India was a central part of the British Empire in the 18^thCentury. Though the East India Company directed trade and largely controlled the region, the British Government’s influence steadily increased. For this reason the army’s role became very important.

The Indian sub-continent is central to the history of the 73^rd Regiment. It first served there as part of the 2^ndBattalion of the 42^nd Regiment when in 1784 it defended the fortress of Mangalore from Tippoo Sahib, the ruler of Mysore in South-East India. The British surrendered honourably when provisions ran out. The 73^rd Regiment received “Mangalore” as a battle honour and were famed for their performance there.

Commanders deemed the “Highland” dress of the 42^ndRegiment, from which the 73^rd came, unsuitable for the conditions in India. Linen trousers therefore replaced the kilt in 1799 and the 73^rd Regiment continued to wear trousers throughout its history.

The Battle of Seringapatam

In 1798 Tippoo Sahib was discovered to be in league with the French. The following year the British Governor General, Richard Wellesley, sent two armies to Mysore. Tippoo Sahib retreated to his Fortress of Seringapatam. The British army besieged the palace and after 14 days, on the 4^th May, they attacked and captured it, killing Tippoo Sahib. This ended the Fourth Mysore War and restored the kingdom to British control. The 73^rd Regiment fought in the right hand column of the British force. They lost 21 men and 99 suffered injuries. They also garrisoned the fortress after its capture.

The 73^rd Regiment received the battle honour “Seringapatam”. The Earl of Mornington wrote that the attack had “raised the reputation of the British Army in India to a degree of splendour and glory unrivalled in the military history of this quarter of the globe.”

Images: Top: An axe thought to have been brought back from India by the 73^rd Regiment.
Below: Portion of an 1803 print of The Storming of Seringapatam. The original oil painting dates to 1800 and is the work of Robert Kerr Porter (1777-1842). It depicts the Union flag being planted on the fortress, an indication that the British would win the battle.

In the early hours of 26^th February 1852 Her Majesty’s steamer the Birkenhead hit a rock off Danger Point, near Cape Town.  It had been carrying 638 troops to South Africa to fight in the Frontier Wars and the 73^rd Regiment comprised the largest contingent onboard.  The rock penetrated the hull and many soldiers on the lower decks drowned.  Order was kept and the women and children were evacuated to the lifeboats.  It is thought that the tradition of “women and children first”, known as The Birkenhead Drill, comes from this event.  The wife of a corporal reportedly removed two claret jugs from the sinking ship and hid them beneath her skirts before boarding a lifeboat. They were bought back by the 73^rd Regiment after being found in a London sale room a few years later and can now be seen at the Museum of the Black Watch. 

When the ship broke in half soldiers on board were ordered not to swim to the lifeboats for fear of swamping them.  As a result many were left on board when the Birkenhead sank.  Some survived by clinging to driftwood and others by clinging to the mast and rigging, which remained above the surface.  A few made it to the shore and other vessels rescued those who survive at sea.  In total 438 drowned, including 56 from the 73^rd Regiment.  All the women and children were saved.

Captain Edward Wright of the 91^st Regiment, who was onboard the ship, noted that during the ordeal “everyone did as he was directed” and was impressed that all was conducted “with so little noise and confusion.” The Duke of Wellington later praised those onboard for their conduct. 

Images: Top: The Wreck of the Birkenhead by Lance Calkin (1859-1936), Oil on Canvas
Below: The claret jugs taken from the Birkenhead during the disaster.

Between 1806 and 1879 nine wars took place between British forces and the Xhosa people of South Africa after they began taking over Boer settlements.  The 73^rdRegiment took part in these between 1848 and 1853. 

The Xhosa regularly attacked British military villages along the frontier, which the 73^rdwere subsequently ordered to protect.  They chaperoned supply wagons, took the enemy’s cattle and resisted guerrilla style attacks from the mountains.  For soldiers of the 73^rd Regiment, life during the campaign consisted of long marches and poor conditions.  In his diary, Captain Knox complained of marching for 16 hours without food and Private John Rich recorded that he had marched for 34 days without changing his clothes.  Private Rich also complained that the rations he received would not have been sufficient even for a child.  “How”, he asked in his diary, “have our rations been invented to subsist a soldier on the frontier of South Africa, in wartime, when I have been marching for sixteen and eighteen hours out of twenty-four?”  The Regimental History states that “Men and officers were exposed to wet and sultry weather and performed many long and harassing marches.”  A new low occurred in 1852 when the Birkenhead, carrying troops to the Frontier Wars, sank, resulting in the deaths of 438 soldiers, including 56 from the 73^rd Regiment.

Not everything in South Africa was bad.  When they were not fighting soldiers played sports and drank wine and port, though drunkeness was severly punished; Private Rich narrowly escaped a flogging for intoxication.  In 1851 Captain Knox wrote that he had “a hell of a dinner, singing songs and playing the fiddle all evening” and on another occasion he said that he had gotten "rather tight.”

Image: A shako worn by officers in the 73^rd Regiment from 1844 until 1855.