In 1673 the States-General of the Netherlands received permission to employ, for the second time, a British contingent.  A new "Holland Regiment" was then formed, and commanded by Sir Walter Vane, formerly colonel of what is now the Buffs.  Between 1674 and 1678 it saw its first active service at Grave, Maestricht, Mont Cassel, and St Denis; and, accompanying the Prince of Orange to England in 1688 as "Babington's Regiment", it afterwards took part in the Irish wars at Charlemont, Boyne, Athlone, Ballymore, Aughrim, Galway, Castleconnell, and Limerick.  In the Netherlands campaigns of 1692, etc, it served at Steenkirk and Namur; in 1702, as a sea-service regiment it was at Cadiz, and helped to storm the forts at Vigo, receiving £561 10s as prize money; in 1705 it formed part of the army despatched to support the claim of the Archduke Charles of Austria to the Spanish throne, and fought at Barcelona, where the regiment, under Colonel Southwell, behaved with the greatest gallantry; it took part in the storming of Fort Monjuich; in Valencia it was at many 'affairs'; it fought at Requena, Cuenza, Almanza, and Saragossa, when thirty standards were taken by the British; and finally the regiment was taken prisoner at Brihuega after a brave defence, but its 'honour was preserved untarnished'.  It saw no further active service until 1719, when it shared in the capture of Vigo, Rondondella, and Pontevedra; and, in 1740 was at Cuba.

It fought against the Jacobites in 1745, when Sergeant Molloy and twelve men, left in charge of Fort Ruthven, repulsed the attack of 300 of the enemy, replying to the summons to surrender that 'he was to old a soldier to surrender a garrison of such strength without bloody noses'; when two companies made almost the last stand at Prestonpans; and when other detachments bravely held Forts Augustus and William.  In 1761 it was officially entitled 'the 6th', to which the name '1st Warwickshire' was added thirty years later; and 1793 found it again in the West Indies - at Martinique, St Lucia and Guadaloupe.  In 1798, in the Irish Rebellion, it fought at Castlebar; and, in 1808, in the Peninsula, where it served at Roleia, Vimiera, and Corunna.  After the Walcheren Expedition, when it was so reduced by sickness that it was unable to 'furnish the usual reliefs of the ordinary regimental guard', it returned to the Peninsula in 1812, and added "Vittoria", "Almanza", "Pyrenees", "Nivelle", "Orthes", and "Peninsula" to the colours, besides fighting at Echalar, Bidassoa, Nive, Hastingues, and Oyergave.  In 1814 it was engaged in Canada, at the siege of Fort Erie, for which "Niagara" was added to the battle roll; and since then it has seen service at Aden in 1840; and in Africa, for which the Royal Warwicks bear on the colours the name of "South Africa, 1846 - 47" and "South Africa, 1851 - 53".  It saw some service in Oude in 1858, in Sikkim in 1860, and in the Hazara campaign in 1868.  Second battalions served from 1804 - 15, from 1846 till 1851 and lastly from 1858 to now.

The regiment had green facings from 1735 and yellow facings from 1751 to 1832, "when it became Royal".  In 1839 men are shown with royal blue facings, coatees, and epaulets, white trousers, and bell shaped shakoes.  The antelope (white, "ducally gorged and chained or," the badge o Henry VI, but supposed to have been assumed after Saragossa in 1710, or as suggested in the "Royal Military Chronicle" of 1811, after the battle of Almanza, whn the standard of the Spanish "Royal African Regiment", bearing the antelope, was taken), with a crown and within a circle having "Royal Warwickshire Regiment", is worn on the button, the helmet plate, the waist plate, and forage cap, and the bear and ragged staff (which, with the exception of the added chain, was the badge of the house of Warwick, and was borne by the 1st Warwick Militia) is on the tunic collar; but, by special permission, the "Antelope" is worn on the collar of the mess jacket.  The other badge is the rose, "slipped and leaved" - unlike that of the Buffs, which has the flower only. The motto "Vi et armis" appears at one time to have been used; according to Cannon, it was borne on the knapsack until 1825.

