The 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881. It was originally raised in Northumbria as the 58th Regiment, and renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded. It saw service in Cuba at the capture of Havana in the Seven Years' War, and was later part of the garrison during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the American Revolutionary War. During the French Revolutionary Wars it fought in the Caribbean and then in Holland. On the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars the 56th raised a second battalion in 1804 as part of the anti-invasion preparations; both saw service in India and in the Indian Ocean, with the first capturing Réunion and Mauritius. A third battalion was formed in the later years of the war, but was disbanded after a brief period of service in the Netherlands.
The regiment spent much of the following period on foreign garrison duties, and saw service in the later stages of the Crimean War, at the Siege of Sevastopol. It was despatched to India during the Indian Mutiny, but did not see active service. The regiment was amalgamated with the 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot to form the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment in 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms; the Essex Regiment's lineage is currently maintained by the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, a mechanised infantry unit.
History Formation and early service
Following the rise of tensions in North America in 1755, the British government decided to raise ten regiments of infantry in preparation for an expected war with France. Orders for the raising of the 52nd to 61st Regiments of Foot were issued in December of that year.Historical Record of the Fifty-Sixth, or the West Essex Regiment of Foot, Richard Cannon, Parker, Furnivall and Parker, London, 1844, p. 9
One of these regiments, the 58th Regiment of Foot, was raised at Newcastle and Gateshead on 28 December 1755, under the colonelcy of Lord Charles Manners, whose commission was dated 26 December. Throughout 1756 it recruited heavily to come to its authorised establishment of ten companies, each of 78 men. On 25 December 1756, the 50th and 51st Regiments were disbanded, and all higher-numbered units redesignated, with the 58th becoming the 56th Regiment of Foot.Cannon, pp. 9–10
In April 1757 it moved to Berwick, and thence into Scotland, where it would take up garrison duties; it occupied quarters at Aberdeen in 1758 and Edinburgh in 1759. In July 1760 it returned to England, sailing from Leith to Portsmouth, and was stationed at Hilsea through 1761. On 17 December of that year, Lord Charles Manners was succeeded in the colonelcy by Colonel William Keppel.Cannon, p. 11
West Indies campaign
On 4 January 1762, Britain declared war on Spain in the Seven Years' War, and began preparing for an expedition against Spanish possessions in the Caribbean. The 56th was assigned as part of the expeditionary force, and sailed from Portsmouth on 5 March, arriving off Havana on 6 June and landing the following day. The regiment numbered a total of 933 officers and men, and was brigaded with four companies of the 1st Foot and a battalion of the 60th Foot.Cannon, pp. 11–12
The main object of the force was to besiege Morro Castle, which guarded the harbour. After a long reduction, a storming party was organised and attacked on 30 July, and took the fort after a brief but violent action, in which 150 of the garrison were killed and 400 taken prisoner, with the remaining 200 dying in an attempt to escape in small boats.Cannon, pp. 12–13 The regiment was granted the battle honour "The Moro" for this action.This distinction is unusual both for being the first battle honour granted for an individual action in a larger engagement, as well as for being one of the few battle honours received by a regiment on its first active service. It is also unique to the 56th; no other regiment was granted the honour. (Baker, p. 45)
The city surrendered on 13 August.Cannon, p. 13 The regiment suffered twelve deaths, with one officer and 23 men wounded, during the campaign. The 56th remained as part of the Havana garrison for the following year, until Cuba was returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, when it was transported to Ireland, arriving in Limerick in October 1763. The regiment moved to Dublin in May 1765, and in June 1765 the colonelcy was assigned to Lieutenant-General James Durand. He died in 1766, and was succeeded by Colonel Hunt Walsh.Cannon, pp. 13–14
Gibraltar
In 1770 the regiment was despatched to Gibraltar, sailing from Cork in May. The regiment was augmented by a light infantry company of seventy men in December 1770, and the ten line companies had their authorised establishment raised by twenty-one men.Cannon, pp. 14–15
The regiment remained in the Gibraltar garrison for several years, and was present when Spain declared war on the United Kingdom in June 1779 and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began. At this point, the effective regimental strength was 560 men and 27 officers, around a tenth of the garrison. A relief convoy arrived early in 1780, and a second in April 1781, but supplies remained limited. The commander of the garrison decided late in 1781 to attempt a sortie, and this was launched on the night of 26 November; the flank companies of the 56th were part of the raiding force, and destroyed several batteries of artillery.Cannon, pp. 15–18
The siege was finally lifted in February 1783 – after three years and seven months – when the Treaty of Paris ended hostilities, and confirmed British possession of Gibraltar. The 56th received the battle honour "Gibraltar" for its service in the siege, with the right to bear the castle-and-key insignia on its colours. It was relieved in October 1783, and returned to England. Shortly thereafter the regiment was given a county affiliation, part of a move to increase recruiting by linking regiments to local areas, and became the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot.Cannon, p. 21
