SOUTHERN INDIA 1803-1817
At the commencement of the nineteenth century the British held much of the
coast of India and all Bengal with a mixed force of regular regiments,
European corps, paid and administered by the East Indian Company, native
regiments and subsidised allies. The interior of the sub-continent contained
many warlike groups of people, some of whom had been well trained by French
officers, and as in addition there was a real threat of a French invasion, a
large force was necessary to protect the factories of the Company.
Orders issued in 1803 show attempts to check some of the abuses and
indiscipline in the King's regiments during this period. Adjutants were
sometimes civilians employed as confidential clerks by C.O.s; in future they
had to be commissioned. Paymasters were forbidden to indulge in private
trading, but there is no mention of a ban on other officers doing so, and if
one had been already made, it was frequently ignored. The above seem
reasonable and mild, but the code of discipline for other ranks was very
different: for mutiny or striking a superior the penalty was a thousand
lashes on the bare back, and threatening language entailed eight hundred.
Offering violence was punished with solitary confinement with a good chance
of a flogging first, and desertion could earn up to fourteen years
transportation to Australia or foreign service for life probably in the West
Indies. In spite of these instructions mutiny or gross insubordination were
often dealt with by a firing squad, a quicker and certainly far more humane
method of killing than the eight hundred or one thousand lashes.
After six months in Madras the 80th less the three companies in Malabar, was
ordered to take the field under General Stuart as part of a force ordered to
attack the powerful Mahrattas, who had formed temporary alliances for this
war against the British. Trained by capable French officers the Mahrattas
were formidable opponents and it required the military skill of both
Wellesley and Lake to crush them.
In March 1803 the Regiment picked up a detachment at Poonamalee, a few miles
east of Madras, and joined its Brigade on the banks of the Pombooda River.
The operations were on a vast scale for, while Stuart's task was to guard
the southern frontier of the Mahratta territory, known as the Doab,
Wellesley was directing the main attack far to the north; with him was
Harness in temporary command of the 75th Regiment. Further north still Lake,
the Regiment's Colonel, was starting a campaign which was to take Delhi.
Altogether 1803 was a busy year for the Army in India. The unspectacular
role of the troops in the south entailed endless marching, numerous patrols
and many alarms, but no pitched battles and little real fighting. This
unsatisfactory form of warfare lasted for eighteen months before peace was
declared.
At Cannanore, on the Malabar Coast, the Regiment was reunited after five
years separation in September 1804. The Digest states that the detached
companies had been continually employed against hostile native chiefs for
two years and that since the return from Egypt there had been 145 deaths in
the unit. After two months for reorganisation, it was again on active
service, the Nairs of Wynaud being once more on the warpath. These patriots,
or bandits (possibly both) were difficult to bring to action as they wisely
avoided any form of pitched battle and relied on the dense country they knew
well to prepare their ambushes, raids and most important of all their lines
of retreat. Such guerrilla warfare gave the lightly clad natives a great
advantage over the cumbersome and slow-moving British columns, which had to
compete against a hot. steamy climate in wooded and hilly terrain which was
difficult to penetrate. The food was probably unsuitable and the water bad
and when the enemy was discovered he unsportingly used poisoned arrows!
One can sympathise with the historian of the 80th , who complained that the
service was most harassing and fatiguing, as unattended with reputation as
it was unprofitable. The last was important for prize money meant much to
the Army in those days and in the south there was no chance of fame, loot or
battle honours, as there was for those regiments fighting in Central and
Northern India. However, such a campaign taught the troops toughness and
adaptability, and so well were these lessons learnt that the enemy leaders
were captured and the country more or less pacified in five months, so that
by May 1805 the 80th was back in Cannanore. Meanwhile Harness had died at
the early age of forty-two in 1804, while serving as a Brigade Commander
under Wellesley; the warm friendship with both that austere man and also the
dour General Baird is evidence that he was a keen and efficient officer. He
was followed in 1805 by ~Forbes and meanwhile the unit was commanded by
White.
On 5th May 1807, after two years in Cannanore, the unit moved to
Seringapatam, the journey taking a fortnight, it was here joined by a draft
from the Stafford Militia, which had marched from Madras via Bangalore in
European clothing! The callous lack of elementary common sense on the part
of the authorities helps to explain the tragic stay in Seringapatam, where
in 18 months the 80th lost 223 dead with many more discharged to die either
on the journey home or in England. Apparently Seringapatam had its own type
of malignant malaria and this caused the deaths and incapacitation of so
many of the veterans of Egypt, who deserved a better fate.
Cannanore had been left without a British garrison and before long it was
threatened by the nearby state of Travancore. Captain Dalrymple, 80th was
ordered to march to the port with four companies, having left one on
detachment enroute he was joined by Major Sturt with three more companies
and he of course assumed command of all six. His-party was to be the nucleus
of a force detailed to invade Travancore under a Lieutenant-Colonel Cuppage
who had also native troops with him. Apparently the Travancore army
preferred civilian opponents for there was no fighting, although the British
column marched deep into enemy territory and presumably brought back
hostages and indemnities. Lieutenant-Colonel Forbes and the remainder of the
Regiment joined Sturt and his strong detachment at Cannanore in 1809 and
spent over two years there and as there is no mention in the Digest of any
large number of deaths it was no doubt a more healthy station than
Seringapatam. There were, however, other methods of dying as an extract from
the proceedings of a Court Martial shows:
"Lieutenant Taunton, 22nd Light Dragoons, was charged with 'Behaving in a
Scandalous and Infamous manner unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman, in
that he, in the Mess of the 22nd Light Dragoons, being himself sober, did
deliberately provoke and pick a quarrel with Lieutenant Cadenski of the 80th
Foot, who was intoxicated, and challenged him to fight with swords across
the Mess Table, thereby mortally wounding the aforesaid Lieutenant Cadenski."