The Militia battalions are the 1st and 2nd Warwicks (1759) and they served on board ship at the time of the Mutiny of the Nore, in Ireland in 1798, and were embodied in 1854.  The Volunteer battalions are the 1st Birmingham (in green and scarlet), and 2nd Coventry (in scarlet and blue), formerly the 1st and 2nd Warwickshire.  The regimental pet is naturally an antelope, "Billy" by name, who marches past at the head of the regiment, led by two drummers.  The horns are tipped with silver, and he wears a silver collar with chains, by which he is led.  On full dress parades he wears a blue coat, gold embroidered and bearing the regimental honours.  At one time a bear was adopted as the regimental pet.  The Royal Warwicks were once called "Guise's Geese", from the name of one of their colonels and the facings at the time.  They have also the names of the "Warwickshire Lads" and the "Saucy Sixth".  The depot is at Warwick.

Extract from "The British Army and Auxiliary Forces, Vol II" c.1898

Original chromolithograph 7" x 11" plus surround, circa 1900, a plate from His Majesty's Territorial Army by Walter Richards. Price £80.

From the supplement of the Army and Navy Gazette, August 3rd 1895. Original chromolithograph image size 10" x 13". One copy available price £140. Order code SIM47.

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Coloured lithograph vignettes by J C Stadler after Chares Hamilton Smith from Charles Hamilton Smith's Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812, published by Colnaghi & Co. 1812-1815.

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(published during the 1960's)

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This image, taken from a contemporary portrait, shows an officer of the 6th Foot.  He is wearing neither gorget nor sash, and so is not on duty.  His very elegant coat bears little resemblance in design and lacing to those worn by the men of the regiment. This officer is wearing an aiguillette on his right shoulder.  This was commonly worn as the mark of a commissioned officer, or non-commissioned officer in the infantry, and was worn by all ranks in some cavalry regiments.  The origin of these shoulder knots is obscure and has been the subject of much speculation.  they have been said to have been originally, among other things, picketing ropes for horses, no doubt on account of the pegs at their ends, similar to the pegs used today on picketing ropes, and ropes for tying up hay for horses used  by foraging parties.  Such explanations are hardly satisfactory because it is difficult to see why an infantry officer or N.C.O. should want such things, and in the cavalry one might have expected them to be worn by troopers, but not by officers or N.C.O.'s.  They were at this time worn by servants in private houses - they still appear in some of the royal liveries - and we have records of opinion from those who had to wear these adornments, 'more fit for flunkeys'.  They could obviously not have originated for the servants in either picketing or foraging ropes, and it is possible that they were merely decorative additions to the dress, added during a time when such decoration was not considered unmanly.  They disappeared during the Napoleonic wars, but were revived in the dress of some cavalry regiments afterwards and are now worn by officers and N.C.O.s of the Household Cavalry and by some staff officers.  The 6th Foot were another of the 'Six Old Corps' and retained their ancient badge of an antelope on their grenadier caps.  They won this badge at Saragossa in 1710 where they won a resounding victory over French and Spanish cavalry, capturing, among other things, a Moorish flag bearing the device of an antelope and, as the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, they have retained the badge to this day.

How Captain Herbert Davies Of The 1/8^th Battalion Royal Warwickshire (T.F.) Regiment, Won The Military Cross

