South Staffordshire Regiment

 The South Staffordshire Regiment-Regimental District No. 38-is composed of the 38^th and 80^th Regiments of the line.  The 38^th Regiment dates from 1702, when it was raised in Ireland, and for many years known as Colonel Luke Lillingstone’s Regiment of Foot.  Five years after its formation the regiment went to the West Indies and served there “an unprecedented period of, it is said, nearly sixty years, during which detachments of the corps served at the capture of Guadaloupe in 1759, and of Martinique in 1762.”  (Archer.)  On their return home the 38^th-as they were numbered in 1751-served in the American War, after which the flank companies were employed at Martinique in 1794, and subsequently at St. Lucia.  The regiment as a whole, after taking part in the campaign in Holland, served under Sir D. Baird at the Cape of Good Hope in 1805, and the following years at Buenos Ayres.  At Monte Video in 1807, under Colonel Vassal, they formed part of the assaulting party, and greatly distinguished themselves, Colonel Vassal being mortally wounded.  The 38^th then took part in the Peneinsular War, fighting at Roleia and Vimiera, sharing in Moore’s splendid victory at Corunna, and gaining for their colours the eloquent legend of “Busaco.”  At Badajoz, when a temporary discomfiture caused Walker’s brigade to fall back, the pursuing French found themselves checked by “two hundred men of the 38^th, who had been kept well in hand by Colonel Nugent,” and who, after a fierce volley, charged with the bayonet.  They fought at Salamanca and Burgos under Graham, the conquered at Vittoria, they shared in the ghastly victory at San Sebastian, forced the passage of the Bidassoa, and fought in the conquering ranks at the Nive.  They were not at Waterloo, but joined the army of occupation after it was won.  In 1818 they served in South America, and in 1822 repaired to India and were engaged in the first Burmese War, gaining the distinction of “Ava” for their colours.  Returning to England in 1836, the following fifteen years were spent in various places, including Central America.  In the Crimea the 38^th were in Sir Richard England’s (Third) Division, and-for we must needs leave much untold-bear “Alma,” “Inkerman,” and “Sevastopol” on their heavily emblazoned colours.  From the Crimea they were ordered to India, where they arrived in November 1857, and after fighting valiantly at Lucknow, took part in the subsequent campaign in Oude.  They returned to England in 1872, and enjoyed a peaceful interval between that date and 1882, when they were ordered to Egypt. Few regiments can boast a better record than the South Staffordshire during the campaigns in 1882, and 1884-85.  The 38^th, with the 3^rd battalion of the 60^th, were the first regiments to land in Egypt after Sir Beauchamp Seymour’s ultimatum, and on the 22^nd of July took part in the first skirmish of the war in connection with the destruction of the Ramleh Isthmus.  In the final arrangement of the forces they were in the 4^th brigade (Second Division), and took part, under Colonel Thackwell, in the reconnaissance at Mahalla, where they had one man wounded.  During all of the operations they ably carried out their part in the various duties, which devolved upon the Second Division, duties none less important, because they did not include the more familiarly known of the engagements.  They formed part of the force under General Earle, and at Kirbekan they highly distinguished themselves.  Early in the day their gallant Colonel Eyre, leading his men against a ridge held by an overwhelming force of fierce fanatics; “the Arabs fought at the bay with the courage of desperation, having the vantage-ground everywhere.  And thus, against desperate odds our gallant soldiers, in spite of a withering fire all round, gained rock after rock, fastness after fastness, behind which the well-directed aim of the Arabs dealt death at every shot.  Inch by inch, with fearful odds against them, do the Highlanders on the left and the South Staffordshire men on the right press forward and gain ground.”  After General Earle had fallen the 38^th were ordered by General Brackenbury to storm “a steep and rocky hill four hundred feet high, held by a body of the Sudanese,” a difficult task which they brilliantly accomplished after incredible toil and severe fighting.  And so, with the freshly added lustre shed by the latest Egyptian War, ends the record of the services of the brave South Staffordshire.

