56th ( West Essex ) Regiment of Foot The 56th ( West Essex ) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment in the British Army , active from 1755 to 1881 . It was originally raised in Northumbria as the 58th Regiment , and renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded . It saw service in Cuba at the capture of Havana in the Seven Years ' War , and was later part of the garrison during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the American Revolutionary War . During the French Revolutionary Wars it fought in the Caribbean and then in Holland . On the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars the 56th raised a second battalion in 1804 as part of the anti - invasion preparations ; both saw service in India and in the Indian Ocean , with the first capturing Réunion and Mauritius . A third battalion was formed in the later years of the war , but was disbanded after a brief period of service in the Netherlands . The regiment spent much of the following period on foreign garrison duties , and saw service in the later stages of the Crimean War , at the Siege of Sevastopol . It was despatched to India during the Indian Mutiny , but did not see active service . The regiment was amalgamated with the 44th ( East Essex ) Regiment of Foot to form the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment in 1881 , as part of the Childers Reforms ; the Essex Regiment ' s lineage is currently maintained by the 1st Battalion , Royal Anglian Regiment , a mechanised infantry unit . Formation and early service . Following the rise of tensions in North America in 1755 , the British government decided to raise ten regiments of infantry in preparation for an expected war with France . Orders for the raising of the 52nd to 61st Regiments of Foot were issued in December of that year . One of these regiments , the 58th Regiment of Foot , was raised at Newcastle and Gateshead on 28 December 1755 , under the colonelcy of Lord Charles Manners , whose commission was dated 26 December . Throughout 1756 it recruited heavily to come to its authorised establishment of ten companies , each of 78 men . On 25 December 1756 , the 50th and 51st Regiments were disbanded , and all higher - numbered units redesignated , with the 58th becoming the 56th Regiment of Foot . In April 1757 it moved to Berwick , and thence into Scotland , where it would take up garrison duties ; it occupied quarters at Aberdeen in 1758 and Edinburgh in 1759 . In July 1760 it returned to England , sailing from Leith to Portsmouth , and was stationed at Hilsea through 1761 . On 17 December of that year , Lord Charles Manners was succeeded in the colonelcy by Colonel William Keppel . West Indies campaign . On 4 January 1762 , Britain declared war on Spain in the Seven Years ' War , and began preparing for an expedition against Spanish possessions in the Caribbean . The 56th was assigned as part of the expeditionary force , and sailed from Portsmouth on 5 March , arriving off Havana on 6 June and landing the following day . The regiment numbered a total of 933 officers and men , and was brigaded with four companies of the 1st Foot and a battalion of the 60th Foot . The main object of the force was to besiege the Moro fortress , which guarded the harbour . After a long reduction , a storming party was organised and attacked on 30 July , and took the fort after a brief but violent action , in which 150 of the garrison were killed and 400 taken prisoner , with the remaining 200 dying in an attempt to escape in small boats . The regiment was granted the battle honour " The Moro " for this action . The city surrendered on 13 August . The regiment suffered twelve deaths , with one officer and 23 men wounded , during the campaign . The 56th remained as part of the Havana garrison for the following year , until Cuba was returned to Spain by the Treaty of Paris , when it was transported to Ireland , arriving in Limerick in October 1763 . The regiment moved to Dublin in May 1765 , and in June 1765 the colonelcy was assigned to Lieutenant - General James Durand . He died in 1766 , and was succeeded by Colonel Hunt Walsh . Gibraltar . In 1770 the regiment was despatched to Gibraltar , sailing from Cork in May . The regiment was augmented by a light infantry company of seventy men in December 1770 , and the ten line companies had their authorised establishment raised by twenty - one men . The regiment remained in the Gibraltar garrison for several years , and was present when Spain declared war on the United Kingdom in June 1779 and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began . At this point , the effective regimental strength was 560 men and 27 officers , around a tenth of the garrison . A relief convoy arrived early in 1780 , and a second in April 1781 , but supplies remained limited . The commander of the garrison decided late in 1781 to attempt a sortie , and this was launched on the night of 26 November ; the flank companies of the 56th were part of the raiding force , and successfully destroyed several batteries of artillery . The siege was finally lifted in February 1783 – after three years and seven months – when the Treaty of Paris ended hostilities , and confirmed British possession