Early History

The Regiment was one of eight regiments raised by James II in 1685 to counter the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion based on his claim to be the rightful Protestant king. Monmouth was the illegitimate son of Charles II and he and his forces were defeated at Sedgemoor in 1686. Incidentally the last battle fought in England (Yes I know there were the skirmishes around Derby in 1745 and of course the Battle of Culloden). The Regiments were the 8th to 15th and are consequently some of the senior infantry regiments of the line.

The Regiment was raised by Colonel Henry Cornwall and this was its first name. However the 9th never actually got involved in the Monmouth affair and began its active life really as militia or on internal security duties since at the time there was no organised police force, it was stationed up and down the country as required by the Government of the day.

In February 1689 the Regiment was stationed in Liverpool and it was ordered to Ireland. Without going into the difficult politics of the period, which still do not appear to have fully resolved even today. The 9th became part of King William III (of Orange’s) Protestant army fighting the Catholic army of the deposed King James II. William and Mary finally triumphed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1691. The 9th returned from Ireland after garrison duty in March 1694, and were described by an inspecting officer as "indifferent" troops!

Soon afterwards they set sail with Talmarshe’s expedition to Brest in Brittany. This operation was a total disaster since the French had advance warning of the details of the operation. For a period of time the 9th appear to have a role as what we would call today marine commandos, but the reality was they sat around in filthy conditions in rotten boats waiting for incompetent commanders to decide what action to take.

Up to 1698 the Regiment returned to a wandering existence on the UK mainland, again acting in the internal security role. For the next three years the Regiment was again on Garrison duty in Ireland.

In 1701 the War of the Spanish succession started, basically an armed conflict with England, Holland, and Austria against France and her allies. The 9th saw 6 years of active service, principally in Portugal, but it ended when the Regiment was captured en masse after a siege and spent quite a long time in captivity in France. After the Marlborough’s success at the Battle of Blenhiem they were swapped and soon returned to service in Portugal returning to England in 1708 with only 100 soldiers out of their normal full strength compliment of about 1000.

There now followed the longest period of peacetime service for the Regiment of 54 years. In 1761 the Regiment was part of the expedition that captured the Belle Isle in the Bay of Biscay from the French and garrisoned the island until 1762. Why I don’t yet know!

In 1762 they sailed with Lord Ablemarle to Cuba and won their first formal Battle honour at HAVANA. Disease was the major problem for this expedition. Over a third died from tropical fevers. It is interesting to note that 17th and 57th Regiments could only muster 20 fit men between them. The 9th faired better than most, but when they moved to a posting off the coast of Florida their strength was reported as less than 300 out of the 1000 that had left UK. Out of these only 20 had been killed in action - Draw your own conclusions.

They spent the next six years at the garrison on St Augustine. However their reviewing officer was not impressed and described the Regiment as a very poor one.

They returned From America in a very sorry state in 1781 and were posted to Norwich to recover, they spent the next seven years based in the City, in 1782 they became the East Norfolk Regiment. Today our small regimental museum is still in Norwich castle and although there is no longer a barracks we feel that it is there that our allegiance lies.

In 1788 the Regiment was posted to the West Indies. At the time this was considered to be the worst possible posting since it was considered to be virtually a death sentence. The regiment was to serve there for the next eight years. Again over 1000 were sent out on the posting and on return there were less than 130 officers and men came back. Added to original number would need to be any recruits sent out during the time, although recruiting for units based in the West Indies was virtually impossible.

In 1799 the King approved the Regiment’s use of Britannia as our symbol, and in due course it was to become the cap badge of the Royal Norfolk Regiment. At around this time the Regiment add two further battalions to its strength.

The next period of active service was in North Holland and Northern Germany. This was the famous campaign of the Grand ol’ Duke of York, and we were part of the famous 10,000 men! How does the rhyme go?

After the Peace of Amiens in 1802 the regiment returned home and was reduced to a single battalion again. Soon we were off to Ireland again for three year of garrison duty. In November 1805, very shortly after the great battle of Trafalgar the Regiment suffered a tragedy, as they returned from Ireland a storm wrecked one of the troop transports on the northern French coast and almost 300 men were taken prisoner. However the situation was made much worst for us today because the regimental records were lost with the Ariadne and our chance of a deeper appreciation of history perished with her.

From 1806 to 1808 the Regiment was back in Depot and recruiting hard to make up the lost numbers. However they can have had no idea of what lay before them! But that is another story..........