           The 2^nd battalion of the South Staffordshire, the 80^th Regiment, dates from 1793, when lord Paget raised it.  The following year, the Staffordshire volunteers, as the regiment was then called, joined the Duke of York’s army in Flanders, and during their sojourn there lost more than half their number.  A few years later they formed part of Baird’s army, which, with a view to joining Abercrombie, made the march across the desert, which has before been referred to, and by this participation in the campaign gained the Sphinx and “Egypt” for their colours.  After this they were for several years in India, gaining warriors’ craft in the many battles by which the British rule was consolidated, and thus missed participation in any of the Peninsular battles, as they did not return to England before 1818.  After a stay here of some sixteen years or so, they were ordered to Australia, and during the years 1836-1844, were more or less busily employed in the not very congenial task of suppressing convict riots.  Their next station was in India, during their voyage to which occurred a most extraordinary incident.  “Part of the corps,” says Colonel Archer, “during the voyage was shipwrecked under very remarkable circumstances, being cast high and dry by a storm wave in the deal of night on the top of a wood or jungle in the Little Andamans.”  Arrived in India, they were fortunate enough to participate in some of the most important events, which the stirring history of British arms in India has to chronicle.  They fought at Moodee, where night alone saved the foe from total destruction.  At Ferozeshah they earned a reputation for courage and discipline of which any regiment might be proud. “About twelve o’clock at night, the Sikhs finding that Sir Harry Smith had been forced to retire from the village, and that their batteries were not occupied, brought some guns to bear upon the column, the fire from which was very destructive.  The Governor-General mounted his horse and called to the 80^th Regiment, which was at the head of the column, ‘my lads, we shall have no sleep until we have those guns.’  The regiment deployed immediately, advanced, supported by the 1^st Bengal Europeans, and drove a large body of Sikhs from three guns, which they spiked.  The regiment then retired, and took up its position again at the head of the column as steadily as if on a parade, much to the admiration of the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, the former of whom exclaimed, as they passed him, ‘Plucky dogs” we cannot fail to win with such men as these.’”

           To the brilliant victory of Sobraon they contributed not a little, and it was at that head of the 80^th that the gallant Sir Robert Dick received his death wound.  They bore a brilliant part in the second Burmese War in 1852.  In the attack on the Grand Pagoda four companies of the 80^th under Major Montgomery formed the advance, driving the enemy steadily before them, while in the attack on the eastern entrance the assaulting force comprised a wing of the 80^th under Major Lockhart.  In the attack on Pegu, Captain Ormsby commanded the one company of the 80th that were present, and ably performed their part in the singularly easy and bloodless victory achieved by our troops.  After the war in Burmah, the next fighting in which the 80^th shared was in India, where they gained “Central India” as a distinction.  Those familiar with the military history of that time know how much severe and splendid fighting those words commemorate.  They assisted at the capture of Calpee, shared in the arduous tasks of the pacification of Oude, and a few years later took part in the Bhotan Expedition, which was found so much more difficult than had at first been anticipated.  The regiment returned home in 1886, and were represented nine years later in the expedition to Perak.  The next important was in which they were engaged was that in South Africa of 1878-79.  They were in garrison at Luneburg under Major Charles Tucker, and in March 1879, a company under Captain Moriarty was ordered to meet some supplies, which were being forwarded.  Owing to some delay the Intombe River, which had to be crossed, grew swollen with the rains, and some question seems to have been raised as to the judgment with which the encampment was laid.  However that may be, in the early morning of the 12^th some four thousand Zulus, led by the Chief Umbelini, swept down upon the little band of seventy-one.  Across the river, Lieutenant Harward had been posted with some thirty men; in a few moments all that remained of the entire company scarcely numbered more.  Captain Moriarty was killed the moment he left his tent; in some cases his men were assuaged before they could leave theirs.  Lieutenant Harward’s party opened a brisk fire on the Zulus, but naturally it could have no effect on such a mass, and at least two hundred of them crossed the river.  Lieutenant Harward ordered his men to fall back upon a farmhouse, and then he did a thing, which, fortunately, is without a parallel in military history-rode off him to obtain succour from Luneburg!  Probably the severest critics of this infatuated action would acquit Lieutenant Harward of anything approaching cowardice, but the error was none the less a terrible one.  Fortunately, dark though the Hour was, with it came the man.