of Gibraltar . The 56th received the battle honour " Gibraltar " for its service in the siege , with the right to bear the castle - and - key insignia on its colours . It was relieved in October 1783 , and returned to England . Shortly thereafter the regiment was given a county affiliation , part of a move to increase recruiting by linking regiments to local areas , and became the 56th ( West Essex ) Regiment of Foot . In the spring of 1784 it moved to garrison duty in Scotland , serving at various stations there until January 1788 , when it embarked for Ireland with a reduced establishment of ten companies . From 1788 to 1793 it was stationed in Ireland . French Revolutionary Wars . With the French Revolution of 1792 the army was expanded in preparation for war ; the authorised establishment of the 56th was brought up to twelve companies , and it was ordered to prepare for overseas service . Before hostilities broke out , however , the regiment was involved in suppressing a riot near Wexford in June 1793 . Major Valloton , a company commander , was killed along with several local men . The regiment embarked for the West Indies in November 1793 , arriving at Barbados in January 1794 , and fought at the capture of Martinique in February . The line companies being left there as a garrison , the light and grenadier companies fought at the capture of St . Lucia in April , and the whole regiment saw service fighting at the capture of Guadeloupe in September . It remained as a garrison in the West Indies for the remainder of 1794 , but took great losses from disease . In October , the men still fit for service were transferred to the 6th , 9th and 15th regiments , and the remaining cadre of officers and men embarked to return to England on 3 January 1795 . Arriving in England in February , they were stationed at Chatham to recruit and retrain . The regiment sailed to Cork in September , and after a brief period in Ireland was deemed to have attained " so perfect a state of discipline and efficiency " that it was considered fit for overseas service once more , and despatched to Barbados . It was sent to St . Domingo , and remained there through 1797 . On the death of General Walsh , the colonelcy had passed to Major - General Samuel Hulse on 7 March 1795 ; he did not retain it long , and it was conferred on Major - General Chapple Norton on 24 January 1797 . After a period stationed in Jamaica , the regiment returned to England at the end of 1798 , again to recruit and rebuild its strength . In 1799 the regiment was part of the force sent to the Netherlands in the ill - fated Helder Campaign , arriving in Holland in September in time for the Battle of Schoorl - Oudkarspel on the 19th , where it suffered sixty - three officers and men killed or wounded , plus another fifty - nine missing . It fought at Bergen and Egmont - op - Zee on 2 October , before withdrawing from the Netherlands on 18 November . During 1800 the regiment was stationed in Ireland , and increased its establishment by a further two companies of a hundred men each . The new recruits , since returning from the West Indies in 1799 , had been enlisted for service only within Europe ; on hearing the announcement of the major victories in the Egyptian campaign in 1801 , they promptly offered their services for general service throughout the world . This offer was , however , quickly followed by the Peace of Amiens in 1802 , and the regiment remained in Ireland . Napoleonic Wars . On the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars , a major expansion of the land forces was put in place to deter an invasion ; on 25 December 1804 , some four hundred men raised in Surrey were placed on the Army establishment as the 2nd Battalion , 56th Regiment , shortly thereafter expanded to 656 men . The existing battalion of the regiment was , accordingly , redesignated as the 1st Battalion , 56th Regiment . Noting the great success the two existing battalions had had with recruiting , a third was later authorised , and raised in 1813 at Horsham as the 3rd Battalion , 56th Regiment . A detachment of the regiment served on board the frigates " Psyche " and " Piedmontaise " as marines in 1809 – 1810 , and fought in a brief war with Travancore in 1809 . 1st Battalion . The first battalion moved from Ireland to the Isle of Wight in January 1805 , where it was brought to a full strength of a thousand men , and shortly thereafter embarked for Bombay , where it remained as a garrison for several years . In 1808 , its strength was augmented to 1300 men . A force of 200 men were detached for service in the Indian Ocean in January 1809 , successfully raiding the Île Bourbon in September , capturing a large amount of shipping at anchor . During this time , in August 1809 , the remaining companies of the battalion were shipped from Bombay to Madras at short notice and under great secrecy , in an attempt to make a show of force to avert a possible mutiny of the Indian regiments . This was successful , with any violence being averted , and the regiment received the thanks of the Governor in Council . In 1810 a second expedition was mounted into the Indian Ocean , with a strong detachment of the first battalion as well as various other units , and the Île Bourbon was taken on 10 July . The same detachment then saw action at the capture of Mauritius in December , the last French territory remaining in the Indian Ocean . A force of militia volunteers sent as recruits to the 56th arrived as a garrison in Goa in mid - 1810 . It joined the first battalion in 1811 , and the Indian Ocean detachment returned later that year . To mark the regiment ' s services in India , it received a new pair of colours as a gift from the Honourable East India Company . With the return of Napoleon to France in 1815 , the battalion was again despatched to Mauritius to reinforce the garrison there against the possibility of a revolt by the French population , where it remained . 