“In wishing Major Simmonds, the officers and soldiers of the regiment, a prosperous and speedy voyage to England, the major-general must express his warm acknowledgment to the former for the anxious zeal displayed by him while in command of the regiment; to the officers for the able support they have given him, ‘and which is so essential to the well-being of any corps,’ and to the non-commissioned officers and privates, who merit all the praise he can bestow, and who, in quitting the colony, leave behind them the regrets and good wishes of all classes, which of itself, after a residence of eleven years, is sufficient proof of the good system, discipline, and general respectability of a corps.” [Sidenote: 1840] In consequence of meeting with stress of weather in the British Channel, Her Majesty’s ship “Jupiter” put into the Cove of Cork, on the 4th of March, 1840, and was towed over to Southampton, by the steam-frigate “Cyclops,” having on board the depôt companies from Ireland. The whole regiment landed at Southampton on the 12th of March, and proceeded by railroad to Winchester; where it was inspected by Major-General the Honorable Sir Hercules Pakenham, commanding the South-West district, and subsequently by Lord Hill, the General Commanding in Chief, both of whom were pleased to express their entire approbation of its appearance, discipline, and interior economy. In August following it was removed to Woolwich, and performed the dockyard duties there, and at Deptford, until the summer of the following year. General the Right Honorable Sir George Hewett, Bart., G.C.B., died a few days after the arrival of the regiment in England, and Her Majesty was pleased to confer the colonelcy of the regiment on Major-General Sir John Gardiner, K.C.B., Deputy Adjutant-General of the Forces. [Sidenote: 1841] In June 1841, the regiment proceeded by railroad to the Northern district, and was detached in the counties of Northumberland, York, and Lancaster. In consequence of the reverses sustained by the British troops in Affghanistan, in the winter of 1841, the SIXTY-FIRST Regiment was ordered to recruit to the Indian establishment of one thousand rank and file, and to prepare, with the Fifty-eighth Regiment, to embark for India. [Sidenote: 1842] The successful campaign of the following season, and the withdrawal of the troops from the Affghan territory, occasioned an alteration in the destination of the regiment.