A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



Monmouth's rebellion other companies raised in Norfolk, and elsewhere were 

 united with it, and the regiment thus formed was numbered the 12th of the 

 line. It had already fought at the Boyne and Aughrim, at Dettingen and 

 Fontenoy, where its loss is said to have been greater than that of any other 

 regiment on the field, before it shared in the memorable victory of Minden, 

 for which the laurel wreath is graved in commemoration on the buttons of 

 the officers. 1 At a later date the regiment was the senior corps of infantry 

 present in the last great siege of Gibraltar, and has since borne the badge 

 of the castle and key with the motto ' Montis Insignia Calpe,' while 

 during the siege it first received the territorial title of the East Suffolk 

 Regiment. In the record of its later service may be mentioned the storm of 

 Seringapatam in 1799, the Kaffir War 2 of 185 1—3, and the fighting in New 

 Zealand in the early ' sixties ' of the last century. In the late South African 

 War, though the Suffolk Regiment lost heavily at Colesberg in January, 

 1900, it did excellent service on many occasions afterwards, the conduct 

 of the Suffolk Mounted Infantry at Bothaville being especially worthy of 

 note. 3 As in most of the non-royal regiments of English infantry its facings 

 are now white. 



Besides the East Suffolk, now the Suffolk Regiment without qualification, 

 the old 63rd of the line, now the first battalion of the Manchester, bore for 

 about a century 4 the title of the West Suffolk Regiment, while in 1804 a 

 second battalion was raised for it and stationed at Bury St. Edmunds, 6 being 

 disbanded at Ipswich in November, 18 14. 



The record of the county yeomanry can be merely alluded to here. In 

 the late South African War the Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars 

 showed their readiness to answer the call of duty and patriotism. 



Suffolk men still acknowledged the duty of the citizen to defend his 

 country when during the Napoleonic wars forty-two separate companies of 

 volunteers were raised. The volunteers of Yoxford 6 (1798) solemnly signed 

 an agreement by which they agreed to form themselves into an independent 

 company of not less than 60 nor more than 1 20 men, to be supplied with arms 

 and uniform by the government, also with a non-commissioned officer to 

 teach them the use of arms. They promised to serve under the general 

 commanding the Eastern Division in case of actual invasion, or of the danger 

 of invasion being deemed so imminent as to make it advisable for the lord- 

 lieutenant or his deputies to give orders for the removal of cattle, corn, or 

 any other article which might be of advantage to the enemy or useful to the 

 public service. 7 Most of the companies were disbanded before the end of the 



1 Lawrence-Archer, The British Army, 1 86. 



2 The reserve or 2nd battalion was in South Africa actually from 1 851 till 1857. Lawrence-Archer, 

 op. cit. 185. ' Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa, 1 21. 



4 Lawrence-Archer, op. cit. 441. 4 Rudolf, op. cit. 550. 



6 Add MSS. 19188, fol. 57. 



'Note from the Muster Rolls in the Record Office. The year 1803 saw the birth of many of the 

 companies. 



Company Men Commanding Officer Did duty at 



Helmingham 528 Earl of Dysart Ipswich 



Hartismere Rangers .... 360 Major Wm. Reeve of Roydon . . . Diss 



Halesworth 1 1 2 James Reeve Southwold 



Blythford 83 Jno. Dresser — 



Bosmere and Claydon . . . 300 Sir Wm. Middleton of Shrubland Park 



near Ipswich Bury 



162 



