The regiment was raised in Connaught by John Thomas de Burgh, 13th Earl of Clanricard as the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers), in response to the threat posed by the French Revolution, on 25 September 1793. The regiment was sent to join the Duke of York's army in the Netherlands in summer 1794 as part of the unsuccessful defence of that country against the Republican French during the Flanders Campaign. The regiment embarked for the West Indies in autumn 1795 and, after a difficult voyage, two companies took part in the capture of Grenada and the siege of Saint Lucia before returning to England in summer 1796. The regiment then embarked for India in January 1799 and arrived in Bombay in June 1800. The regiment sailed from India for Egypt in December 1800 for service in the Egyptian Campaign reaching Cairo on the day that the French troops surrendered. It arrived back in England in May 1803.