| 78th Highland Regiment | |
|---|---|
 Bonnet badge | |
| Active | 1793–1881 |
| Country |  Kingdom of Great Britain (1793–1800) United Kingdom (1801–81) |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Type | InfantryRegiment |
| Size | Onebattalion (two battalions, 1794–96 and 1804–16) |
| Garrison/HQ | Fort George, nearInverness (1873–81)[1] |
| Nickname | The King's Men[2] |
| Mascot | Elephant |
| Engagements | French Revolutionary Wars Second Maratha War Napoleonic Wars Anglo-Persian War Indian Rebellion Second Afghan War |
| Insignia | |
| Tartan |  Regimental tartan (dark version of what later becameClan Mackenzie pattern)[3][4] |
The78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot was aHighland Infantry Regiment of the Line, raised in 1793. Under theChilders Reforms it amalgamated with72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders to form theSeaforth Highlanders in 1881.
The regiment was raised byFrancis Humberston MacKenzie,Chief of the Clan Mackenzie and laterLord Seaforth, as the78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (or TheRoss-shire Buffs) on 8 March 1793.[5] First assembled atFort George in July 1793,[6] the regiment moved to theChannel Islands in August 1793,[7] and embarked forHolland in September 1794 for service in theFrench Revolutionary Wars.[6] It saw action at the defence ofNijmegen in November 1794.[6] In abayonet attack there the regiment lost one officer and seven men; a further four officers and 60 men were wounded.[8] The regiment moved to England in April 1795 and then sailed to France for theBattle of Quiberon Bay in June 1795 and the landing atÎle d'Yeu, off theBrittany coast, in September 1795, after which it was stationed in England.[6]
In 1794 the 78th raised a second battalion which, in July 1795, sailed for South Africa.[9] Here it took part in the successful attack by a British fleet underSir George Elphinstone on theDutch Cape Colony, then held by the forces of theBatavian Republic: the attack led to thecapitulation by the Dutch Navy at Saldanha Bay and the capture of the colony by British forces in September 1796.[10][8]
In March 1796 the 1st battalion sailed from England to South Africa where, in June that year it amalgamated with the 2nd battalion.[11] In November the newly merged regiment left South Africa forIndia. here it saw action at theBattle of Assaye in September 1803, during theSecond Anglo-Maratha War.[6] During the battle the regiment were tasked with retaking the Maratha gun line.[12] For their part in this decisive victory, the 78th was presented with a special thirdcolour by theEast India Company, with the elephant symbol borne on the colour worn as a regimental badge.[13] Later, when stationed in Ceylon, the 78th acquired a baby elephant as aregimental mascot. It returned to Scotland with the regiment, and was finally presented toEdinburgh Zoo.[14]
The regiment remained in India until it joined theInvasion of Java and the capture of Fort Cornelis in August 1811.[6] In June 1812, the regiment took part in thesiege and ensuing sack ofYogyakarta.[15] 100 men of the regiment took part ina 1812 punitive expedition against theSultanate of Sambas, but the expedition was forced to return upon encountering shore batteries, with the complement insufficient to take the defenses by storm. A second expedition, involving the14th Regiment andSepoy troops, would be launched in 1813 with success.[16] Also in 1813, part of the regiment would be engaged in the suppression of apeasant rebellion in East Java, which had seen two officers of the regiment killed.[17]
Leaving Java in September 1816, the vessel the battalion was travelling on,Frances Charlotte, was wrecked offPreparis, Burma, on 5 November on the way to Bengal. There were relatively few deaths and thePrince Blucher rescued most of the survivors, who it carried toCalcutta; cruisers from the British East India Company rescued the remainder.Prince Blucher carried a part of the battalion on to England, arriving at Portsmouth in June 1817.[18]
