1842 The Earl of Westmorland, K.C.B. & G.C.H. -- SUCCESSION OF LIEUT.-COLONELS 61 SUCCESSION OF MAJORS 62 PLATES. Page Colours of the Regiment _to face_ 9 Uniform of 1843 52 [Illustration: FIFTY-SIXTH REGIMENT OF FOOT.] HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE FIFTY-SIXTH, OR THE WEST ESSEX REGIMENT OF FOOT. [Sidenote: 1755] The aggressions of foreign Princes, possessing extensive military establishments, have repeatedly rendered considerable augmentations to the British army necessary, for the preservation of the kingdom and its numerous colonial possessions; and a circumstance of this character occasioned the formation of the FIFTY-SIXTH Regiment, during the winter of 1755-6. The unjustifiable claims of France on certain portions of North America,--the forcible expulsion of a company of British settlers from a tract of land beyond the Allegany Mountains, and near the river Ohio, by a body of French troops,--and the building of a fort to command the entrance into the country on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, thus excluding the English from a valuable portion of their possessions, gave indication of an approaching war. In December, 1755, an order was issued for adding ten regiments of infantry to the regular army. The seventh of these new regiments was raised in the north of England, under the superintendence of LORD CHARLES MANNERS, who was nominated to the colonelcy, his commission bearing date the 26th of December, 1755. It was numbered the FIFTY-EIGHTH Foot; but two inefficient colonial corps being soon afterwards disbanded, (viz., Major-General Shirley’s and Major-General Sir William Pepperel’s,) it obtained the rank of the FIFTY-SIXTH Regiment. [Sidenote: 1756] Active measures were adopted in the beginning of 1756, for completing the numbers of the regiment to its establishment of ten companies, of seventy-eight non-commissioned officers and soldiers each; and its quarters were established at Newcastle and Gateshead. Its costume was scarlet, faced, lined, and turned up with deep crimson; a few years afterwards the facing was changed to a _purple_, which had been denominated “_Pompadour_” colour: this circumstance gave rise to the FIFTY-SIXTH Regiment being commonly styled “_The Pompadours_.” The following officers received commissions in the regiment:-- _Colonel_, LORD CHARLES MANNERS. _Lieut.-Colonel_, PETER PARR. _Major_, JOHN DOYNE. _Captains._ James Stewart William Skipton William Playstowe Wm. Earl of Sutherland Thomas Hargrave John Heighington John Deaken _Lieutenants._ Wilson Marshall John Forster Thomas Harrison Edwin Eyre John White James Perrin John Ingram John Archer David Dundas[1] St. John Pierce Lacy