The movement towards home took place in the autumn of 1842, the bulk of the Grenadier Guards leaving a few days before the Coldstream. Six companies of the latter, having embarked at Quebec on the 5th of October, on board H.M.S. _Calcutta_, sailed therefrom on the 6th, and reached Spithead on October 31st, whence they proceeded by train in two detachments to Winchester. After an inspection by Major-General Sir H. Pakenham, on the 1st of November, the Officer Commanding, in communicating the Major-General’s “high approbation of the steadiness and appearance” of the men, expressed his own “sense of their soldier-like conduct during the late voyage and up to the present moment, which he will take the earliest opportunity of bringing to the notice of the Officer Commanding the Regiment.” The remaining two companies followed from Canada, together with two companies of the Grenadiers, in H.M.S. _Pique_, and left on the 19th of October, arriving at Spithead on the 12th of November. The Battalion, reunited at Winchester, remained there until the 22nd of November, when they were sent to London (St. George’s barracks).[175] On the 30th of November, the Lieutenant-Colonel issued the following Regimental Order:— Colonel Walton has much pleasure in congratulating the 2nd Battalion on their highly soldierlike appearance and steadiness under arms at the inspection this morning. In welcoming the return of this fine Battalion to England, the Lieutenant-Colonel takes the opportunity of expressing to Colonel Bowles and the Officers and Non-commissioned officers and privates, the feelings of pride and satisfaction he has experienced, in hearing the good accounts, which have from time to time been received of the conduct and soldierlike feeling exhibited by the Battalion, from the commencement of its period of service in America, so fully borne testimony to by every Officer under whom it served. It is worthy of remark, that, during a period of nearly five years, so few cases of desertion have taken place in a Battalion 800 strong; nine only of which have occurred among the duty men, and this in a country where temptations to the commission of this crime were particularly strong. The Lieutenant-Colonel feels assured that such old soldiers who, for the purpose of equalizing the two Battalions, may shortly be transferred from one to the other, will by their example, impress upon their younger comrades the necessity of a ready submission to discipline, and due subordination to those placed over them, by which the individual comfort of the soldier is so much advanced, and the credit of his corps firmly established. ----- Footnote 175: