Battle Honours
1st Battalion
1801
8th March - Landing at Alexandria
13th March - Attack on Mandora
21st March - Battle of Alexandria
June - Siege of Cairo
August - Siege of Alexandria
1809
June - Menacing of Naples
1814
August - Landing at Benedict
August - Advance on Washington
August 24th - Battle of Bladensburg
September - Baltimore
October 4th - Landing on the Potomac
1815
January 8th - New Orleans
February 7th - Mobile
2nd Battalion
1810
April - Siege of Cadiz
December - Torres Vedras
1811
March - Sabugal
May 5th - Fuentes d’Noro
May 11th - Barba del Puerco
1812
April 6th - Badajoz
July 22nd - Salamanca
October 26th - Villa Muriel
1814
January / February - Merxem
March 8th - Bergen-op-Zoom
1815
June 16th - Quatre Bras
June 18th - Waterloo
Total Honours: 25
| History of the 44th Regiment of Foot
Pre-Napoleonic Wars
In 1740, as Britain and France became embroiled in what was to become known as the “War of Austrian Succession” the British Government increased the size of the regular army by a further seven regiments to be numbered 54th to 60th. Colonel James Long of the Grenadier Guards was commissioned as Colonel of the 55th Regiment of Foot on 7th January 1741 and commanded to raise a Regiment. It remained in England for four years until being sent against the Second Jacobite Rising (1745-46). Relatively inexperienced, the regiment broke at Prestonpans (1745) and lost most of its strength killed, wounded or captured. This regiment kept the number 55th until the conclusion of the war with the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, where upon cessation of hostilities the ten marine regiments numbered 44th to 53rd were disbanded and the regimental numbers assigned to those regiments next in line. Thus in 1748, the 55th Foot became the 44th Foot, a designation it was to have until the territorial re-organisation of the army in 1881. It was to America that the regiment sailed again in 1776 to participate in the American War of Independence.
Napoleonic Wars
Expansion of the army during the Napoleonic Wars resulted in the raising of the 2/44th (1803) and the 2/56th (1804), while the 3/5th was raised in 1813. The 2/44th was raised in Ireland, and it is perhaps to commemorate this and the many Irishmen who served with gallantry in the ranks of the 44th and 56th in their earlier years that both regular battalions of The Essex Regiment always marked St Patrick's Day by the beating of reveille by the Corps of Drums playing traditional Irish airs - a custom still observed today. The 44th served in Malta, Sicily, Spain and North America. In the latter campaign the battle honour "Bladensburg" was awarded for the part the Regiment took in the advance to and occupation of Washington, the American capital, 1814.
The 2/44th in its short life crowned itself with glory, gaining great distinction under Lord Wellington in the Peninsular War and at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. It won for the Regiment the battle honours of "Badajoz", "Salamanca", "Peninsula" and "Waterloo". It was a party of the 2/44th, under command of Lieutenant W. Pearce, that captured the Eagle Standard of the 62nd Regiment of French Infantry during the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. This Eagle (only five were taken in battle in all the wars with the French) rests in the Museum and an Eagle badge is worn as an arm badge by the Royal Anglian Regiment. The gallantry of the 2/44th in the Peninsular War gained them the nickname "The Fighting Fours".
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44th Private, Peninsula Campaign.
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62e Eagle captured at Salamanca. | Capturing the Eagle at the Battle of Salamanca
Battle of Salamanca, 22 July 1812 - the attack by Sir James Leith's 5th Division. At about 1640hrs the 5th Division, after enduring a prolonged period under fire from French artillery, began its attack on Maacune's division just above the village of Los Arapiles. When the 5th reached the crest of the heights they found Maucune's division drawn up in squares. In the ensuing contest, the British firepower broke the squares apart.
The eagle of the 62e was taken by Lieutenant Pearce of the 44th English, who appeared in front of its bearer at the moment when he was taking it off its staff to protect it under his coat. They got involved in a fight, in which they were joined by a 2nd eagle-bearer, a French soldier and three English of the 44th. The French soldier was going to drive his bayonet into the Lieutenant, when Private Finlay shot him in the head, saving the Lieutenant’s life and spraying the eagle with the soldier’s blood. The two French bearers also died straight away, one of them killed by Lieutenant Pearce, who snatched the eagle from the hands of one of the dead, then nailed their trophy to a sergeant’s pike, carrying it triumphantly throughout the remainder of the battle, presenting it to Wellington the following day.
Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Hardinge gained a medal for this victory and the 44th were permitted to bear the word Salamanca on the regimental colour. The battalion had Captains John Berwick Ensign William Standley and four rank and file killed two sergeants one drummer and twenty rank and file wounded at the battle.
