17th Regiment of Foot

Crest of 17th Regiment of Foot

Known as Royal Leicestershire Regiment

Chronology

• 1688 raised as Solomon Richard's Regiment of Foot in London; known until 1751 by the names of 8 other colonels
• 1751 became the 17th Regiment of Foot
• 1782 became the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot
• 1881 amalgamated to become The Leicestershire Regiment
• 1945 became the Royal Leicestershire Regiment
• 1948 became part of the Forester Brigade
• 1964 The 1st Battalion, Royal Leicestershire Regiment became the 4th (Leicestershire) Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment
• 1975 disbanded

Service in British India

• 1804 Fort William
• 1806 Bundelcund
• 1806 Cawnpore
• 1807 Fort Chumar
• 1807 Fort Comona
• 1808 Muttra
• 1810 Meerut
• 1813 Ghazipur
• 1814 Jutgurgh
• 1814 Nepal
• 1815 Ghazipur
• 1815 Ghazipur
• 1816 Allahabad
• 1817 Jubalpore
• 1818 Ghazipur
• 1819 Fort William
• 1836 Bombay
• 1837 Poona
• 1838 Tatta NWF
• 1839 Ghazni
• 1839 Khelat
• 1839 Scinde
• 1842 Poona
• 1845 Bombay
• 1847 Karachi
• 1871 Lucknow
• 1876 Peshawar
• 1877 Mhow
• 1878 Kaldana
• 1878 Afghanistan
• 1880 Nowshera
• 1902 Aliwal

Four hundred and twelve men volunteered to remain in India in 1823, when the regiment returned to England. It lost in India one thousand and twenty-one men by disease and killed in action; and four hundred and twelve were invalided.

Regimental journal

The Green Tiger, journal of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, first published 1904, is available to read online, see below.

External links

Historical books online

• Historical Record of the Seventeenth, or the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688, and of its subsequent services to 1848 by Richard Cannon 1848 Google Books. Indian Service commences page 31 in 1804

A History of the Services of The 17th (The Leicestershire) Regiment. Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1688, and of Its subsequent services, revised and continued to March 31st, 1912 by Lt.-Colonel E A H Webb 1912 Archive.org

• The Green Tiger, journal of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, first published 1904. Website of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.
• 17th Regiment in India 1804-1822 pages 102-103 "Scraps of Fort William Regimental History (continued)" Bengal Past and Present Volume 53 January-June 1937. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.
• "History of the Epidemic Fever which prevailed among the men of Her Majesty's 17th Regiment during the monsoon of 1841, when quartered in the Colabah barracks, Bombay" by Arthur S. Thomson M. D. Assistant Surgeon, 14th Light Dragoons, lately 17th Foot, page 84 Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay Volume V 1842 Google Books
• "Some Remarks upon the Climate of Sukkur, in Upper Scinde, during the Months of April, May, June, and July 1846; with an Account of the Fever prevailing there during those Months [in the 17th Regiment of Foot] by NF Hefferman M. B , page 216 Transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay Volume X, 1847-1848 Google Books
• History of the 1st & 2nd Battalions, the Leicestershire Regiment in the Great War by Colonel H C Wylly (Harold Carmichael) 1928. Archive.org

Other

• The 17th Regiment of Foot (Leicestershire Regiment): Their deployment – 1798-1914 by David Stevens from Militarybadges.org.uk, now an archived website.
• The Royal Leicestershire Regiment including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion Regiments.org, an archived site
• The Royal Anglian Regiment Museum. Covers the Royal Norfolk Regiment (9th Foot), the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment (10th Foot), the Suffolk Regiment (12th Foot), the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (16th Foot), the Royal Leicestershire Regiment ( 17th Foot)), the Essex Regiment (44th/ 56th Foot), and the Northamptonshire Regiment (48th/ 58th Foot).
  • The Royal Leicestershire Regiment (17th Foot)
• The Archives of the Leicestershire Regiment are held at the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland
• "Danny Deever" Notes by Roger Ayers on the Rudyard Kipling poem of this name. It is thought to be based on the execution of Private Flaxman, of the 2nd Battalion, The Leicestershire Regiment, for the wilful murder of a lance-sergeant. kiplingsociety.co.uk

Scroll to the article "A Military Execution in India" by Ray Beck in The Kipling Journal December 2009 pages 22-30. This article gives an account of the execution by hanging of No.2638 Private George Flaxman of the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment at Lucknow on 10 January 1887, including an eyewitness account, “for the wilful murder of Lance Sergeant William Carmody of the 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment at Ranakit on or about the 9th of September 1886” kiplingjournal.com, now archived.

• George Olliffe – Victorian army bandsman, British India Family website. He served in the 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment 1901-1913 and was in India March 1903 to October 1906. Includes some pages from The Green Tiger. (Part 1, Childhood).
• Photograph Collection: Snaps India 1930. Many seem to be related to the Leicestershire Regiment. flickr.com
• The Royal Leicestershire Regiment
  • Citation for the Military Medal: 1st Bn The Leicestershire Regiment 4533116 Lance Corporal John Farry, June 1939 near Razmak Zerai in Waziristan.
  • Citation for the Military Medal: 1st Bn The Leicestershire Regiment 4857405 Lance Sergeant Harold Blake, 21 August 1939 against Bandiza in Waziristan.
  • Citation for the Military Cross: 1st Bn The Leicestershire Regiment 69129 Lieutenant Richard Thomas Henry Lonsdale, 14 November 1939 near Razmak.
• A Story of War Colin Diarmid Campbell Dunford Wood, 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment kept war diaries continuously from early 1939. (Cached URL)
  • Diary commences "January 2nd 1939–Razani–1st Leicestershire Regiment" (scroll to bottom of page). At the top of each page click on newer posts, but then scroll down to the bottom of the page to commence reading. Diary ends "September 14th 1939–Razani"
  • Photographs Waziristan 1939
  • Waziristan Campaign Order of Battle Includes regiments and detachments based in Waziristan during 1939.
• The last Brit on the River Kwai: Reg Twigg, one of the few remaining survivors of the Death Railway, died last week - but the story he left behind will stay with you forever 11 May 2013 dailymail.co.uk