           “Sergeant Booth, the senior non-commissioned officer present, now assumed command, rallied the small group of men, and endeavoured to cover the retreat of the few soldiers upon the opposite bank, who were trying to escape across the river towards him.  The little band, to avoid being assuaged at close quarters, was compelled to fall back.  This small knot of gallant men fought the Zulus for three miles in retreat, but Sergeant Booth and his men showed a bold front on every side.  They kept close together firing volleys at their pursuers as they prepared to rush upon them.  The party gallantly checked the Zulus, and finally completed its retirement without losing a man.  Sergeant Booth’s heroic conduct enabled several fugitives who had safely crossed the river without arms or even clothe to escape and reach Luneberg.” The Gazette informed his countrymen “that had it not been for the coolness displayed by this non-commissioned officer, not one man would have escaped.”

           The observations made by Lord Chelmford in commenting on the decision of the Court Martial held on Lieutenant Harward included some remarks, which deserve a place in any record of British regiments.  After referring to the “monstrous theory that a regimental officer, who is the only officer present with a party of soldiers actually and seriously engaged with the enemy, can, under any pretext, be justified in deserting them,” his Lordship went on to say: -“The more helpless the position in which an officer finds his men, the more it is bounden duty to stay and share their fortune, whether for good or ill.  It is because the British officer has always done so, that he occupies the position in which he is held in the estimation of the world, and that he possesses the influence he does in the ranks of our army.  The soldier has learned to feel that come what may, he can in the direst moment of danger look with implicit faith to his officer, knowing that he will never desert him under any possible circumstances.  It is to this faith of the British soldier in his officer that we owe of the gallant deed recorded in our annals.” On another a previous occasion had a man of the 80th gained a V.C. in this savage African warfare.  “On the 22^nd January, 1879, when the camp at Isandhlwana was taken by the enemy, Private Wassall, 80^th Foot, retreated towards the Buffalo River, in which he saw a comrade, Private Westwood of the same regiment, struggling and apparently drowning.  He rode to the bank, dismounted, leaving his horse on the Zulu side, rescued the man from the stream, and again mounted his horse, dragging Private Westwood across the river under a heavy shower of bullets.” Some five companies of the 80^th were at Ulundi, where they led the advance, and subsequently the regiment was represented in Colonel Clarke’s column.  In the operations against Sekukuni, Major Creagh did valuable service, and in the final attack upon the chief’s stronghold, the 80^th were in the centre column.  The regiment returned home in 1880, and have not since then been engaged in any important warfare.  Extracted from 'Her Majesty’s Army '

How Second Lieutenant Cecil Frederick Holcombe Calvert, Of The 3^rd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, Attached 179^th Company, Royal Engineers, Was Recommended For The D.S.O.

Second Lieutenant Cecil Frederick Holcombe Calvert, of the 3rd South Staffords, who was then attached to the 179th Company, royal Engineers, serving with the 51st Division, performed a most splendid action, combining conspicuous gallantry with determination and resourcefulness, on September 6th 1915. A heavy bombardment by the enemy had caused one of our mining shafts to fall in killing two men and burying two others in one of the galleries. Second Lieutenant Calvert, who was in charge of this isolated post, at once went to the assistance of the imprisoned men, and as, owing to the close proximity of the enemy, the noise made by the use of tools would have invited certain death, he worked for three hours under heavy fire, scraping away the earth with his hands until he had made a hole large enough to rescue them. For this brave deed the young officer was recommended for the Distinguished Service Order, but, unhappily, he never lived to receive this coveted decoration, as eight days later (September 14^th) he lost his life in a most gallant attempt to rescue a man who had been overcome by gas.

The poisonous fumes caused by the explosion of a German mine in the vicinity had overtaken the man in a mining gallery before he could effect his escape, and, although an attempt at rescue was fraught with terrible risk, Second Lieutenant Calvert, without a moment’s hesitation, went to his assistance. Before, however, he could accomplish his task he was himself overcome by the gas, and, although he was brought out of the shaft and treated at once by the medical officer on the spot, he was already too far gone to rally from the seizure, and died without regaining consciousness. He was buried in the extension reserved for British officers in the Cemetery of Albert, in the Department of the Somme. Second Lieutenant Calvert was the eldest son of Mr. Albert Frederick Calvert, the well-known traveler and author, who received many letters of sympathy from brother officers expressing the high estimation in which his son was held. His commanding officer wrote: "I feel sure it will comfort you to know that he died as he had lived, a victim to his high souled sense of duty. The Army can ill afford to lose such men. Although he had only lately joined the 179^th Tunneling Company, he had already made his mark, and we shall deeply feel his loss."

All In A Days Work by Pippa Thew