86th Regiment of Foot

86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot, know as the Royal Irish Rifles from 1881.

Chronology

• 1793 raised as Sir Cornelius Cuyler's Shropshire Volunteers at Shrewsbury from men of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire as a volunteer corps
• 1794 became the 86th (the Shropshire Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
• 1795 absorbed personnel of 118th Regiment of Foot
• 1806 became the 86th (The Leinster) Regiment of Foot
• 1812 became the 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot
• 1881 amalgamated with the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot to form The Royal Irish Rifles
• 1921 became the Royal Ulster Rifles
• 1947 grouped with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and Royal Irish Fusiliers into the North Irish Brigade
• 1968 amalgamated with the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot to form The Royal Irish Rifles
• 1991 amalgamated with the Ulster Defence Regiment to form the new The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling) 83rd and 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment).

Service in British India

• 1799 Madras
• 1799 Bombay
• 1800 Ceylon
• 1801 Egypt
• 1802 Bombay
• 1803 2nd Maratha War
• 1806 Bombay
• 1806 Goa
• 1810 Mauritius Campaign
• 1810 Madras
• 1854 India
• 1857 Indian Mutiny
• 1897 Poona
• 1923 Madras

External Links

• 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot Wikipedia
  
• 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot including deployments Regiments.org, an archived site.
• Royal Irish Rifles including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion Regiments.org, an archived site.
• The Royal Irish [Regiment] Details of Museums and database for the Royal Irish Rifles (83rd and 86th Regiments of Foot), the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27th and 108th Regiments of Foot), and the Royal Irish Fusiliers (87th and 89th Regiments of Foot). In addition, in time it is intended to include in the database the names of many soldiers who served in what have become known as the Disbanded Irish Regiments, such as the Connaught Rangers, (88th and 94th Regiments of Foot), the Dublin Fusiliers (102th and 103th Regiments of Foot) and the (18th) Royal Irish Regiment. The Leinster Regiment (100th and 109th Regiments of Foot) and the Royal Munster Fusiliers ( 101st and 104th Regiments of Foot) also are part of this category.
• "The Journal of Patrick Sinclair Laing Assistant Surgeon, 86th Regiment, 1842-1848" by H B Eaton. Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol. 62, No. 250 (Summer 1984), pp. 74-89. Register and read online for free. jstor.org. The diary extracts commence October 1844.

Online draft of this article Wellcome Library RAMC/1582, catalogued as "Draft of "The journal of Patrick Sinclair Laing, assistant surgeon, 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot, 1842 to 1847, in India"". Note, the draft is longer, and has information from 1842.

Historical books online

• Historical Record of the Eighty-Sixth, or the Royal County Down Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1793, and of its subsequent services to 1842 Archive.org. Indian service commences page 13 in 1799 in Madras.
• "Notes on the History and Services of the 86th Regiment of Foot" Page 209, page 375 and page 462 Colburn’s United Service Magazine 1878, Part III. Archive.org. The account covers the period in India from 1799 to 1809. (Page 59, not India. Possibly there are parts in earlier editions).The account continues in 1879 Part I : 27-34 (1810-1818), 298-307 (1818-1846). 1879 Part 2: 88-100 (to 1879). Google Books.
• "The Storming of Jhansi: A Passage in the History of the Royal County Downs" by J. D. B. page 344 The United Service Magazine 1878, Part 1 HathiTrust Digital Library. See Central India Campaign.
• History Of The Royal Irish Rifles (to 1913) by Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie 1914 Archive.org.
• The History of the First Seven Battalions, the Royal Irish Rifles (now the Royal Ulster Rifles) in the Great War by Cyril Falls 1925 Archive.org.
• The 2nd Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War By James W Taylor 2005 Archive.org Texts to Borrow.