The Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment)

 The 45^th (Nottinghamshire), or “Sherwood Foresters”- a title granted in 1866-which was once linked with the 17^th, and the 95^th (Derbyshire)- a name given in 1825-which was linked with the 54^th before the territorialisation, were united under the present designation in 1881.  Apparently, however, the union between the two battalions is, for local reasons, not very strong. Of the combined list of twenty-three battle-names on the colours, sixteen appear (before 1881) on the roll of honour of the 45^th, and four on that of the 95^th.  The 1^st battalion of the 45^th appeared in 1739 as a Marine corps, with green facings, but was disbanded in 1748.  A regiment was next raised, with six others, in 1741, and numbered the 56^th Foot; and this, on the disbandment of the other regiments, became the 45^th in 1748; but, like the rest of the army, this number was not officially used until three years later. After prolonged service in North America-during which time it fought at Cape Breton, Fort Beau Sejour, Louisburg, Quebec, ST. John’s, and Bank’s River, Brooklyn it returned home in 1778 only a hundred strong, and at the request of a patriotic committee, formed at Nottingham about that time, the attenuated battalion was sent there to recruit, with the assurance from the authorities “that, whenever eight hundred men should be raised and incorporated in the said regiment, with the assistance of the influence and bounty of the noblemen and gentry of the county, then the regiment should be distinguished thenceforth by the title of the ‘Nottinghamshire Regiment.’”  This was in 1782. Its further services between 1786 (when it embarked for the West Indies) and 1866 were at Grenada, 1791; at Buenos Ayres, 1807; in the Peninsula, at Roleia, Vimiera, Busaco, Fuentes d’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz (where a French flag was captured), Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse; in Ceylon during the Kandian Rebbellion of 1821, and Burmah in 1825, for which the distinction ”Ava” was granted.  In 1868 the 45^th took part in the Abyssinian campaign. 

           A 2^nd battalion, raised in 1803, fought at Talavera, and was disbanded in 1814; another, or “Reserve Battalion,” appears about 1843, took part in the first Kaffir War, and was present at the battle of Boem Platts in 1852, but was finally absorbed. The 95^th has had five predecessors.  The first existed from 1760 to 1763, and was at Martinique; the second from 1780 to 1783, and defended Jersey; the third from 1793 to 1798, and was at the capture of the Cape; the fourth, raised in 1800, was absorbed in the Rifle Brigade in 1816, and the fifth, formed as a 2^nd battalion to the 52^nd, became the 96^th, and was disbanded as the 95^th in 1818.  The present 2^nd battalion of the Derbyshire was raised in 1823; and, as many of the officers and men had been connected with the battalion raised in 1800, the rifle-badge of the Maltese Cross was adopted. Its first active service was in 1854, when it embarked for the Crimea, to fight at the Alma, Inkerman, the Tchernaya, and Sevastopol; after which it did much severe work in the Mutiny at Awah, Kotah, Kota-ke-Serai, Gwalior, Pouree, Kurnyee, and Rowa, where Private Bernard McQuirt won the Cross for Valour.  Finally it took part in the Egyptian campaign of 1882. The 95^th had at one time a much-loved pet.  It came to the regiment in this way.  In 1858 Major Raines led the assault on Kotah, and, when the place was carried, a black ram was found tethered.  It was one, in fact, of the famous breed of Rajpootana “fighting rams,” and became the pet of the regiment as “Derby I.,” in charge of the big-drummer.  During the campaign in Central India he marched some three thousand miles, and after the Mutiny the ladies of the regiment made him a scarlet coat, embroidered with the “honours” of the regiment.  He was drowned at Hyderabad in 1863.

           The facings of the 45^th and the 95^th were originally green and yellow respectively; now they are white.  The badge is the “united red and white rose”; but formerly the stag (the arms of Nottingham) was that of the Notts Militia, and that of the 1^st Derby Militia was the rose and crown.  The button bears a Maltese Cross, crowned, on which is the stag within an oak-leaf wreath, and by the side, and underneath, the words “Sherwood Foresters” and “Derbyshire.”  The collar bears the cross as above without the titles; the helmet-plate bears “Sherwood Foresters,” a Maltese Cross, with an oak-leaf wreath and the stag, and “the Derbyshire Regiment”; on the waist-plate and forage-cap is the crowned Maltese Cross, etc. The Militia battalions are composed (according to the “Army List”) of the 1^st and 2^nd Derbyshire regiments and the Royal Sherwood Foresters; but of these the 2^nd is said (by the seniority in the reign of William IV.) to rank first, though it is not the oldest force.  The first two form the 3^rd battalion; the last, the 4^th battalion, seems to rank between the first two.  The 1^st Derbyshire Militia did good service in France in 1814.  The Volunteer battalions are the 1^st Derbyshire, Derby (scarlet and white); the 2^nd Derbyshire, Bakewell (scarlet and white); the 1^st Nottinghamshire (Robin Hood), Nottingham (green and black); the 2^nd Nottinghamshire, Newark (scarlet and Lincoln green). The 45^th had the nickname of “the Old Stubborns” and “the Sherwood Foresters.”  It is said that one of the Colonels, when brigaded with the 87^th and 88^th, hearing those regiments called to attention, not by their numbers , but such titles as “Prince’s Irish” and “Connaught Rangers,” addressed his regiment by the name “Nottingham Hosiers.”  The 95^th were known as the “Sweeps.” The depot is at Derby.  Extracted from ‘Her Majesty’s Army’s’

HENRY SINGLETON PENNELL  (Lieutenant, now Captain)  Sherwood Foresters (Devonshire Regiment)               On October 20^th 1897, during the attack on the Dargai Heights, Captain W. E. G. Smith, of the Devonshire Regiment, was shot, and Lieutenant Pennell, under a terrific hail of bullets, ran to him, and twice attempted, in a most brave manner, to carry him into shelter.  It was only when he found that the officer was dead that he desisted from any further attempts. Son of Mr. Edwin Pennell of Dawlish, in Devonshire, Captain Pennell was born on June 18^th 1874.  Educated at Eastbourne College, he joined the Berbyshire Regiment in 1893; promoted to 1^st Lieutenant 1896; Captain 1900.  Served in Tirah Campaign 1897-8, being mentioned in despatches as well as gaining the Victoria Cross, which was presented to him by Lieut. –Colonel Dowes at Bareilly, Northwest India, on September 2^nd 1898.  Took part in the Boer War 1899-1902, being twice mentioned in despatches.  Was severely wounded during the Relief of Ladysmith. 

A Family of Ducks on the Riverbank by Walter Watson (GS)