Macdonell, G.C.B., whose portrait will be found on the plate of [Colonels of the 78th and 79th Regiments]. Meantime, on the retirement, in June 1841, of Lt.-Colonel Robert Ferguson, Major Andrew Brown succeeded to the command of the regiment, but exchanged in October following with Colonel John Carter, K.H., from the 1st Royals, who retired in June 1842, and was succeeded by Major the Hon. Lauderdale Maule.