In 1768 a lieutenant-colonel and a major were added to the regiment, and, in consequence of the Court of Directors being desirous of obtaining, not only cadets but officers from Woolwich, Major Pearse was nominated to command the corps, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was, however, superseded by Captain Martin, to whom the command was given by the Indian Government, and again by Major Kindersley, whose commission as major was antedated by the local government, on the vacancy being caused by Captain Fleming’s removal to the engineers, from which he came. On the death, however, of Major Kindersley, which occurred in 1769, he succeeded to the command of the regiment. The application for a supply of officers and cadets from the Royal Artillery originated in a difficulty of finding candidates, the artillery service being neither so lucrative, nor holding out the same prospects, as the infantry. In the Secret Committee’s letter of 30th September, 1765, to the Court of Directors, it is stated that “it would be of the utmost benefit to our plan that you should send out, every year, six or seven gentlemen from the academy at Woolwich for artillery officers; this being a service which suffers extremely for want of persons properly instructed in the business, since no officer who knows the benefit of the infantry service here will choose to quit it for any advantages the artillery offers.”[12] On the death of Major Kindersley, 28th October, 1769, Lieutenant-Colonel Pearse succeeded to the command of the regiment, and, as its organization is much indebted to that officer, it is fortunate that we are able to quote from letters to his early friends his record of the state in which he found it:— “When I first came into command of the corps I was astonished at the ignorance of all who composed it. It was a common practice to make any midshipman who was discontented with the India ships an officer of artillery, from a strange idea that a knowledge of navigation would perfect an officer of that corps in the knowledge of artillery. They were almost all of this class, and their ideas consonant to the elegant military education which they had received. But, thank God! I have got rid of them all but seven.” The strange idea above referred to appears to have affected the Home Government at a still earlier period, as, on the first formation of artillery companies, “such assistance as the fleet could spare” was given. To this idea are we indebted for many terms which have hung about the corps till the present day: our tindals, lascars, serangs, cossibs, all came from the naval nomenclature, and their etymology would most probably be found in the Portuguese dialect, which has retained its influence on shipboard; from the same fountain of “English (not) undefiled” must have been drawn the “bankshall,” a name by which our gun-sheds are known throughout the regiment, but a term of considerable mystification to the uninitiated.