Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
(43rd and 52nd Foot).
Though the 43rd and 52nd Regiments were
independent of each other for some 140 years from
their formation, their subsequent union into a single
regiment and the way in which their fortunes were
so often linked in the early years make it possible
for their stories to be told as one.
Foundation
The eighteenth century saw Great Britain and France
intermittently at war, both on the continent of Europe
and throughout their colonial territories, and the
British Army was continually expanded and reduced
to suit the needs of the moment. One such expansion,
in 1741, included the raising of the 54th Regiment
of infantry with its headquarters at Winchester. Disbandments
at the end of the war in 1748 spared the regiment,
by then in garrison at Minorca, but reductions amongst
older regiments caused its renumbering as the 43rd.
In 1755 another 54th Regiment was raised and based
at Coventry, to be renumbered the 52nd a year later.
The Seven Years' War (1756-63)
Shortly after the start of the Seven Years' War with
France, in 1757, the 43rd moved to North America.
It was part of Wolfe's force which captured Quebec
in 1759 and then defended the city against a French
siege through the following winter, operations which
led to the annexation of Canada by the British. Once
North America was secured, the action moved to the
West Indies, where the Regiment took part in the storming
and capture of Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent and
St. Lucia from the French, and Havannah, Cuba, from
the Spanish.
The American War of Independence (1774-82)
The 43rd returned to England after the peace of 1763
but crossed the Atlantic again eleven years later
and was engaged throughout the American War of Independence.
The 52nd, which had waited twenty years for its first
taste of active service, joined them at Boston and
the two regiments fought side-by-side at Lexington
and Bunker Hill, both battles won at the cost of heavy
casualties. There followed a series of successful
actions around New York in which the Americans were
regularly defeated and the 52nd returned home in 1778.
But the intervention of France in support of the rebellion
started the turn of the tide; the 43rd was sent to
Virginia to reinforce Lord Cornwallis and was therefore
present at the siege and final surrender at Yorktown
in 1781 which brought the war to an end.
Southern India (1783-96)
The 52nd landed at Madras in 1783 and for nine years
was involved in intermittent campaigning against Tippoo
Sahib of Mysore. A succession of battles against a
well-organised enemy culminated in the capture of
Tippoo's capital at Seringapatam. European rivalries
and alliances were the cause of two other shorter
expeditions in the same theatre which seized Pondicherry
from the French and the coastal towns of Ceylon from
the Dutch.
The West Indies - Second Round (1794-1800)
In 1794 the 43rd, now with the extra title the Monmouthshire
Regiment, was again engaged against French possessions
in the West Indies, its first tasks, in which it played
a distinguished part, being to capture, for the second
time, Martinique and St. Lucia, which had been returned
to France by the peace treaty of 1763. The 43rd also
assisted at the capture of Guadeloupe, but were then
left there as a garrison with too little strength
to hold off the French counter-attack and, much reduced
by disease, were overpowered after a resistance lasting
some three months.
The Light Brigade
For some fifty years before 1800 it had been the practice
for infantry battalions to include a light company
of picked men for tasks needing rapid reactions when,
in 1803, the 43rd and 52nd were chosen to form the
first Corps of Light Infantry and joined with the
95th Rifles (later The Rifle Brigade) to constitute
the Light Brigade at Shorncliffe in Kent under the
command of Sir John Moore. Moore has been described
as 'the very best trainer of troops that England has
ever possessed'. His insistence on absolute professionalism
and mutual respect between officers and men (new concepts
at the time) was to create a formation whose contribution
was crucial to Wellington's victories in the Peninsula
and whose traditions survive in The Royal Green Jackets
of today.
Copenhagen (1807)
In 1807, Denmark having allied itself with France,
the 43rd, 52nd and 95th, led by Sir Arthur Wellesley,
the future Duke of Wellington, were part of a force
which bombarded and captured Copenhagen and with it
the entire Danish fleet. Disaster almost struck on
the voyage home, when a ship carrying the 43rd ran
aground in a storm. Sure that their last hour had
come, an officer produced a flute and played the 'Death
March in Saul', but ship and regiment in the end survived.
The Peninsular War (1808-14)
When Napoleon's armies invaded Spain and threatened
Lisbon in 1808 the 43rd and 52nd were in Wellesley's
force sent to oppose them and played a central role
in the sharp engagement at Vimiera (where all four
future Green Jacket regiments took part) which forced
the French to evacuate Portugal. When Sir John Moore
succeeded to the command and advanced into Spain,
two battalions of each regiment were in his army and,
with the 95th, played a distinguished part in forming
the rearguard when the army was forced to retreat
in mid-winter to Vigo and Corunna. Moore was killed
in the final battle but his army was able to embark
in good order and return to England. The following
year the reconstituted Light Brigade returned to the
Peninsula under Robert Craufurd, landing at Lisbon.
Hearing that their support was urgently needed in
Spain, they set out at once on a forced march of 250
miles, the last fifty-two in twenty-six hours, to
join Wellington's army at Talavera, but arrived on
the battlefield only to find that the battle was already
won. Meanwhile the 2nd Battalions of each regiment
were despatched on a disastrous expedition to Walcheren
in the Low Countries where they were decimated by
fever without achieving anything of value. With the
addition of two battalions of Portuguese light infantry
the Brigade grew into the Light Division and for the
next four years was continuously the cutting edge
of Wellington's force until the French were driven
out of Spain. By that time it had fought another dozen
great battles and sieges and as many lesser actions.
At the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo Lieutenant Gurwood
of the 52nd commanded the 'forlorn hope' and received
the French Governor's sword in surrender.
North America (1814-15)
Napoleon's abdication in 1814 led to a temporary peace
and the disbandment of the Light Division. An expeditionary
force, including the 43rd, was despatched against
the United States, which was allied to France and
threatening British possessions in Canada. A series
of sharp engagements culminated in the capture and
burning of Washington, but the British force was later
repulsed before New Orleans and the 43rd returned
to Europe just too late to fight at Waterloo.
Waterloo (1815)
When Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of
Elba to lead his army to the decisive battle of the
war at Waterloo the 52nd found itself brigaded with
the 95th and 71st and started the day in reserve.
They were moved forward to resist successive attacks
by French cavalry and their position was crucial when
Napoleon launched his Imperial Guard in a final stroke
against the centre of the British line. The French
were halted by the fire of Maitland's Brigade of Guards
and, as they faltered, Sir John Colborne led the 52nd
in a charge against their flank which turned their
advance into disorderly retreat and swept the rest
of the French army away with it.
The Kaffir Wars and the Birkenhead (1851-53)
The defeat of Napoleon was followed by thirty years
of peace, but the remainder of the century was punctuated
by campaigns to secure the Empire. In the 1850s the
43rd fought in the Kaffir War in South Africa; their
discipline and self-sacrifice in the ship-wreck of
the Birkenhead off Natal, when the troops paraded
on deck as the women and children took to the boats,
stirred the imagination of Victorian England and caused
Frederick of Prussia to have the story read out at
the head of every regiment of his army as an example
of devotion to duty.
The Indian Mutiny (1857-59)
During the Mutiny campaign the 43rd marched some 1300
miles in seven months, fighting innumerable small
actions on the way, developing the concept of mounted
infantry by the use of camels and winning its first
VC. The 52nd set out from Bengal to, join the British
force besieging Delhi, where they led the assault
on the Kashmir Gate. Bugler Hawthorne won one of the
regiment's two VCs for coolly sounding the advance
under intense fire from the walls as the explosive
charges to blow in the gate were detonated and then
rescuing a wounded Engineer officer of the firing
party.
Campaigns from 1863-1902
In 1863 the 43rd was called on to fight a tragic and
bloody but ultimately successful war against the Maoris
in New Zealand, in which their opponents were not
only courageous but showed exceptional humanity to
the wounded. In the next thirty years the 43rd and
52nd were involved in sporadic operations in India,
Burma and the Sudan.
This Officer's name was William Ashby
born approximately 1870 his family were based in Derbyshire
while he was away fighting in the Boer War. (Janet
Stafford - Great Grand-daughter)
The 43rd fought throughout the Boer
War in South Africa (1899-1902), notably at the relief
of Kimberley and the decisive battle of Paardeburg,
which resulted in the surrender of the Boer General
Cronje. Their mounted infantry company was active
throughout the war.
Amalgamation
The Cardwell reorganisation of the Army in 1881 recognised
the historical links between the 43rd and 52nd and
decreed that they should become the 1st and 2nd Battalions
of The Oxfordshire Light Infantry, though the old
regimental numbers continued in unofficial use. The
combined regiment was based at a new Depot at Cowley,
Oxford. In 1908 'Buckinghamshire' was added to the
title.
World War 1(1914-19)
The 1st Battalion (43rd) fought the Turks in Mesopotamia,
where they suffered very heavy casualties, were besieged
at Kut and eventually starved into surrender. Of 300
men who were taken prisoner only ninety survived the
war. In 1919 the reconstituted battalion took part
in the inconclusive campaign against the Bolsheviks
in North Russia. The 52nd and most of the affiliated
Territorial Force battalions fought on the Western
Front. In 1914 they achieved fame at Nonne Boschen
by routing the Prussian Potsdam Guards, almost 100
years after they had defeated the French Imperial
Guard at Waterloo. From then on, however their experiences
of appalling casualties for little apparent gain mirrored
those of the rest of the Army. Other battalions fought
in Italy and Salonika.
World War II (1939-45)
The 43rd and 1st Bucks Battalion (TA) were in the
British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 and
escaped through Dunkirk after suffering heavy casualties.
Another TA battalion (4th Oxf Bucks) was encircled
by the Germans and overrun. The regiment was represented
by the 7th Battalion in Tunisia and Italy (at the
Anzio and Salerno landings), the 43rd in North-West
Europe (in the advanée from Normandy to Hamburg)
and by the 6th in Burma (from Arakan down the west
coast to Tamandu). The 52nd was chosen to pioneer
the new role of airlanding by glider. At midnight
before the D-Day landings in Normandy coup de main
parties from the battalion siezed and held the bridges
over the Caen Canal (Pegasus Bridge) and River Orne
(Horsa Bridge).
The story of an 'ordinary' D-Day
Cockney soldier who somehow reached 'extraordinary'
heights - like so many others, it is a story of laughter
and tears, of triumph and tragedy.
In March 1945 the battalion carried
out a costly assault landing as part of the operation
to cross the Rhine before fighting its way across
Germany to meet up with the Russians on the Baltic.
The Post-War Years (1945-1958)
After the war the 43rd were engaged in peace-keeping
in Trieste and Yugoslavia while the 52nd faced the
Jewish uprising against the British mandate in Palestine.
In 1948 the two Battalions amalgamated to form the
1st Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Light Infantry, 43rd and 52nd, which was in Greece
during the Civil War, in Egypt and in Cyprus confronting
the Enosis insurgents demanding union with Greece.
There in 1958 it once more changed its title to the
1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) and in 1962 was
the first battalion to take part in the Borneo Campaign.
Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry (43rd/52nd)
Contact: The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum on
01962 828549 or The Soldiers of Oxfordshire (SOFO)
Museum on 01993 810210.