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Quatre Bras
The Battalion then moved to quarters in Ostend until April 1815, when they where posted to the 95th British Infantry Brigade under the command of Sir Dennis Pack. The 2nd Battalion suffered 165 casualties during the Waterloo Campaign and was particularly hard pressed at Quatre Bras, where on June 16th Ensign Christie, despite receiving serious injuries, distinguished himself by saving the regimental Colour. After the battle of June 18th, the 44th marched to Paris, not returning to England until January 1816. In January 1816 the 2nd Battalion of the 44th Regiment of Foot embarked at Calais for Dover and on the 24th January was disbanded. The Officers received full pay until 24th March and all men fit for service were transferred to the 1st Battalion. The 44th East Essex remained a one battalion regiment, winning more glory and honours until 1881, when on 1st July, as a result of the territorial reorganisation scheme, the 44th became the 1st Battalion, the Essex Regiment and the 44th East Essex ceased to exist. Gone but never forgotten.
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44th Defending Their Colours at Waterloo
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Last stand of the 44th at Gandamak | Destruction of the 44th - First Anglo-Afghan War
The 44th Foot fought in the First Anglo-Afghan War and the regiment formed the rearguard on the retreat from Kabul. After a continuous running battle in two feet of snow, the force had been reduced to fewer than forty men. On 13 January 1842, the few survivors of the decimated regiment made a last stand against Afghan tribesmen on a rocky hill near the village of Gandamak. The ground was frozen and icy. The men had no shelter and were starving. Only a dozen of the men had working muskets, the officers their pistols and a few unbroken swords. When the Afghans surrounded them on the morning of the 13th the Afghans announced that a surrender could be arranged. "Not bloody likely!" was the bellowed answer of one British sergeant. It is believed that only two survived the massacre. Most notable was Captain Thomas Souter, who by wrapping the regimental colours around himself was taken prisoner, being mistaken by the Afghan as a high military official. The other was Surgeon William Brydon who rode his exhausted horse for days until he came to the British garrison at Jalalabad. A vivid, if romanticised, depiction entitled "Last Stand of the 44th Regiment at Gundamuk" was painted by the artist William Barnes Wollen in 1898 which now hangs in the Chelmsford and Essex museum in Oaklands Park, London Road, Chelmsford. This disaster to British arms served to encourage the Indian nationalists who were leaders in the great mutiny in India.
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Post-Destruction
The regiment spent the next six years in Britain and Ireland re-recruiting, only returning overseas to Malta in 1848. By 1854 it had sufficiently recovered to fight at the Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol in the Crimean War (1854-56). The 44th served at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854 as part of the 6th Brigade of 3rd Division, under command of General Sir Richard England. At the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854 as part of the 2nd Brigade of 3rd Division, under command of General Sir Richard England. The division formed the British reserve during the battle. At the Siege of Sevastopol from September, 1854 to September, 1855. The regiment formed part of Sir William Eyre's brigade in 3rd Division. The regiment served throughout the long siege, and notably took part in the attack on dockyard creek on 18 June 1855 and the capture of the cemetery – the sole success achieved Sevastapol cannon
Second Opium War
The 44th were serving in Madras, India in 1860 as the garrison for Fort St George. Drafts of reinforcements arrived during 1859 and the regiment was composed of 35 officers and 1,176 organised in 10 companies. At the outbreak of war with China, 5 companies of the regiment embarked on transports on 31 January. The remainder of the regiment embarked on 3 March. On arrival in China the commanding officer Colonel Charles William Dunbar Staveley was appointed to command the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division, and command of the 44th fell to Lieutenant Colonel MacMahon.
The regiment participated in the capture of the Taku Forts on 21 August 1860 as part of the Anglo-French forces under command of General Sir James Hope Grant. The 44th were in the vanguard of the assault on the North Taku entrenchments. The attacking force crossed a series of ditches and bamboo-stake palisades under heavy Chinese musketry, and tried to force entrance by the main gate. When this effort was unsuccessful, an assault party climbed the wall to an embrasure and forced entry to the fort. The first British officer to enter the fort was Lieutenant Robert Montresor Rogers of the E Company, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his conspicuous bravery. He was closely followed by Private John McDougall who was also awarded the VC. During the fighting the 44th had Captain George Ingham and Lieutenant Robert Montressor Rogers severely wounded, fourteen men killed, one drummer and forty-five men wounded. For this bloody action the Essex Regiment was awarded the battle honor "Taku Forts" to its Regimental Colour.
On 25 August the 44th embarked for Shanghai and landed at the city on 10 September. The regiment garrisoned the city until 15 November when it embarked for Hong Kong, arriving 27 November. Lieut.-Colonel MacMahon was appointed commandant of the island, and command of the regiment passed to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Browne. One wing of the regiment garrisoned Hong Kong island, with the other quartered at Kowloon on the mainland. The regiment left China in October 1861 and returned to India. Ten years later, it was merged with the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot to form The Essex Regiment.
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44th Private, Taku Forts, Opium War 1860
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