The 14th Regiment of Foot

The West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ own) was raised in response to the 1685 Pitchfork Rebellion, which was an attempt to overthrow King James II. The West Yorkshires served in Scotland after The Glorious Revolution of 1688 before heading to Flanders in 1693. In 1695 it participated in the Siege of Namur during the Nine Years War. After the Nine Years War, the regiment served in Ireland until 1715 when it shifted to Scotland during the Jacobite Uprising, an attempt to reinstall the Stuart dynasty. It participated in the British victory at the 1719 Battle of Glen Shiel in the Scottish Highlands before returning to England.

The regiment moved to Gibraltar to participate in the Siege of Gibraltar during the brief Anglo-Spanish War; after the war it remained as part of the garrison for fifteen years. The West Yorkshires fought at Fontenoy in 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession; it was then sent to Scotland to suppress the Scottish 1745 Rebellion, participating in the battles of Falkirk and Culloden. After the reforms of 1751 it became the 14th Regiment of Foot and returned to garrison duty in Gibraltar for another eight years. In 1766 the regiment was sent to garrison duty in Nova Scotia before being dispatched to garrison Boston, Massachusetts in 1768. It remained in Boston until 1772, at which point it debarked for St. Vincent in the Caribbean to suppress a rebellion of ‘maroons,’ descendants of freed African slaves. 

By 1774, due to losses sustained in fighting and disease, it was slated to return to England; but because of the rising crisis in the American colonies, it was redeployed: some units went to St. Augustine, Florida while others ended up at Providence Island in the Bahamas. In January 1776 the 14th participated in the burning of Norfolk, Virginia; in August the fleet returned to New York, where the remnants of the 14th supplemented other units. Its officers returned to England to recruit a new regiment. In 1777, one company each from the newly-formed 14th and 15th regiments were sent to America to test the concept of the rifle company; they participated in the Battle of Brandywine against the Continental Army. After returning to England, these companies became the ‘light companies’ of their regiments.

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