  It is probably given only to those who have actually been at the Front and are acquainted with the conditions that prevail there to appreciate fully all that is implied in the wording of the official announcement of the award of the Military Cross to Captain Herbert Davies, of the 1/8^th Warwick’s; “for conspicuous gallantry and resource on many occasions when on patrol duty in front of the trenches, and notably on the night of June 20^th-21^st 1915, when he carried out a very daring reconnaissance close to the River Douve.  From his knowledge of German he obtained very valuable information from the enemy’s conversation, after passing over ground lit by flares and constantly swept by gunfire.”  We have here a record of a single act of bravery, and testimony to conspicuous gallantry and resource “on many occasions,” and under conditions calculated to test the nerve and resolution of the boldest of men to the uttermost.  For it is one thing in the heat and excitement of battle, when possibly there is not time for any but lightning reflection, to perform a brave and noble action, and quite another to go forth, in the dead of night, from the shelter of one’s trench in the No Man’s Land lying between the opposing lines and confront the unknown dangers that lurk there.  All soldiers will agree that the latter is by far the more trying experience.  In trench warfare the night is always the most anxious and trying time.  During the day, save for intermittent shell and rifle fire and the ever present danger from snipers, things are not so terrifying; indeed, an occasional daylight visit to the trenches might leave the impression that, when not engaged in making or repelling an attack, the men were reasonably safe.  But with the fall of night the sentries in the trenches are increased, and each side sends out patrols to its front, for the purpose of guarding the ground in the immediate vicinity of its own wire entanglements, lest the enemy should make an attempt to cut them, or be permitted to draw near enough to hurl bombs or grenades into the trenches.  It was not, however, to patrolling of this nature that Captain Davies devoted his attention, but to what is understood as reconnaissance.  At nightfall he would leave his trench, make his way through our own barbed wire, and with infinite caution advance towards he German lines.  In order to do this, he had often to pass around parties of Huns as well as screens of the enemy, consisting of groups of two or three, a few yards apart from each other.  Having successfully evaded these, he had then to negotiate the German wire entanglements before being able to crawl near enough to the enemy’s parapet to overhear the conversation that was going on, or a favourite practice of his bomb the astonished occupants previous to his own withdrawal.  If it were a most difficult and dangerous under taking to reach the enemy’s parapet, it was infinitely more so to return to the British lines after throwing bombs, for the explosion in their trench would, of course, show the Germans that at least one of the foe was close to their parapet of wire.  For with, a fierce rifle and machine gun fire would be turned upon the particular sector involved; flares of the parachute and other varieties would be thrown up to illuminate the ground; the German patrols and sentry screens knowing that their vigilance had been at fault, and that their line had been pierced would be on the acutest qui vive, and hours of danger, doubling and nerve strain would have to be endured by the daring scout before he could reach the British trenches.

            On one occasion, in June 1915, Captain Davies went on a reconnaissance, starting shortly after sundown and not returning until just before “Stand-to.”  It was in the neighbourhood of Messines, and the object of his expedition was to determine the nature of certain works upon which the Germans were suspected of being engaged.  The opposing trenches hereabouts were some three to four hundred yards apart; those of the enemy being situated on the Messines ridge and overlooking ours.  About midway between the lines, but, at the point from which Captain Davies started, somewhat nearer to the British, a small river ran through a slight dip in the ground, which was mostly broken meadowland, the grass being from four to six inches long.  Flattened to earth, the daring officer began to wriggle his way through the grass.  Before starting, he had divested himself of his cap and tunic, and was dressed only in shirt, riding breeches and gaiters.  For arms, he carried two “Savage” magazine revolvers, one in either hand.  The night, though fine, was exceptionally dark, and the maintenance of direction consequently very difficult. However, he crossed the river, and made his way successfully to the German lines, and having accomplished his mission, started to crawl back again.  Unfortunately, having of necessity to pursue a serpentine course in order to avoid the German sentries, he lost his bearings, and presently discovered that, instead of making for the river, he had worked back towards another part of the enemy’s trenches.  Just then, happening to glance aside, he found himself face to face with a couple of German sentries, who lay motionless upon the grass within a few paces of him.  One, who wore a soft Bavarian cap, was lying with his elbows on the ground and his head resting on his hands; the other, quite flat, with his chin on his hands.  At the same moment the Huns caught sight of the British officer, and snatched at their rifles, while Captain Davis, resting his elbows on the ground, levelled his revolvers.  In the circumstances the Germans had no chance, and before they could even raise their weapons the revolvers had spoken and decided the matter.  The shots, of course, put the Huns on the alert, and Captain Davies had a pretty exciting time of it; but eventually he succeeded in reaching our lines, to the great relief of his company, who had begun to fear that he had been either killed or made prisoner.  On another occasion, this time during the day, the trench on the left of that occupied by Captain Davies Company was shelled with exceptional violence, and a considerable number of our brave fellow men lay out.  Together with another officer, Lieutenant Richardson, Captain Davies, who had formerly been in medical practice, courageously volunteered to cross the open ground that separated the two trenches-a distance of from sixty to eighty yards and succour the wounded.  The danger of the undertaking may be gauged from the fact that the German trenches at this point formed a kind of semi circle and overlooked the two British trenches, which faced the centre of this semicircle, so that anyone going from one trench to the other would be in full view of the whole of this sector of the German lines.     

