192 
“Che Wiltshice Acgiment for Wiltshire.” 
By W. W. Ravenuitt, Esq., M.A., 
Houorary Secretary of the Wiltshire Society (founded A.D. 1817), Recorder of Andover., &e, 
(Read before the Society at Salisbury, August, 1876.) 
44 GRQHE Wiltshire Regiment for Wiltshire.’”—Such is the 
Wah mandate of the Minister for War. A few notes on the 
past history of our regiment, now once more coming to its own 
county, will be acceptable to this Society. 
Memoirs of early services have been most kindly furnished to me 
from the War Office, and by Major-General Ingall, C.B., who for- 
merly commanded “ the Wiltshire Springers.” The London Gazette, 
the Army List, and current histories have been consulted, but much 
no doubt remains to be related upon this interesting subject. 
Records written on odd scraps of paper, preserved in regimental 
books, carried about on marches through many lands, must have 
a hard life; and it may be, that precious matter penned in America 
or the Spanish Peninsula, lies beneath the Ganges. 
The origin of the Regiment is royal. It was raised in 1736, as a 
second battalion of the Fourth Foot, or King’s Own Regiment. The 
Fourth was a worthy foster-father. Since 1680, when Thomas 
Earl of Plymouth inspected the newly-raised rank and file of that 
corps, seventy-six years had been actively spent by it, at home 
and abroad. 
It had served in Africa, at Tangier, and returned to England. 
The Prince of Orange landed at Torbay. The Fourth was the first 
regiment to recognize the will of the nation,and greet “ the deliverer.” 
Once on the throne, the king showed his eternal gratitude, by naming 
the Fourth, “The King’s Own.” It served with distinction at the 
taking of Gibraltar (1704), at Barcelona,fatal Almanza, and under the 
great Duke of Marlborough. It covered the retreat at Falkirk, and 
was conspicuous at Culloden. ‘Tales of gallantry from such sources 
