Battle Honours of the British Army: From Tangier, 1662, to the Commencement of the Reign of King Edward VIINorman, Charles Boswell
History
Battle Honours of the British Army: From Tangier, 1662, to the Commencement of the Reign of King Edward VII
Norman, Charles Boswell
Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
This battle honour is borne only by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (at
that time the 1st Madras European Regiment), and was conferred upon
it by the Governor of Madras in recognition of its services at the
three sieges of that fortress in the years 1761, 1778, and 1793.
The operations were conducted by Sir Eyre Coote, an officer who had
received his early training in the 39th (Dorsets), and who, on that
regiment being recalled to England, undertook, as I have shown, to
raise a battalion for service in India.
This corps, which was numbered the 84th, and which we have already
seen at Wandewash, played an all-important part in the early
campaigns waged in India; but as it was disbanded in the year 1788,
the battle honours it gained are not to be found on the colours of
any existing regiment. Coote laid siege to Pondicherry in the month
of September, 1760, but it was not until the January following that
the Governor surrendered. In accordance with our invariable custom,
the fortress and neighbouring colony were restored to the French on
the conclusion of peace in 1763. The regiments associated with the
Dublin Fusiliers in the Siege of Pondicherry in 1760 were the 79th
(Draper's Regiment), the 84th (Coote's), the 89th (Highlanders),
under Major Hector Munro, and the 96th, under the Hon. G. Monson.
None of these corps survive to bear the battle honour.
In the year 1778, on the renewal of the war with France, the
reduction of Pondicherry once more became a matter of urgent
necessity. On this occasion the Dublin Fusiliers were again to the
fore in their capacity as the 1st Madras European Regiment (two
of its battalions being present). With them were no less than ten
battalions of sepoys. Many of these are still borne on the rolls
of the Madras army. The distinction has not been conferred on the
Indian corps for the operations in 1778; but if the losses suffered
during a successful campaign constitute a claim to a battle
honour, the words "Pondicherry, 1778," may well be accorded to the
regiments who figure in the subjoined list of casualties.
CASUALTIES AT PONDICHERRY, 1778.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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