2nd Battalion . The second battalion moved between various stations in southern England through 1805 , being presented with its colours on 28 November at the Isle of Wight . In December it was brought up to an establishment of 866 men , raised to a thousand early in 1806 . In March 1806 it moved to Guernsey for garrison duties , returning to the Isle of Wight in early 1807 , and embarked for India in June . The two portions of the battalion were split up in a gale , one group putting in at the Cape of Good Hope to refit before continuing to Madras in convoy with HMS " Greyhound " , arriving in December . The battalion proceeded to Bombay , where it encountered the 1st Battalion for the first time , and moved to Surat in January 1809 . At Surat , four companies were detached to aid in the capture of a bandit fort at Mallia in Baroda , returning to the battalion in December . The battalion expanded its establishment in 1810 , rising to an authorised strength of 1 , 306 men . It suffered greatly from disease during garrison operations in Gujarat in 1813 , and again in camp in 1814 , losing some three hundred and thirty men between March 1813 and December 1814 . However , by January 1815 it had moved to more salubrious climes at Assaye and was able to muster nine hundred men fit for service . The battalion was ordered to be disbanded as part of the reduction in the army after Waterloo , and marched to Bombay in November 1816 . There , four hundred men who volunteered to continue in India were transferred to the 65th Regiment , and the bulk of the regiment sailed for England in January . The line companies were disbanded at Rochester on 25 June , and the flank companies ( which had left India in July ) at Chatham on 29 December . 3rd Battalion . The third battalion was raised at Horsham in November 1813 , and was recruited very rapidly ; within a month of its formation , it was reported as ready for service with an establishment of 650 men . It embarked for Holland on 9 December , and fought at the Battle of Merxem on 30 January 1814 . After service in the siege of Antwerp , the battalion returned to England after Napoleon ' s abdication , and was disbanded at Sheerness on 24 October . The men still fit for service were drafted to the first and second battalions , and sent to India . Peacetime service . At the end of the Napoleonic Wars , the remaining battalion of the regiment was stationed in Mauritius , where it undertook routine garrison duties and helped suppress the slave trade in the newly acquired colony . A major fire in September 1817 destroyed more than half of Port Louis , the island ' s capital ; the regiment was employed in attempting to fight the fire , and two men were killed . In 1818 General Norton died , and was succeeded in the colonelcy by Lieutenant - General Sir John Murray . The regiment finally returned to England in 1826 , after twenty years overseas . In 1827 it moved to Ireland from Hull , and after General Murray ' s death , the colonelcy was conferred upon Lieutenant - General Lord Aylmer . The regiment received new colours on 4 April 1828 , with the honours " Moro " and " Havannah " , as well as the Gibraltar crest and motto . On 23 July 1831 Lieutenant - General Sir Hudson Lowe was appointed to the colonelcy . Under the 1825 army reforms , six companies would be sent for overseas service at any one time , whilst four remained in the United Kingdom as a depot . Accordingly , when the regiment was ordered to embark for Jamaica in 1831 it took six of its ten companies . Other than a brief epidemic of yellow fever in 1837 , claiming sixty men , the time in Jamaica was uneventful . In July 1838 , the Sheerness depot provided the guard of honour for the visit of Marshal Soult . In March 1840 the main body of the regiment sailed aboard for Canada , to reinforce the garrison there during the Northeastern Boundary Dispute . It returned to England in July 1842 , aboard HMS " Resistance " , where it rejoined its depot companies and moved to Ireland . On 17 November 1842 , the Earl of Westmorland was appointed to the colonelcy of the regiment . The regiment remained at various stations in Ireland , serving to assist in keeping the peace during the widespread repeal movement demonstrations , until it moved to England in 1844 . A reserve battalion was formed this year , by organising the existing depot companies , and forming a new depot force . The main force of the regiment moved to Gibraltar in December 1846 . The reserve battalion was transported to