            Having provided themselves with large satchels, containing dressings, chloroform, and surgical instruments, which they slung over their shoulders, the two officer set out, being joined just as they left the trench by a third officer, a young second-lieutenant.  Their appearance in the open was the signal for a storm of bullets and rifles and machine guns, and before they had covered a third of the distance, the second lieutenant was shot through the calf of the left leg.  Captain Davies at once stopped, and kneeling beside his comrades, with bullets buzzing continually past his head, quickly removed the puttee from the injured leg and dressed the wound.  Then leaving the wounded officer under the care of Lieutenant Richardson, in a spot where some odd sandbags afforded them partial cover, he took the latter’s satchel and continued his perilous journey alone. The worst part of it came at the finish, when, to gain the trench, he had to cross an open road with a ditch on either side, which was set by machine gun fire.  The ditches were crossed by planks, but Captain Davies only made use of that across the nearest one, when, having gained the road, he rushed across it and took a flying leap over the farther ditch.  That leap probably saved his life, for, though he was unwounded, he had had a marvellous escape, as his clothes were afterwards found to have been torn in several places by bullets, and had he turned aside to cross the second plank, he would almost certainly have been killed.  Having gained the trench, Captain Davies was occupied for several hours in attending the wounded, some of whom had sustained terrible injuries, one unfortunate man having no less than fourteen, including a fractured jaw, a compound fracture of one of his arms, and abdominal wounds.  In the absence of a medical officer, Captain Davie’s services were invaluable, and more than one man probably owed his life to his skill and care.   Instances might be multiplied of the extreme daring, coolness and resource of one who may be regarded as having no superior as a fearless scout.  No one, in fact, could more fully justify the encomium of the Gazette: “Conspicuous gallantry and resource on many occasions.” It is this same gallant officer who has had the distinction of being the subject of an article entitled, “The Skipper: a Sketch from the Front,” in Punch, of August 11^th 1915, from which we extract the following:

            “Like all great men, he has characteristics peculiar to himself, but does not affect the monocle-for which we were devoutly thankful.  His principal hallmark was a riding crop, from which he never parted.  But we had to get to the trenches, and in front of them, for the Skipper to come into his own.  None of us could understand why but he seemed to regard the ground between our trenches and those of the Germans as peculiarly and exclusively his.  He knew German like a native, and in season and out of season, in wet weather or fine, with the falling of the shades f night came the call of adventure to him, and off he would go, sometimes with an escort for some of the distance, and often without, and we would lose sight and knowledge of him till possibly startled by the sound of exploding bombs and hurried firing of rifles, at which happening our senior subaltern (whose love for the skipper exceeds the love of women) would proceed to a sap head to await tidings, and later welcome and heave a heavy sight of relief as the rotund and muddied figure of the Captain Loomed into sight.  “It would require a book to detail all the adventures of the Skipper in Tom Tiddler’s Ground-as we called it.  His lonely scrap with the big German patrol he dismissed quite briefly.  The bombing of enemy listening posts was too common a feat to deserve notice.  What, however, was more to his taste was a visit to the enemy trench, when he bombed a complete section and brought back as trophies the contents of an enemy’s pockets, the enemy’s rifle, several hair brush bombs, and what was of a greater import, valuable documents and correspondence.  “For months past we have said to ourselves, ‘What of the Skipper?’  And now, lo and behold, we have it in black and white.  He has been awarded the Military Cross.  What deeds we are wondering, must be done that shall merit the D.S.O.?  What must attain to merit a Victoria Cross?”  Captain Herbert Davies, who saw service in the South African War, is forty-one years of age, and lives, in less stirring times, at Brixton Hill.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'

How Lance Corporal William Walter James Milner Of The 1^st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Won The D.C.M. Near Wieltje

The image, from a contemporary portrait, shows a further tendency to simplicity, which we have noted before.  The coat is devoid of lace, and the turn-down collar has developed into something very modern.  The front cock of the hat has almost disappeared, and in a few years after this the hat was to begin to disappear from the dress of the army, finally to be seen only on the heads of certain staff officers.  This officer is wearing one epaulette, so is of below field rank, and is mounted, and therefore may be either an adjutant or a company commander.  It will be noted that he is wearing a black stock with his white cravat, an article of dress which became very unpopular but nevertheless had a long life.  It became symbolic of the tight, uncomfortable uniform which soldiers were forced to wear in the first half of the nineteenth century.  The 65th were originally raised in 1756 as the second battalion of the 12th, but became a separate regiment on their own two years later.  In 1881 they received the better known title of the York and Lancaster Regiment.  

(published during the 1960's)

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