The 35th (Sussex) Regiment of Foot
The 35th Foot was a regiment raised in Belfast during the summer of 1701 by the third Earl of Donegal, Arthur Chichester. He had served under William III, who graciously allowed the regiment to wear orange facings. It originally served as marines on the Cadiz expedition and in the west Indies during 1702. It then took part in the defence of Gibraltar in 1705 and later at the capture of Barcelona where Arthur Chichester was mortally wounded. The King of Spain paid tribute to the Colonel and his regiment in a letter to Queen Anne. It fought with great loss at the Battle of Almanza in 1707 after which it was sent to Ireland to be reformed. (the regiment had lost its Colours at Almanza which were recovered from a church in Madrid some years later.) In 1748 it received a 2nd battalion. After nearly 50 years in Ireland, it was sent to Nova Scotia at the start of the Seven Years War. It did hard work on the frontier fighting the French and Indians and among the regiments that captured Louisburg. It was part of the garrison of Fort William that surrendered to Montcalm’s forces in 1757. Two years later they had their vengeance at Quebec, where under General Wolfe they took part in the defeat of Montcalm’s Army on the Plains of Abraham. They made particular damage to the French Royal Roussillon Regiment when they plucked the plumes from the enemy hats and placed them on their own caps. The plume became a symbol for the regiment and was incorporated into the badge of the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1881.
The Regiment returned to North America in 1775, this time to fight their former allies who sought Independence from Britain. The Light infantry and Grenadier companies took part in the battle of Bunker (or Breed’s) Hill. After the siege of Boston, they were evacuated to Halifax and the flank companies took part in the New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia campaigns while the battalion companies were garrisoned in some important Jersey towns. Later, under General James Grant they went to the West Indies where they took part in the capture of St. Lucia. In 1782 the regiment was associated with Dorsetshire in a program to give county titles to infantry regiments. Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond commanded the regiment from 1787. There he began to recruit men from the county of Sussex and in1805, it became the county regiment.
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars saw the regiment employed in numerous campaigns such as the siege and capture of Malta in 1800 with the 1st battalion remaining on that island for some time. From there it took part in expeditions to the Ionian Islands and the descent on Genoa. Both battalions were involved in the disastrous Alexandria campaign of 1807 and later on the Walcheren Expedition of 1809. Although it was in Belgium in June 1815, the 2nd Battalion took no part in the Battle of Waterloo. Not long after it was disbanded. The 1st Battalion was stationed in Corfu until returning to England in 1818.
Back to being a single battalion, the 35th served in the West Indies and Mauritius from 1820 to1832. In that year the regiment was honoured by William IV to bear the title “Royal” and change its facings from orange to blue. It returned to Mauritius in 1837, where it remained for more than ten years. Missing the Crimean War, the regiment went to India (for the first time) and served in the 1856 Burma campaign and the Indian Mutiny the following year. It moved to Barbados in 1875 and Malta in 1879.
In 1862 several regiments of the East India Company were brought into the British line. One such regiment was the 3rd Bengal European Light Infantry, which joined as the 107th Regiment of foot. It moved to England in 1875 and under the Cardwell/Childers reforms of 1881, it became the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment. In addition, the Royal Sussex Militia Light Infantry became the 3rd battalion. Three more battalions were found by the Sussex rifle corps raised during the 1860s during the volunteer movement. They were the 1st Volunteer Bn, Brighton, the 2nd VB, Worthing and the 3rd (Cinque Ports) VB, Hastings.
In 1882 the 1st battalion was sent to Egypt, where it was in reserve for the main force during the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. It served during the Nile Campaign of 1884. At the Battle of Ginnis the Royal Sussex were probably the last British unit to wear Scarlet in battle.
The 1st Bn was shipped to South Africa in February 1900 and fought at the battle of Doornkop in May. Joining them in March 1901 was the 3rd Militia Battalion and a service company of the three volunteer battalions. The 1st battalion went to India at the close of the 2nd Boer War.
Twenty battalions of the Sussex Regiment were raised during the Great War with the 2nd battalion distinguishing themselves at the 1st Battle of Ypres (Oct-Nov 1914). They were later joined by the Cinque Ports battalion during the Battle of Aubers Ridge in May 1915. They fought at Loos (Sept 25th to Oct 8th 1915 ( where Sgt. Harry Wells was awarded the Victoria cross, posthumously.) Just before Battle of the Somme, (July 1st 1916) their trenches received major bombardments from the German lines. They then went “over the top” and despite heavy fire they achieved their objective of taking the first line of German trenches but they were running out of ammunition and had to withdraw. They lost 349 men killed in the space of five hours fighting. In the annals of the regiment this is known as “The Day Sussex Died”.
The 1st battalion spent the War in India as part of the Peshawar Division. They were one of the few battalions that saw no combat on the Western Front. They did take part in the 3rd Afghan war in 1919.
They were still in India when the 2nd World War broke out, joining the 7th Indian Division in 1940. The division moved to Egypt in late 1940 and fought at the Battle of El Alamein (1942), later in Italy and notably at Monte Cassino where they sustained over 50% casualties. In late 1944 they were shipped to Greece where they remained until the end of the War.
The 2nd Battalion was part of the B.E.F. in 1940. Along with the 4th and 5th Battalions, they evacuated from Dunkirk. After refitting, the 1st Bn was sent to North Africa, fighting at Alam Haifa and El Alamein in 1942. In 1943 they were reconstituted as a parachute battalion serving in Iraq and Persia. They became part of the 160th Armoured regiment (RAC) in 1943 joining the 267th Indian brigade in Burma in April. The did hard fighting in the Arakan and Mandalay until the Japanese surrender.
In1948 the British Infantry was formed into Administrative Brigades. The Royal Sussex, now a single battalion, became part of the Home Counties Brigade, along with the Royal West Surrey, The Buffs, the Royal Fusiliers, the East Surrey, The Royal West Kent and the Middlesex Regiments in 1961 there were further amalgamations: The Brigade now contained four regiments: The Queens Own Buffs (Formed by the East Kent and Royal West Kent Regt), The Royal East Surrey Regiment (Formed by the East and Royal West Surries) The Royal Sussex and the Middlesex.
On 31 December 1966 the four regiments of the Home Counties Brigade were merged to become a new "large regiment": The Queen's Regiment, with the four regular battalions redesignated as the 1st to 4th Battalions of the new regiment.
On 1 July 1968 the Home Counties Brigade was united with the Fusilier and East Anglian Brigades, to form the Queen's Division.
The Queen's Regiment was later amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment to form the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshire’s) on 9 September 1992.
The uniforms of the regiment largely conformed to the infantry patterns of the times. Scarlet coats with their distinctive orange facings were worn right up to 1832 when they became dark blue.
The soldier in the illustration is a private of the 1st Battalion in about 1829. He is wearing a uniform not far removed from Napoleonic times. The bell shaped “Prussian” shako was first introduced in 1816 and with a few modifications was worn until the 1840s. His tunic is the last to have the orange collar and cuffs (in the style first worn per 1768 regulations). The blue-grey trousers were authorized in 1823. He carries the “Land” pattern musket and bayonet used until 1852.
For more on the Royal Sussex Regiment go here: https://www.theorangelilies.com
Bibliography: Records and Badges of the British Army; Chichester & Burgess Short - Gale & Polden 1900
Famous Regiments of the British Army. Vol 3: Dorian Bond - The History Press 2017
