British Regiments at the Front, The Story of Their Battle HonoursHodder, Reginald
History
British Regiments at the Front, The Story of Their Battle Honours
Hodder, Reginald
Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army
It was at Lucknow that Tommy Atkins, the sentry, when he saw the people
flying for the Residency, refused to leave his post, and was killed by
the Sepoys. This proud nickname, Tommy Atkins, has now come to mean any
soldier in the British Army, and rightly so, for, be it said, they are
all built on the same plan as the one who immortalized their present
name.
There are two true stories of the Dublin Fusiliers which will bear
repeating; indeed, they are more than true: they are tender and true,
and show the noblest form of self-sacrifice in the face of unconquering
death. At Natal, when Captain Paton was severely wounded, one of his
disabled men crept to his side in the cold, teeming rain, and lay with
his arms about him all night long, trying to keep the necessary warmth
in his body. And if you remind an old Dublin Fusilier of this touching
story, he will most probably tell you another of eighty years ago,
which is like unto it. There were, so the records tell, two
foster-brothers in the Bombay Fusiliers (the 2nd "Dubs")--the younger
an officer, and the elder a devil-may-care private. "Ye'll be lookin'
after the lad," said their mother, when they left for the front. "I
will," replied the reckless one; and he did. They were found, years
later, upon a mountain-side in India, both dead, lying among dead and
wounded. But--and here is the lump in the throat--the younger had been
badly wounded, and the elder only slightly; but, dead from exposure,
there he lay by his brother's side, stripped to the skin, all his
clothes being piled upon his mother's younger son to keep his ebbing
life-spark warm. Deep down in the devil-may-care Bombay Fusilier who
did that deed was surely the spirit that conquers death, subjecting it
to the higher glory of Britain.
* * * * *
THEIR BADGES AND BATTLE HONOURS, ETC.
BADGES.--The Royal Tiger, superscribed, "Plassey," "Buxar." The
Elephant, superscribed "Carnatic," "Mysore."
MOTTO.--"Spectamur Agendo."
BATTLE HONOURS.--Arcot, Condore, Wandiwash, Scholingur, Nundy Droog,
Amboyna, Ternate, Banda, Pondicherry, Mahidpoor, Guzerat, Seringapatam,
Kirkee, Beni Boo Ally, Aden, Punjaub, Mooltan, Goojerat, Ava, Pegu,
Lucknow, S. Africa 1899-1902, Relief of Ladysmith.
UNIFORM.--Scarlet with blue facings.
FUENTES D'ONORO AND ALBUERA
"A battle's never lost until it's won."--_Old British proverb._
"Nothing could stop that astonishing infantry."
_Napier._
As at Balaclava and Inkerman, a great number of our Expeditionary
regiments now contending side by side at the front were present at the
victorious battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, and a new significance attaches
to that name from the fact that these regiments were mainly responsible
for the victory on that occasion. The battle is also very noteworthy in
the annals of British pluck and endurance for the number of times the
little village was taken and retaken in the course of the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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