A second battalion was again raised in May 1804.[5] In late 1805 this embarked forGibraltar,[19] before sailing to Italy and participating in theBattle of Maida in July 1806.[6] It also took part in theAlexandria Expedition in spring 1807.[20] Three companies of the regiment were captured atAl Hamed nearRosetta: among the prisoners wasThomas Keith who converted toIslam and entered Ottoman service.[21] Returning home in January 1808, a draft from the battalion were present at the disastrousDutchWalcheren Campaign in autumn 1809, which suffered substantial losses due tomalaria.[22] Although under strength, the battalion embarked forHolland in January 1814, and routed a larger French force during a skirmish atMerksem, nearAntwerp. Remaining in Belgium on garrison duty, the battalion was in reserve atNieuwpoort during theWaterloo campaign, returning home in February 1816.[14]
By 1817 both the 1st and 2nd battalions were stationed in Scotland, where they were amalgamated the same year.[23] The regiment was then posted to Ireland until 1826.[14]
The regiment embarked for a tour inCeylon in April 1826 and did not return home until February 1838.[6] In 1831 Major Jonathan Forbes, while returning on horseback from a trip to Pollonnuruwa, encountered the "bush covered summit ofSigiriya".[24] After home service that included responding to industrial riots in Lancashire in 1840,[14] the 78th travelled to India in April 1842,[6] to replace forces lost during theFirst Anglo-Afghan War.[25] While atSindh, largely due tocholera, the regiment lost two officers, 496 soldiers and 171 women and children between September 1844 and March 1845.[26] To make up for the losses, replacements were recruited from across the United Kingdom, reducing the proportion of Scots in the regiment from 91% to under half.[25] After service in India andAden, the 78th moved toPersia in January 1857, and took part in theBattle of Khushab in February 1857 during the briefAnglo-Persian War.[6]
The regiment returned to India in May 1857 to help suppress theIndian Rebellion.[6] It took part in therecapture of Cawnpore in July 1857[27] and then took part in thereinforcement of Lucknow, strongly defending the residency until it was relieved in November 1857.[6] The regiment won eightVictoria Crosses during the campaign[28][29][30][31][32][33] and was hailed as the 'saviour of British India' and feted for its conduct at Lucknow.[34] This included being commemorated by poets such asJohn Greenleaf Whittier andAlfred, Lord Tennyson.[35] The regiment returned home in September 1859.[6]
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The regiment embarked for Gibraltar in 1865, and then in May 1869 sailed on the troopshipHMS Crocodile toHalifax inNova Scotia, arriving on 14 May 1869.[6][36] Each summer, men from the regiment camped atBedford to practise musketry at the military range.[37] On their departure in 1871, a farewell ball was hosted by the Grandmaster of the Masonic Lodge of Nova Scotia,Alexander Keith.[37] The regiment, together with 17 young local women who had married soldiers, embarked forIreland in the troopshipHMS Orontes in November 1871.[37]
In 1871 the regiment moved to Ireland, where it helped to keep order during sectarian rioting, before a number of postings in Scotland and England. In March 1879 the 78th arrived in India,[1] moving to Afghanistan to undertake garrison duty atKandahar over the winter of 1880–81 at the end of theSecond Afghan War.[1]
As part of theCardwell Reforms of the 1870s, single-battalion regiments were linked together to share a single depot and recruiting district. The 78th was linked with the71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot, and assigned to district no. 55, with its depot atFort George, nearInverness.[1] On 1 July 1881 theChilders Reforms came into effect, and the regiment ended its link with the 71st, and amalgamated with the72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders to form theSeaforth Highlanders, with the 78th becoming the second battalion.[5]
The regiment's legacy is retained throughNova Scotian institutions such asCitadel Hill, which features a living history program with animators portraying the 78th Highland Regiment and controls the78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel) Pipe Band, agrade onepipe band formed in 1983.[38]
Battle honours won by the regiment were:[5]
All Victoria Crosses received by the regiment were for service during theIndian Rebellion of 1857:
Colonels of the Regiment were:[5]
78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (or The Ross-shire Buffs)
