The Regiment marched to Weymouth in the early part of the summer, and was encamped there. Their being near Windsor the year before, and now at Weymouth, the summer residence of George III., was probably due to Manningham’s being attached to the person of that sovereign. They returned to Blatchington barracks in the autumn.
On June 25 the establishment of the Corps was again changed, and companies were given to the field-officers, as was then the case in line regiments. But this arrangement was of short duration, for on March 27 following field-officers’ companies were abolished, and effective captains were appointed in their place.
In the autumn of 1802 the Regiment marched to Chatham. On this march, at Maidstone, some of the men broke open the plate-chest of the officers’ mess. One of the offenders was discovered, and being tried by court-martial, was sentenced to receive 800 lashes, the whole of which were inflicted at one time.
The Regiment appears, even at this early period, to have been a favourite one with volunteers from the line and militia; and Surtees mentions four men in the ranks who had been commissioned officers; one of whom, indeed, was drawing half-pay, and was eventually recalled to full pay as lieutenant.
After a short stay at Chatham, the Regiment was moved for the winter to Shorncliffe and forts in the vicinity.
On December 25, 1802, the Rifle Corps was ordered to be numbered as the 95th Regiment, and thus assumed the name under which it was long known, and which its services on the continent of Europe made famous.
In May 1803, the head-quarters, with five companies, returned to their old quarters at Blatchington, and in November moved to Colchester, and eventually to Warley and Woodbridge barracks; the other five companies, under Colonel Beckwith, remaining during the summer at Shorncliffe, where, on Colonel Stewart’s promotion to Brigadier-General and command of a district, the head-quarters and other five companies joined them. Here they formed part of that camp of instruction under Sir John Moore, the marvellous results of which have been so truly and eloquently described by Sir William Napier;[24] and here they first met and were brigaded with their compeers, the 43rd and 52nd, in united action with whom, as the Light Division in the Peninsula, so many of their laurels were won.
During the time the Regiment was encamped at Shorncliffe, Colonel Manningham, carrying out the intentions of his own standing orders, delivered a course of lectures on the duties of Riflemen in active service, which he published.[25]
On the breaking up of that camp, the Regiment moved into Hythe barracks till April 1805, when it appears to have returned to Shorncliffe.