‘Head-quarters, Cape Town, May 31, 1850.
‘The 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade will be held in readiness to embark for England on board the ship, “Duchess of Northumberland,” having completed a colonial tour of ten years’ service, throughout which it has maintained the character for discipline, bravery and interior economy which distinguished it during the eventful period of the Peninsular War, under His Grace the Duke of Wellington.
‘At the Cape of Good Hope in the Kaffir War and in a rapid, long, and harassing march over the Orange river, for the suppression of rebellion, the Riflemen were ever as distinguished for good fellowship among their comrades of other regiments, as they were formidable to their foes. Colonel Mackinnon the Commandant of Kaffraria, thus reports of the Regiment:
‘“Nothing can have been more satisfactory than the conduct of the Battalion ever since it has been in this district, and it has been most ably commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith.”
‘In 1805 the Commander-in-Chief Sir H. Smith, joined this Battalion then commanded by a Colonel Sidney Beckwith, (the uncle of the present,) an officer of great military renown.
‘He has served with it during the most eventful period of its career, and has never worn the Regimental uniform of any other corps. The veteran and truly commendable affection, which is thus created, leads His Excellency therefore fervently to hope for the future welfare and honour of the Regiment.
‘“The true test of real excellence is not immediate success, but durable fame;” and Sir Harry Smith trusts, with all his heart, that this may ever be applicable to his old comrades of the Rifle Brigade.’
On June 6 the Head-quarter division embarked at Cape Town in the ‘Duchess of Northumberland,’ and sailed the same day; and after touching at St. Helena for water on the 19th, proceeded for England.
But the other division of 8 officers and 100 men of other ranks were still at East London; where they embarked in surf boats on June 10 and 11, and were conveyed on board the ‘Hermes.’ They disembarked at Falk bay on the 17th, and proceeded to Cape Town, where they were quartered until July 11.
On that day they embarked on board the ‘Himalaya,’[206] and sailed on the 12th for England.
We must now return to the movements of the Depôt companies which left Bristol in two divisions on April 8 and 11, and arrived at Brecon on the 9th and 11th.
They removed in three divisions from Brecon on June 17, 18 and 19, and proceeded to Canterbury, where they arrived on the 19th, 20th and 21st, and were there stationed until the arrival of the Service companies.
The first division of these disembarked at Gravesend on Sunday, August 11, and proceeded by railroad to Rochester, and marched into Brompton Barracks Chatham; and on the 13th marched to Canterbury, where they arrived the next day.
The second division did not reach Gravesend till September 23, when they disembarked, and marched to Canterbury, where they arrived on the 26th. Thus the whole Battalion was reunited; but owing to the free discharges given in Africa it was greatly below its strength; and recruiting was actively carried on and the staff and parties at the principal stations in England, and at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Newry were directed, by order from the Horse Guards, to raise 160 men at once for the Battalion; yet up to the end of the year it had only succeeded in obtaining 114 recruits.
On December 30 and 31 the Battalion marched in two divisions from Canterbury to Dover, where they were quartered; Head-quarters with five companies in the Western heights, and five companies in the Castle.
By an order from the Horse Guards dated February 6, 1850, the Reserve Battalion of the 2nd Battalion was to be done away; and the 2nd Battalion and Reserve, of six companies each, were from April 1 to be absorbed into one Battalion of ten companies. The officers (1 Lieutenant-Colonel, 2 Captains, 2 First Lieutenants, 2 Second Lieutenants and an Adjutant), who thus became supernumerary, were retained en second, until vacancies occurred. Pursuant to this arrangement the six companies which formed the Reserve Battalion left Quebec, where they had been stationed since their formation in August 1846, and proceeded to Kingston in two divisions; the first, consisting of three companies under Major Norcott, leaving Quebec on May 1, and arriving at Kingston on the 3rd; the remaining three companies leaving on the 8th, and arriving on the 11th.
The 2nd Battalion itself left Toronto, where it had been quartered since August 1847, in two divisions on May 22 and 24, arriving at Kingston on the following days respectively. Thus the Battalion and its Reserve were amalgamated; and at Kingston reunited into one Battalion.
FOOTNOTES:
[193] i.e. A wooded ravine or valley.
[194] Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Hardinge, retired.
[195] i.e. A ford.
[196] Colonel Charles Vernon Oxenden died April 26, 1868.
[197] Major-General Alexander Macdonell, C.B.
[198] ‘It was,’ says an historian of the war, ‘the useful green jackets, the untiring Rifle Brigade, who worried Sandilli out of his hiding-place among the mountains.’ (‘Five Years in Kaffirland,’ ii. 240, 2nd edition.)
[199] ‘Five Years in Kaffirland,’ by Mrs. Ward, ii. 329-30.
[200] Hoek, i.e. an inlet from a plain to high land, and from which there is no outlet.
[201] i.e. An enclosure, generally for cattle.
[202] Major-General Glyn, C.B.
[203] ‘Annual Register,’ xc. 248.
[204] Colonel the Hon. H. H. Clifford, C.B., V.C.
[205] Colonel Evelyn (formerly of the Rifle Brigade) in the ‘Journal of the Royal United Service Institution,’ vol. xiv. p. 103.
[206] Not the steam Troop-ship of that name; but a sailing Barque.