Regiment History

The regiment was part of Wellesley's army which landed in Portugal in July 1808 and was present at the Battle of Vimeiro, where the French Marshal Junot was defeated. Vimeiro was not the first time that the Queen's had helped to defeat the French; for over 15 years the regiment had fought the French in the West Indies (1794-97), Ireland (1798) Holland (1799) and Egypt (1800), earning a battle honour in the latter place. They also acted as marines in 1794 and took part in the Glorious First of June.

With the intervention of Napoleon himself in Spain, the British army, now under the command of Sir John Moore, had to retreat to Corunna. Here the army embarked on ships for England, but not before a heroic rearguard action by the Queen's, which earned the regiment another battle honour.

A single company of the Queen's had remained behind in Portugal, and when Wellesley returned to the Peninsula in April 1809 it formed part of the 2nd Battalion of Detachments. The company fought at the Battle of Talavera in July before returning home in August that year. Meanwhile the rest of the regiment took part in the disastrous Walcheren Expedition, where the army died in their hundreds due to the weather and disease.

In 1811 the whole regiment embarked for the Peninsular War once more, where it was involved in sieges of various French fortresses. At the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812 the Queen's once again showed their mettle, but lost 109 men. The regiment was way below strength during the battle and was just 408 strong. By January 1813 the strength of the regiment had fallen so low that six weak companies were sent home, and the remainder were joined by four companies of the 53rd Regiment to form the 2nd Battalion of Detachments. They were present at the Battle of Vittoria in June 1813, and subsequently took part in the battles of the Pyrenees and Nivelle, and finally in April 1814 the Battle of Toulouse. At the close of the war the companies returned to England, where the Queen's remained while Napoleon made a last desperate attempt to regain his former power, but his dreams ended on the field of Waterloo.

The regiment was not present at the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815, but our unit is one of the many regiments that take part in the spectacular re-enactments that are held on the battlefield every five years.