80th Regiment of Foot the third, the 80th Staffordshire Volunteers. later to become the 2nd Battalion, The South Staffordshire Regiment, was raised by Lord Henry William Paget in 1793, 1801 The expedition under General Baird left Bombay with the 80th in three warships, one carrying four companies and two of 70 guns each with two companies; owing to sickness Wellesley did not sail. The Regiment had more than its share of misfortune before reaching Egypt; one of the 70s with Champagnee, his HQ and two companies on board was prevented by contrary winds from entering the Red Sea and had to return to India. According to Harness, Champagnee was last heard of filling his water casks at Goa and in a letter home to his wife Harness roundly accuses his commanding officer of cowardice, but his keen dislike of his senior gives the impression that the statement was more spiteful than true. However, it is doubtful if Champagnee wanted to go to Egypt. for he had been talking of taking sick leave with a view to retirement for some time. In the event he returned to Ceylon and became Colonel of the 1st Ceylon Regiment, so it may well be he put profit before military glory; later he rose to the rank of General. The other 70 was wrecked off the inhospitable coast of what was then Abyssinia with the loss of five lives, the mess plate and the regimental records. The survivors were rescued by the Navy and landed at Suez as the first to arrive from India. The remaining four companies disembarked at Kesseir on the Red Sea on 8th June, further progress up the coast not being possible, and after waiting for other troops including a Division from the Cape, Baird decided to march across the desert to Keneh on the Nile. Kosseir was a collection of verminous mud huts and had a bad water supply, so the first party of the 80th would be glad to move on 19th June. The journey was a formidable one of over 120 miles with heavy going under a grilling sun and was only made possible by the lavish use of camels as water carriers. Some of the skins used as containers cracked and much of the precious liquid was lost; in fact the route must have been abandoned had not water been found about halfway. The excellent orders issued proved that the staff fully realised the difficulties and hardships to be overcome. Detachments started at 5 pm and the rate of march was calculated rather optimistically to be two and a half miles an hour. O.C. parties were ordered to keep the men in the tents at the staging camps by day and they were to keep as quiet as the plague of flies would permit. Troops carried a rice ration, which they cooked themselves, probably in small messes, and meat was sent on to depots at Moilah and Legaitte, respectively forty-five and ninety-two miles from Kosseir. The men drank the water in which the rice had been cooked and were issued with a pint of wine a day. half of which was put in the water, in a laudable attempt to disguise its taste, and strict water discipline was maintained. On leaving Kosseir the wing of the 80th had a strength of 17 officers and 343 other ranks. It had concentrated at Keneh by 6th July. the detachments doing the 120 miles in 15 days, which under such conditions was quite good going; but dysentery from the sand and bad water had taken a heavy toll and there were some cases of temporary blindness and other eye troubles. From the strength return issued at Rosetta on 5th October, three men had died, but of the hundred sick only six were in hospital. At Keneh it was learnt that Cairo had surrendered, thanks to Abercrombys victory at Alexandria, in which that gallant and beloved leader was mortally wounded, but the port itself was still held by the French and Baird was ordered to Rosetta to join the main British force. From Keneh the 80th went down the Nile by boat to Cairo and was one of the first regiments to enter the city and to be stationed at the Citadel. When that fortress was handed over to the Egyptian Army in 1947, a plaque, showing the dates of the 80ths various stays there, was presented to the Regiment. After the two shipwrecked companies had joined the unit at Cairo, it sailed in August to Rosetta and camped at El Hamed, where it learnt that Alexandria had fallen and there was now no prospect of a battle. To add to this disappointment it was announced that the British force from India was not on its way home, as had been hoped and expected, but was to return to India. The 80th arrived at Alexandria on 10th December and spent the next five months either there or at Damietta the Colonelcy of the Regiment had been given to Gerard, later Lord, Lake soon to win great fame in India and to become Commander-in-Chief. The actual command of the 80th in Egypt was probably held at different times by both Ramsay and Harness and as the former was appointed Colonel of the future 2nd Ceylon Regiment in 1801, he may have left Egypt before the unit. There was also another Lieutenant-Colonel in the 80th, Montresor, who was O.C. Left Brigade on the move to Rosetta. It is pleasant to record that the men who arrived too late to fight were treated with real generosity by the Governments at home and Bengal; they received prize money for the campaign, were thanked by Parliament and the Governor of Bengal, and the Regiments were awarded the Battle Honour for the campaign. The Grand Sultan of Turkey, Selim III, was also grateful and generous for he presented every officer in both armies with a handsome gold medal and the N.C.Os had a silver one. He expressed his cordial thanks to the force from India for its perilous march across the desert, which had hitherto been considered impossible. In May 1802 Bairds troops commenced the journey to India with a move to Cairo by boat and then struck across the desert to Suez. which was reached by the 80th on 8th June. The next day it embarked in two transports, Harness and half his men being in the Calcutta which struck a rock off the coast during the first night at sea. Lieutenant Cookson volunteered to take thirty men on shore by boat with a rope and thus establish communication with the land. but the boat was immediately swamped and twelve were drowned; however Cookson and the remainder managed to struggle ashore. Those on board spent a nerve-wracking night in the doomed transport expecting every moment to be their last. At dawn the frigate Romney rescued those on board the Calcutta and also with great difficulty those on shore. who were dragged through the sea and surf by a rope and arrived on board completely exhausted. From the overcrowded Romney crew and troops saw the transport smashed to pieces. The Regiment was allowed two months in Calcutta for re-equipment before sailing for Madras which was reached on the 2nd September 1802, and where the details and families from Ceylon would rejoin, if they had not already done so. Meanwhile the companies, which had been driven back to India, had not been idle. One detachment under Captain White was ordered to the Portuguese settlement of Deman, north of Bombay, to protect the colony against a French attack from Mauritius which did not come off; it seems a curious assignment for British troops. The other party, a company commanded by Lieutenant Brandish, was actively employed against a refractory Mahratta chief and took part in the assault and capture of the fortress of Kadi in the Central Provinces. The detachments, consisting of about three weak companies, then reunited and marched to the Malabar Coast, where they formed part of a force under Montresor, who must have been sent back from Egypt. Punitive expeditions against the Nairs of Wynand and Coliote apparently met with indifferent success for these warriors caused more trouble later. For its part in the Egyptian campaign the 80th received its first Battle Honour: The Sphinx superscribed EGYPT. It is rather surprising that during the 1881-1901 period the Regiment wore the Sphinx as a helmet plate without the Knot. Possibly it was to commemorate that both Battalions had seen active service in Egypt. A bar to the General Service Medal inscribed Egypt was granted by an order dated 11th February 1850! Only four officers and three men of the 80th could be traced to receive it. BAZALGETTE, JOHN, army officer and colonial administrator; b. c. 1784 in London, England, son of Louis Bazalgette; m. Sarah Crawford Magdalen (her surname is not known), and they had at least 15 children; d. 28 March 1868 in London. Descended from a French noble family which settled in England in the mid 18th century, John Bazalgette had already served with the British army in India, Egypt, Jersey, and Bermuda i have been looking for a family member who was in the
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 03:12:07 +0000
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