In the spring of 1784 it moved to garrison duty in Scotland, serving at various stations there until January 1788, when it embarked for Ireland with a reduced establishment of ten companies. From 1788 to 1793 it was stationed in Ireland.Cannon, p. 22
French Revolutionary Wars
With the French Revolution of 1792 the army was expanded in preparation for war; the authorised establishment of the 56th was brought up to twelve companies, and it was ordered to prepare for overseas service. Before hostilities broke out, however, the regiment was involved in suppressing a riot near Wexford in June 1793. Major Valloton, a company commander, was killed along with several local men.Cannon, pp. 22–23
The regiment embarked for the West Indies in November 1793, arriving at Barbados in January 1794, and fought at the capture of Martinique in February. The line companies being left there as a garrison, the light and grenadier companies fought at the capture of St. Lucia in April, and the whole regiment saw service fighting at the capture of Guadeloupe in September. It remained as a garrison in the West Indies for the remainder of 1794, but took great losses from disease. In October, the men still fit for service were transferred to the 6th, 9th and 15th regiments, and the remaining cadre of officers and men embarked to return to England on 3 January 1795.Cannon, pp. 23–24
Arriving in England in February, they were stationed at Chatham to recruit and retrain. The regiment sailed to Cork in September, and after a brief period in Ireland was deemed to have attained "so perfect a state of discipline and efficiency" that it was considered fit for overseas service once more, and despatched to Barbados. It was sent to St. Domingo, and remained there through 1797. On the death of General Walsh, the colonelcy had passed to Major-General Samuel Hulse on 7 March 1795; he did not retain it long, and it was conferred on Major-General Chapple Norton on 24 January 1797. After a period stationed in Jamaica, the regiment returned to England at the end of 1798, again to recruit and rebuild its strength.Cannon, pp. 24–25
In 1799 the regiment was part of the force sent to the Netherlands in the ill-fated Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, arriving in the Netherlands in September in time for the Battle of Schoorl-Oudkarspel on the 19th, where it suffered sixty-three officers and men killed or wounded, plus another fifty-nine missing. It fought at Bergen and Egmont-op-Zee on 2 October, before withdrawing from the Netherlands on 18 November.Cannon, pp. 25–27
During 1800 the regiment was stationed in Ireland, and increased its establishment by a further two companies of a hundred men each. The new recruits, since returning from the West Indies in 1799, had been enlisted for service only within Europe; on hearing the announcement of the major victories in the Egyptian campaign in 1801, they promptly offered their services for general service throughout the world. This offer was, however, quickly followed by the Peace of Amiens in 1802, and the regiment remained in Ireland.Cannon, pp. 25–29
Napoleonic Wars
After the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803, a major expansion of the land forces was put in place to deter an invasion; on 25 December 1804, some four hundred men raised in Surrey were placed on the Army establishment as the 2nd Battalion, 56th Regiment, shortly thereafter expanded to 656 men.Cannon, p. 29 The existing battalion of the regiment was, accordingly, redesignated as the 1st Battalion, 56th Regiment. Noting the great success the two existing battalions had had with recruiting, a third was later authorised, and raised in 1813 at Horsham as the 3rd Battalion, 56th Regiment.Cannon, p. 39
A detachment of the regiment served on board the frigates HMS Psyche and HMS Piedmontaise as marines from 1809 to 1810, and fought in a brief conflict with the Indian kingdom of Travancore in 1809.Cannon, pp. 34–35
1st Battalion
The first battalion moved from Ireland to the Isle of Wight in January 1805, where it was brought to a full strength of a thousand men, and shortly thereafter embarked for Bombay, where it remained as a garrison for several years. In 1808, its strength was augmented to 1300 men.Cannon, p. 30 A force of 200 men were detached for service in the Indian Ocean in January 1809, successfully raiding the Île Bourbon in September, capturing a large amount of shipping at anchor.Cannon, pp. 30, 33
During this time, in August 1809, the remaining companies of the battalion were shipped from Bombay to Madras at short notice and under great secrecy, in an attempt to make a show of force to avert a possible mutiny of the Indian regiments. This was successful, with any violence being averted, and the regiment received the thanks of the Governor in Council.Cannon, pp. 35–36
In 1810 a second expedition was mounted into the Indian Ocean, with a strong detachment of the first battalion as well as various other units, and the Île Bourbon was taken on 10 July.Cannon, p. 36 The same detachment then saw action at the capture of Mauritius in December, the last French territory remaining in the Indian Ocean.Cannon, p. 37
A force of militia volunteers sent as recruits to the 56th arrived as a garrison in Goa in mid-1810. It joined the first battalion in 1811, and the Indian Ocean detachment returned later that year. To mark the regiment's services in India, it received a new pair of colours as a gift from the Honourable East India Company.Cannon, p. 38
With the return of Napoleon to France in 1815, the battalion was again despatched to Mauritius to reinforce the garrison there against the possibility of a revolt by the French population, where it remained.Cannon, p. 44-45
2nd Battalion