“Colours of the 52nd Light Infantry, 1824-52, now the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry, and they appropriately hang next those of their linked battalion and old Peninsula comrades, the 43rd. The Royal or King’s colour is the Great Union, and is so dilapidated, that it can scarcely hold the honours attached to it. The regimental colour, which is in much better condition, is of buff silk, and bears fifteen honours—the largest number granted at the time to any corps, save one, the Rifle Brigade. They were presented to the regiment at St. John’s, New Brunswick, in 1823, to replace the colours which the 52nd had so nobly borne in the Peninsula and Waterloo. In that great struggle, the 52nd were commanded by the celebrated Lieutenant-Colonel John Colborne, afterwards Lord Seaton, he whom Napier justly described as ‘a man of singular talents for war, and capable of turning the fate of a battle.’ This distinguished soldier, who had so often led the regiment to victory and never hurried it into defeat, commanded the 52nd when these colours were taken into use in 1824. They have never faced a foreign foe, but they were silent witnesses of the steady discipline and bravery of the regiment on board the transport ‘Marquis of Huntly,’ which was nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic in 1831.” =The Essex Regiment.=—Facings, white. R.C.—The Castle and Key, superscribed “Gibraltar, 1779-83,” with the motto, “Montis Insignia Calpe” underneath. The Sphinx, superscribed “Egypt.” An Eagle. (This latter device is borne to recall the Eagle captured by the 44th [Essex] from the 62nd French regiment at Salamanca. The French Eagle is now in Chelsea Hospital). The battle honours are: Havannah; Moro; Badajoz; Salamanca; Peninsula; Bladensburg; Waterloo; Ava; Alma; Inkerman; Sevastopol; Taku Forts; Nile, 1884-85; South Africa, 1899-1902; Relief of Kimberley; Paardeberg. At the headquarters of this regiment is preserved a small piece of soiled rag which the casual observer might consider of small value. But it is the corner of an old colour which possesses the following interesting history. At Quatre Bras, a French Lancer gallantly charged at the colours of the old 44th, and severely wounded Ensign Christie, who carried one of them. The Frenchman then endeavoured to seize the standard, but the brave Christie, with a presence of mind almost unequalled, flung himself upon it. As the colours fluttered in the fall, the Frenchman tore off a portion of the gay-coloured fabric with the point of his lance, but he was not permitted to carry the precious fragment far away, for he was shot. It is this piece, which was carefully preserved, that now reposes at Warley. =The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment).=—Facings, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th battalions, white; 7th (Robin Hood) battalion, black; 8th battalion, green. R.C.—The united Red and White Rose.