6th Foot

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War and both the First and Second World Wars. On 1 May 1963, the regiment was re-titled, for the final time, as the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers and became part of the Fusilier Brigade.

In 1968, by now reduced to a single Regular battalion, the regiment was amalgamated with the other regiments in the Fusilier Brigade – the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and the Lancashire Fusiliers – into a new large infantry regiment, to be known as the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, becoming the 2nd Battalion of the new regiment.

History

17th century

The regiment was raised in December 1673 by Sir Walter Vane, one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, a mercenary formation whose origins went back to 1586. During the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, it took part in the Siege of Maastricht and the battles of Cassel and Saint-Denis. In June 1685, the brigade was sent to England in 1685 to help James II suppress the Monmouth Rebellion and returned without seeing action; while there, the unit was designated the 6th Regiment of Foot.

During the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, it accompanied William III to England in 1688; en route, a ship carrying four of its companies was captured by , but the soldiers were released after James went into exile. It was transferred onto the English establishment in May 1689, although its seniority dated from 1685.

Until 1751, most regiments were considered the personal property of their Colonel and changed names when transferred. In April 1690, 'Babington's Regiment' joined the army commanded by Schomberg fighting the Jacobites in the 1689–1691 Williamite War in Ireland. Three companies were detached to garrison Charlemont Fort after its capture in May, while the rest fought at the Battle of the Boyne in July, suffering heavy casualties.

Following the battle, it was part of a detachment under Lieutenant-General James Douglas that unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Jacobite-held town of Athlone. After Babington died of disease, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt became the new Colonel in January 1691; he commanded the regiment at Aughrim, and the Second Siege of Limerick in August 1691 that ended the war in Ireland.

Sent to Flanders in 1692, it was one of five British regiments almost wiped out at the Battle of Steenkerque in July and was out of action for over a year. In 1694, Prince George was replaced as Colonel by the French Huguenot exile Henri Nompar de Caumont, Marquis de Rade, who died of wounds received in a duel with Bevil Granville in June 1695. Under its new Colonel Ventris Columbine, the regiment won its first battle honour for the 1695 Siege of Namur.

The Treaty of Ryswick ended the Nine Years War in 1697; Parliament was determined to reduce costs and by 1699, the English military was less than 7,000 men. Since England, Ireland and Scotland each had their own Parliaments and funding, one way around this was to transfer regiments and the regiment appears on the Irish military establishment for December 1698.

18th century

When the War of the Spanish Succession began, the regiment took part in the 1702 Cádiz Landing; in 1703, it was sent to the West Indies, a notoriously unhealthy posting in an expedition that achieved very little. Colonel Columbine died in June 1703, shortly before reaching Jamaica and was replaced by James Rivers.

The rest of the war was spent campaigning in Spain and Portugal, including Almansa in 1707 and the 1708 capture of Minorca. In 1710, it fought at Almenar and Saragossa before being surrounded and captured at Brihuega. After the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, it was posted to Ireland and with the exception of the 1719 Vigo expedition, remained there until 1740.

In 1739, commercial tensions with Spain led to the War of Jenkins' Ear; in January 1741, the unit returned to the West Indies and took part in the expedition to Cartagena de Indias, modern Colombia. The expeditionary force suffered losses of between 80 and 90% from dysentery and yellow fever. The survivors returned to England in December 1742; the unit was brought up to strength as a result of the 1740–1748 War of the Austrian Succession, then sent to Scotland.

At the beginning of the Jacobite Rising in July 1745, detachments from the regiment garrisoned the line of forts between Inverness and Fort William. Two companies were captured at the Battle of Prestonpans; some changed sides and were executed as deserters in 1746. Several companies defended Fort William in March 1746 and after Culloden, took part in the pacification of the Highlands.

The regiment remained in Scotland until 1753; it was transferred to Gibraltar, where it spent the next 19 years before moving to the West Indies in 1772. On the outbreak of the American War of Independence, detachments from the 6th arrived in New York in 1776 and saw action, but were of insufficient strength and were sent home. To aid recruiting, each infantry unit was linked with a county in 1782 and the 6th became the 6th (1st Warwickshire) Regiment. During the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794 in the West Indies, the 6th took part in the invasions of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia from the French and in Casdebar, in August 1798, it gained a battle honour.

19th century

The 1st Battalion went from Gibraltar to the Iberian Peninsula and was at Roliça and Vimeiro

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