On the 7th of April, 1804, the expedition sailed from Barbadoes, and a landing was effected on the 26th of that month; the SIXTEENTH were actively employed in operations, until the surrender of the colony on the 4th of May.
While the regiment was at Surinam, the post occupied by a detachment of the light company and a few men of the fourth West India regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Richard Greene, of the SIXTEENTH, at _Armena_, was attacked by a large force of predatory negroes and banditti, and defended with great gallantry, the greater part of the garrison being killed in the successful resistance made to the assailants. The inhabitants of the colony afterwards presented Lieutenant Greene with a valuable sword, in token of their sense of his conduct.
In 1807 Lieut.-Colonel Skinner was succeeded in the duties of commanding officer by Major Brabazon Dean Vernon.[8]
On the decease of General Bowyer, in 1808, King George III. conferred the colonelcy on Major-General Sir Charles Green, Bart., from the York light infantry volunteers.
In May, 1809, His Majesty was graciously pleased to approve of the regiment being styled the SIXTEENTH, or the BEDFORDSHIRE, instead of the _Buckinghamshire_, Regiment: this exchange of County titles took place with the Fourteenth Regiment of Foot.
Lieut.-Colonel Henry Tolley assumed the command of the regiment, in June, 1810.
During its stay at Surinam and Barbadoes, the regiment lost twenty-seven officers and upwards of five hundred men by disease. The survivors returned to England by detachments in 1810, 1811, and 1812, and landed at Falmouth and Portsmouth. One ship, the "Islam," having on board the remainder of the grenadiers and of one battalion company, was wrecked on the Tuscan Rock off the coast of Ireland. By the exertions of some workmen, who were making preparations to erect a lighthouse on the rock, all were saved excepting one man, one woman, and some children; all the arms, appointments, and baggage were lost. On the following day the party was taken off the rock by a brig, and conveyed to Beaumaris in Wales.
After occupying quarters at various stations, and receiving many volunteers from the English and Irish militia, the regiment marched to Sunderland in July; and in March, 1813, embarked from thence for Perth: in July of this year it proceeded to Ireland.