Companies. Woolwich 6 Chatham 2 Portsmouth and Gosport 3 Plymouth 2 Dover 2 Guernsey 1 Jersey 1 Cork 2 Gibraltar 3 Newfoundland 1 Halifax 1 West Indies 2 Cadiz 2 Portugal 4 with detachments from the above to Eastbourne and the Sussex coast, Hythe, Cape Breton, New Brunswick, Ceylon, Cape of Good Hope, Sicily, the Ionian Islands, and Madeira. The companies at Cadiz were the sixth and seventh of the first battalion; and those in Portugal were the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth of the second battalion. At this time the corps counted a force of nearly 1,500 men. More than half were employed in foreign possessions and colonial defence. The remainder, distributed in home garrisons and the Channel Islands, included a large proportion of aged men, invalids, and recruits. By the end of the year the reconstruction of the companies was completed; and from continual accessions of squads of recruits, rapidly equipped and disciplined, the corps was soon in a condition, to a greater extent than heretofore, to meet such incidental necessities as might arise. Eleven sergeants were commissioned to be sub-lieutenants during the year. Some joined from the royal artillery. All were distinguished either as soldiers or artificers, particularly Sub-Lieutenant Munro, who was an “ingenious and skilful mechanic,” and his inventions, which met with general approbation, were attended with considerable saving to the Government. The captain of his company, in making a record of his acquirements, wrote that Lieutenant Munro “was the most zealous and intelligent non-commissioned officer whom he had met in the course of his services.”[175] ----- Footnote 175: