Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment)

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Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment) - Regimental History
Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment) - Main Page

Name : Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment)
Started : 1881
Ended : 1902

Previous Regiment Lineage(s) :
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Houghton's Regiment of Foot (1741 - 1747)
Warburton's Regiment of Foot (1747 - 1751)
45th Regiment of Foot (1751 - 1779)
45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot (1779 - 1866)
45th (Nottinghamshire) (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot (1866 - 1881)

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95th Regiment of Foot (1823 - 1825)
95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot (1825 - 1838)

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Subsequent Regiment Lineage :
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Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (1902 - 1970)
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot) (1970 - 2007)
Mercian Regiment (Cheshire, Worcesters and Foresters, and Staffords) (2007 - Present)

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The Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment)

The 45th (Nottinghamshire), or "Sherwood Foresters" - a title granted in 1866 - which was once linked with the 17th, and the 95th (Derbyshire) - a name given in 1825 - which was linked with the 54th before the territorialisation, were united under the present designation in 1881. Apparently, however, the union between the two battalions is, for local reasons, not very strong. After prolonged service in North America - during which time it fought at Cape Breton, Fort Beau Sejour, Louisburg, Quebec, St. John's, and Bank's River, Brooklyn it returned home in 1778 only a hundred strong, and at the request of a patriotic committee, formed at Nottingham about that time, the attenuated battalion was sent there to recruit, with the assurance from the authorities "that, whenever eight hundred men should be raised and incorporated in the said regiment, with the assistance of the influence and bounty of the noblemen and gentry of the county, then the regiment should be distinguished thenceforth by the title of the 'Nottinghamshire Regiment.'" This was in 1782.

Its further services between 1786 (when it embarked for the West Indies) and 1866 were at Grenada, 1791; at Buenos Ayres, 1807; in the Peninsula, at Roleia, Vimiera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz (where a French flag was captured), Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse; in Ceylon during the Kandian Rebellion of 1821, and Burmah in 1825, for which the distinction "Ava" was granted. In 1868 the 45th took part in the Abyssinian campaign. A 2nd battalion, raised in 1803, fought at Talavera, and was disbanded in 1814; another, or "Reserve Battalion," appears about 1843, took part in the first Kaffir War, and was present at the battle of Boem Platts in 1852, but was finally absorbed.

The 95th has had five predecessors. The first existed from 1760 to 1763, and was at Martinique; the second from 1780 to 1783, and defended Jersey; the third from 1793 to 1798, and was at the capture of the Cape; the fourth, raised in 1800, was absorbed in the Rifle Brigade in 1816, and the fifth, formed as a 2nd battalion to the 52nd, became the 96th, and was disbanded as the 95th in 1818. The present 2nd battalion of the Derbyshire was raised in 1823; and, as many of the officers and men had been connected with the battalion raised in 1800, the rifle-badge of the Maltese Cross was adopted. Its first active service was in 1854, when it embarked for the Crimea, to fight at the Alma, Inkerman, the Tchernaya, and Sevastopol; after which it did much severe work in the Mutiny at Awah, Kotah, Kota-ke-Serai, Gwalior, Pouree, Kurnyee, and Rowa, where Private Bernard McQuirt won the Cross for Valour. Finally it took part in the Egyptian campaign of 1882.

The 95th had at one time a much-loved pet. It came to the regiment in this way. In 1858 Major Raines led the assault on Kotah, and, when the place was carried, a black ram was found tethered. It was one, in fact, of the famous breed of Rajpootana "fighting rams," and became the pet of the regiment as "Derby I.," in charge of the big-drummer. During the campaign in Central India he marched some three thousand miles, and after the Mutiny the ladies of the regiment made him a scarlet coat, embroidered with the "honours" of the regiment. He was drowned at Hyderabad in 1863.

The facings of the 45th and the 95th were originally green and yellow respectively; now they are white. The badge is the "united red and white rose"; but formerly the stag (the arms of Nottingham) was that of the Notts Militia, and that of the 1st Derby Militia was the rose and crown. The button bears a Maltese Cross, crowned, on which is the stag within an oak-leaf wreath, and by the side, and underneath, the words "Sherwood Foresters" and "Derbyshire." The collar bears the cross as above without the titles; the helmet-plate bears "Sherwood Foresters," a Maltese Cross, with an oak-leaf wreath and the stag, and "the Derbyshire Regiment"; on the waist-plate and forage-cap is the crowned Maltese Cross, etc. The Militia battalions are composed (according to the "Army List") of the 1st and 2nd Derbyshire regiments and the Royal Sherwood Foresters; but of these the 2nd is said (by the seniority in the reign of William IV.) to rank first, though it is not the oldest force. The first two form the 3rd battalion; the last, the 4th battalion, seems to rank between the first two. The 1st Derbyshire Militia did good service in France in 1814. The Volunteer battalions are the 1st Derbyshire, Derby (scarlet and white); the 2nd Derbyshire, Bakewell (scarlet and white); the 1st Nottinghamshire (Robin Hood), Nottingham (green and black); the 2nd Nottinghamshire, Newark (scarlet and Lincoln green). The 45th had the nickname of "the Old Stubborns" and "the Sherwood Foresters." It is said that one of the Colonels, when brigaded with the 87th and 88th, hearing those regiments called to attention, not by their numbers, but such titles as "Prince's Irish" and "Connaught Rangers," addressed his regiment by the name "Nottingham Hosiers." The 95th were known as the "Sweeps." The depot is in Derby.

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