12th Regiment of Foot

Chronology

• 1685 raised as Duke of Norfolk's Regiment of Foot
• 1751 became 12th Regiment of Foot
• 1752 became the 12th (the East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot
• 1758 2nd Battalion redesignated as 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot
• 1959 amalgamated with the 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment and became 1st Battalion, 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk)
• 1964 amalgamated with the three other remaining regiments of the East Anglian Brigade and became 1st Battalion (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) East Anglian Brigade

Campaigns

4th Mysore War

The 12th Regiment of Foot first embarked for the East Indies in June 1796 on board the East Indiamen "Rockingham", "Lord Hawkesbury", "Airlie Castle" and "Melville Castle". They were convoyed by the frigate "Fox". Lists of the officers and men of the regiment that boarded these ships have been transcribed from the ships' logs held at the British Library and put online on the fibis search website. Wives that accompanied the men are also listed.

The regiment arrived in Madras in January 1797 and remained in India until 1810. During its time in India the regiment saw action in the 4th Mysore War taking part in the Battle of Seringapatam 1799 on the 4th May 1799.

Afghan War

The regiment embarked again for India from Ireland in July 1864 aboard the "Alnwick Castle", "Trafalgar", Calcutta" and "Alquis". The First Battalion saw action in the 2nd Afghan War from 1878-80.

From 1864 to 1907 the Suffolk Regiment always had at least one battalion serving in India. In St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, there is a brass plaque commemorating the 266 officers and men of the Second Battalion who died in India from 1864 to 1878.

World War II

The Suffolk Regiment were also in India during World War II.

FIBIS resources

• A video of the talk "The British Army in India – Soldiers of H.M 12th Foot, The Suffolk Regiment" given by Gwyn Thomas, Curator of the Suffolk Regiment Archives, at the FIBIS Spring lecture meeting 21 May 2011 is available for viewing by FIBIS members in the FIBIS Social Network

British Library holdings

• The 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment with brief historical account of the services of the regiment. Photographs by Fred Bremner. Published in Quetta by Fred Bremner, 1899.

This is a photographic album produced by the photographer Fred Bremner, one of four known photographic albums of British Army Regiments in the North-West of India which he published in Quetta and Lahore in the early 1900s. As an indication, that for the 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment consists of a brief History of 20 pages followed by 38 full page printed photographs.

Suffolk Regiment Archive

The Suffolk Regiment Archives are held at the Suffolk Record Office in Bury St Edmunds.

An index of individuals listed in the "Suffolk Regimental Gazette" held at the Bury St Edmunds branch of Suffolk Record Office is also being put online on the FIBIS search site.

Death by duel at Arnee, December 1798

Colonel Henry Hervey Aston died 23 December 1798, at Arnee, Madras Presidency, a week after being shot in a duel by fellow officer Major James Allen

• Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G. Volume 1 India 1797-1805, (published 1858) page 160
• Pages 84-89 from Memoirs of George Elers (refer below)
• India List thread with an account from two London newspapers.

External Links

Historical Books Online

• Historical Record of the Twelfth, or the East Suffolk, Regiment of Foot : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1847 by Richard Cannon 1848. Archive.org. Indian service commences page 57 in 1797 in Madras
• Memoirs of George Elers, Captain in the 12th Regiment of Foot (1777-1842) to which are added correspondence and other papers, with genealogy and notes 1903 Archive.org . He arrived in Madras page 58

Other

• 12th Regiment of Foot Wikipedia
• 1st East Anglian Regiment Wikipedia
• Royal Anglian Regiment Wikipedia
• The Suffolk Regiment including
  • The History of The Suffolk Regiment
  • The Suffolk Regiment Archive
  • Suffolk Regiment Museum Official website of The Suffolk Regiment Museum. Suffolkregiment.org
• Victorian Wars Forum thread in which Frogsmile identifies a photograph taken in Quetta as 2nd Battalion the Suffolk Regiment c 1900 and provides additional information and a further regimental photograph