R.C.—The Royal Cypher within the Garter. The badge and motto of the Order of the Thistle. In each of the four corners the Royal Cypher ensigned with the imperial crown. The Sphinx, superscribed “Egypt.”
The honorary distinctions are: Guadaloupe, 1759; Martinique, 1762; Havannah; North America, 1763-64; Mysore; Mangalore; Seringapatam; Corunna; Busaco; Fuentes d’Onor; Pyrenees; Nivelle; Nive; Orthes; Toulouse; Peninsula; Waterloo; South Africa, 1846-7, 1851-2-3; Alma; Sevastopol; Lucknow; Ashantee, 1873-4; Egypt, 1882, 1884; Tel-el-Kebir; Nile, 1884-85; Kirbekan; South Africa, 1899-1902; Paardeberg.
=The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.=—Facings, white for all battalions but the Buckinghamshire battalion, which are scarlet.
The battalion honours are: Quebec, 1759; Martinique, 1762, 1794; Havannah; Mysore; Hindoostan; Vimiera; Corunna; Busaco; Fuentes d’Onor; Ciudad Rodrigo; Badajoz; Salamanca; Vittoria; Pyrenees; Nivelle; Nive; Orthes; Toulouse; Peninsula; Waterloo; South Africa, 1851-2-3; Delhi, 1857; New Zealand; South Africa, 1900-02; Relief of Kimberley; Paardeberg.
The “Light Bobs,” as this regiment is nicknamed, are a combination of the old 43rd (Monmouthshire Light Infantry) and the 52nd (Oxfordshire Light Infantry). A retired stand of flags of the former may be seen in the Royal United Service Museum, bearing this inscription:
“Colours of the 43rd, 1818-27, one of the regiments of the celebrated Light Division of Peninsula fame. The first or Royal colour is the Great Union, and the second, or regimental colour, the Red Cross of St. George on the white field. They only bear the one distinction, ‘Peninsula,’ the other honours shortly afterwards authorised not having been added. They were made to replace those carried with such distinguished honour in the Peninsula, and were presented to the regiment in 1818 at Valenciennes. The colours were carried on parade at the celebrated review held on 23rd October, 1818, the day before the break-up of the Army, when the whole of the British, Hanoverian, Saxon, and Danish contingents, commanded by the Duke of Wellington, were paraded before the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia, near Valenciennes. Their last public act was to accompany the regiment to the Peninsula in 1827, when five thousand British troops were despatched under General Sir Henry Clinton, owing to the disturbed state of Portugal, and the hostile attitude of Spain. A few months later the colours were retired from service, when a new set bearing the eleven additional honours authorised in 1821 were presented by the wife of the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel William Haverfield.”