43rd Regiment of Foot

Also known as the Monmouthshire Regiment and later The Ox and Bucks.

Chronology

• 1741 raised as Thomas Fowke's Regiment of Foot
• 1747 renamed the 54th Regiment of Foot
• 1747 became the 43rd Regiment of Foot
• 1751 became the 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot
• 1881 amalgamated with the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot, to become the 1st Battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry.
• 1908 became the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
• 1958 re-titled as the 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd)
• 1966 amalgamated with the two other regiments of the Green Jackets Brigade to become the 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets
• 1992 1st Battalion disbanded

Service in British India

• 1854 Bangalore, after arriving at Fort St George from England in January. The regiment was based here until '57, with various companies on detachment.

In February 1855 the 25th Regiment of Foot received orders to return to Britain and men who wished to remain in India were given leave to transfer to the 43rd Foot.

• 1857 Indian Mutiny, see below
• 1859 Saugor
• 1860 Calcutta
• 1861 Madras
• 1862 Rangoon
• 1863 Barrackpore before leaving for New Zealand

Indian Mutiny

As the regiment were stationed in Madras they were not immediately involved in the Mutiny. In late 1857 they became part of the Madras Column sent to join the Central India field force with the ultimate aim or relieving Saugor. See also the Banda and Kirwee Prize Money for reward money paid to the 43rd.

Henry Addison of the 43rd was awarded the Victoria Cross for saving the life of the politcal agent at Rewah.

Stations

A partial list of stations of the 43rd Foot (by quarter) as taken from the musters rolls (at The National Archives). At most times there are several detachments stationed elsewhere, only some are noted here.

• Apr-Sep 1857 - Bangalore, detachment Madras
• Oct-Dec 1857 - Camp Palsamoodrum, detachment Mysore
• Jan-Mar 1858 - Camp Patrick
• Apr-Jun 1858 - Camp at Humeerpore, detachments at Jubbulpore, Kirwee and Bandah
• Jul-Sep 1858 - Camp Orai, various detachments
• Oct-Dec 1858 - Camp Calpee, various detachments
• Jan-Feb 1859 - Jubbulpore
• Mar 1859 - Saugor

Regimental Journal

• The Oxfordshire Light Infantry Chronicle , 1895(-1908). An annual record of the First and Second Battalions, formerly the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry. Volumes 4-17 are available at the British Library
• The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Chronicle from Volume 18 is also available at the British Library and a broken range of editions is available at the National Army Museum

External links

Historical books online

• Historical Record of the Forty - Third Regiment, Monmouthshire Light Infantry to 1867 by Sir Richard G A Levinge (1868) Google Books. Indian Service commences page 272 in 1854 in Madras. Contains an alphabetical list of Officers from page 296.
• From England to the Antipodes & India - 1846 to 1902, with startling revelations, or 56 years of my life in the Indian Mutiny, Police & Jails by Isaac Tyrell (1904) Archive.org. On page 36 the author transfers from the 96th Foot to the 43rd Foot in 1854. Pages 46-52 describe a cholera epidemic in the Regiment in 1857 when 48 men, 6 women and 26 children died in a few days.
• The Story of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (the old 43rd and 52nd regiments) by Sir Henry John Newbolt. 1915. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.

• Mesopotamia, 1914-15 : Extracts from a Regimental Officer's Diary by H. Birch Reynardson 1919 Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. The author was an officer in the 1st Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Other

• 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot Wikipedia
• Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Wikipedia
• Royal Green Jackets Wikipedia
• 43rd (the Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) including deployments Regiments.org, an archived site
• The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion Regiments.org, an archived site.
• The Museum for the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust covers the 43rd and 52nd Regiments. The collection is now owned by the Royal Green Jackets Museum Trust.
• The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum covers the 43rd, 52nd and 60th Regiments, and the Rifle Brigade.
  • Some regimental archives are available at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies
• Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry longlongtrail.co.uk, advises that the 1st (Garrison) Battalion was formed in Portland in September 1915, and moved to India in February 1916, where it then remained
• There was a company called the No. 1 Reserve Battalion which appears to have been stationed in India from June 1916 to 1918 at Bangalore.