join them in February 1847 , aboard the " Birkenhead " ; it later disbanded , with the men transferred to rejoin the main force . The regiment left Gibraltar in May 1851 aboard the " Resistance " , for service in Bermuda . In September 1853 , an outbreak of yellow fever aboard the convict hulk " Thames " in Bermuda harbour spread to the barracks ; more than two hundred men died . The regiment was ordered home in December 1853 . Crimean War . Whilst the regiment had been ordered home from Bermuda in 1853 , it did not sail until late 1854 ; in the interim , the Crimean War had broken out , and the regiment was put under orders to recruit in Ireland over the winter to full strength , and then sail for Turkey . In December , the first detachment of the regiment sailed for Constantinople . The second section of the regiment arrived in Dublin from Bermuda in January 1855 , where it remained as a depot . Detachments from the depot provided support to the police during unrest at the 1855 by - election in UK Parliament constituency . The remaining elements of the regiment returned from Bermuda as late as May . The main force of the regiment was ordered to the Crimea in July . It was originally planned for the regiment to be landed in Kerch to relieve the 71st Foot , but when it arrived it was ordered to land at Sevastopol to reinforce the Allied forces besieging the city . It landed on 25 August , moved into the front lines the next day , and were attached to the 2nd Brigade , 1st Division . The regiment supported the failed attack on the Redan on the 8th of September ; it was not heavily involved , and only one man was wounded . Sevastopol fell on the 11th , and the regiment was awarded the battle honour " Sevastopol " for its involvement in the attack . Five men of the regiment were awarded the French Military War Medal for " fearless and steady conduct " . The regiment left the Crimea on 12 July 1856 , part of the final rearguard to depart . It had served overseas for almost a year , with five men killed in action and thirty deaths due to disease . Postwar service . On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny , the regiment was stationed in Ireland ; it sailed for India in late August 1857 . Whilst it remained in Bombay through the Mutiny , it did not see active service . The Earl of Westmoreland died in October 1859 , and was succeeded as colonel by Lieutenant - General John Home Home on the 17th . He , however , died shortly afterwards , and was succeeded by the regiment ' s twelfth – and final – colonel , Major - General Henry William Breton . The regiment boarded ships to return from Bombay in March 1866 . ; they arrived at Portsmouth , and took up residence in barracks there , in March 1866 . After a spell in England , the regiment moved to Ireland in early 1868 , and then embarked for India in February 1871 . By late 1877 the regiment had moved to Aden , and was ordered home in early 1878 . Amalgamation and successors . In 1872 , the Cardwell reforms had organised the depot system such that all single - battalion regiments would share a depot with another , " partner " , regiment ; in theory , whilst one was on foreign service the other would remain at home to train and act as a reserve . Under the Childers reforms in 1881 , each of these pairs of regiments were amalgamated together to form a new two - battalion regiment ; the senior regiment would become the senior battalion , and the junior regiment the junior , with no significant change in personnel . The 56th had been paired ( appropriately ) with the 44th ( East Essex ) Regiment of Foot . On amalgamation on 1 July 1881 , the 56th ( as the junior of the two regiments ) became the 2nd Battalion , The Essex Regiment . Whilst the 56th had formally ceased to exist , a degree of individual continuity remained ; the 2nd Battalion of the Essex Regiment remained in an independent existence until 1948 , when the 2nd Battalion was dissolved and the regiment was amalgamated into a single regular battalion . The Essex Regiment was itself amalgamated into the single - battalion 3rd East Anglian Regiment ( 16th / 44th Foot ) in 1958 ; in 1964 , this became the 3rd Battalion , The Royal Anglian Regiment . The 3rd Battalion Royal Anglians was finally disbanded in 1992 , with its personnel absorbed by the 1st Battalion . Traditions . The regiment was originally uniformed with deep crimson facings , which in 1764 was changed to purple . The colour was often called " pompadour " , from which the regiment ' s nickname of " The Pompadours " came . The reasons for the name of the colour are unclear ; it is often said that the shade was Madame de Pompadour ' s favourite colour . Some soldiers of the regiment preferred to claim that it was the colour of her underwear . The regimental march , " Rule , Britannia " , commemorated the regiment ' s past service as marines . The regiment carried on its colours the battle honour s " Moro " and " Sevastopol " , as well the Gibraltar castle and key device superscribed " Gibraltar " and subscribed with the motto " Montis Insignia Calpe " . The battle honour " Havannah " was also granted to the 56th , but not until 1909 ; as such , it was only ever borne by its successor , the Essex Regiment .