1825

On the 12th of January, 1825, the regiment marched from Gosport for Chatham, where it arrived on the 20th of that month. On the 7th of February the regiment marched to Gravesend to embark for Calcutta: the right wing on board the Honorable East India Company’s ship “Kent,” under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Fearon; the left wing on board the “Scaleby Castle,” under Major Tovey. The two ships parted company off Portsmouth at the end of February, and the “Scaleby Castle,” after making a favourable voyage, arrived at Sangor, in the mouth of the Hoogley, on the 7th of June.

The men had been remarkably healthy during the long confinement on board ship; two only had died during the passage, and only eight were on the sick list when the vessel came to anchor. The men were transferred, after a few days’ delay at Sangor Point, to sloops, a particularly uncomfortable and clumsy description of vessel, then used to transport troops up the River Hoogley from the sand-heads, and on the 21st of June they arrived opposite Fort William, where boats had been prepared to receive them, for they were not yet destined to land. It was the 26th, however, before the left wing was able to sail again; it was therefore five days, during the most trying season of the year, confined in small thatched boats, which were moored to the river’s bank: it nevertheless reached Berhampore on the 2nd of July, with the loss of only one man.

Berhampore, on the Bhagaritty river, is the cantonment of the city of Moorshedabad, and in 1825 was the depôt of the regiments on the Bengal establishment, then on service in Burmah. The companies of the left wing of the corps took possession of the barracks, and remained in them till the 22nd of September.