Taunton, who was fortunate not to be charged with murder, was cashiered.
Such Courts Martial were frequent, drunkenness and duelling being the usual
charges, and although the 80th did not have many, in another regiment five
such cases were tried by one Court!
In 1810 White took over from Forbes, who as a Colonel in the Army moved to
be promoted. These ranks in the Army were really a form of Brevet and have
been so described for convenience. although the term did not come into use
until later; officers in those days received pay for their appointments and
not their army rank and the most sought-after was Colonelcy of a regiment.
The 80th returned to Seringapatam in 1811 and remained there for two years
when it moved to Quilon, near the toe of India. This was the last station of
its tour and again death took a heavy toll, for during the stay in
Seringapatam and its first two years in Quilon there was a loss of 183
officers and other ranks, White being one of the former. He was followed by
Sturt and the other Lieutenant-Colonel was Edwards, probably the last
survivor of the original 80th , still serving with the unit he also was to
die in India.
The system of purchasing Commissions could not meet the urgent need for
officers in that country and of the twelve newly-gazetted Ensigns posted to
the Regiment between 1812 and 1817 only one bought his first appointment.
Three of the others, however, came from the Stafford Militia and such
transfers were normally free. Of the twenty-two promotions during the same
period, only two were purchased. the remainder stepping into the places of
their dead comrades.
Men were still enlisted for life. but a recent order had permitted a limited
engagement of seven years. From an order dated 1816, which authorised the
return home of these short-service men who had completed their time, and
which directed they were to be treated kindly as loyal soldiers who had
faithfully served His Majesty, it appears they were not popular. The
majority of the 80th recruits continued to come from the Stafford Militia,
thus justifying its designation of "Staffordshire Volunteers". Others came
from the Militias of Devon and Shropshire, but the bulk of reinforcements
were from the units ordered home. As will be seen from the 80th itself, such
men volunteered in large numbers and they must have had good reasons. for
while the "Call of the East" may be felt at home, it is not always
noticeable whilst actually out there.
Bounties persuaded some, as did entanglements with native women and for men
of good character there were opportunities of civilian employment if and
when they could get their discharge. Most probably preferred the chance of.
a quick death from tropical diseases to a slow one from starvation at home.
Many men lost all touch with their homes on enlistment and had nowhere to go
to in England or Ireland.
The Indian establishment of a British regiment, as augmented in 1810, was
large, with over 50 officers and nearly 1,100 other ranks; but it is
doubtful if these numbers were maintained and certainly the 80th was much
below this strength some years before it went home. New Colours were
presented to the Regiment in 1814 at Quilon and these had heavy Sphinxes
instead of the regulation spear-heads. The innovation was unofficial and
also impracticable, for the new tops were so weighty that they had to be
unscrewed before the Colours were carried any distance. After over three
years at Quilon, the 80th was ordered home and was relieved in November 1816
by the 89th, Royal Irish Fusiliers, before marching to Madras. At
Trichinopoly during the journey the usual orders were received allowing
eligible men to transfer to any regiment in the Madras Presidency and as the
53rd, Shropshires, were on the spot and, as it was a regiment with whom the
80th had close and friendly relations, 273 men promptly went into it.
Another 116 volunteered for the Madras Europeans, one of the Honourable East
Indian Company's units and later to become the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
At Madras the 80th erected a monument to Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards as a
token of respect and affection to a deservedly popular officer. Sturt
transferred to the 69th and Cookson, the hero of the wreck off Abyssinia,
took the unit home. It arrived in Madras on 15th January 1817, and what was
left of it embarked on the chartered ships Lucy and Maria and sailed on 20th
March. The strength return indicates that there was little inducement for
officers or sergeants to remain in India for thirty-two of the former and
thirty-six of the latter were on board with only 143 rank and file. The
following order was published by the Commander-in-Chief Madras Presidency a
few days before the Regiment left. "Lieutenant-General Sir Thos. Hislop
avails himself of the opportunity to record in General Orders that the
conduct of H.M.'s 80th Regiment whilst under his command has been such as to
merit approbation to entitle that responsible Corps to the public expression
of His Excellency's cordial wishes for its future honour and prosperity.
Meanwhile, there had been changes in the Colonels; in 1808 Lord Lake died
after a distinguished and gallant career and was succeeded by
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Paget brother of the founder of the 80th . He
held the appointment until 1815 when the vacancy occurred in his old
regiment the 28th , Gloucesters. He was followed by Lieutenant-General Sir
Alexander Campbell; these Colonelcies were awarded for distinguished service
and none of these officers had had any previous connection with the
Regiment; it is most doubtful if Lake or Paget ever saw it whilst Colonel,
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