124th (Waterford) Regiment of Foot

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The 124th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1794 and disbanded in 1795. [1]

The regiment was raised in August 1794 as "Beresford's Regiment", under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel William Carr Beresford. Beresford was the illegitimate son of the Marquess of Waterford, and the regiment was raised from the family estates in Waterford. [2] Lord George Beresford, a younger son of the Marquess, also held a captaincy in the regiment. [3]

The regiment was numbered as the 124th Foot the following May, and disbanded in September. [4] It was part of a large wave of thirty new Irish regiments raised in 1793-94 following the British entry into the French Revolutionary Wars, totalling around 25,000 men; in 1795 there was a decision to disband all the highest-numbered regiments, with the men raised being drafted to other regiments for active service. [5] The "old regiments", those on the pre-war establishment, were significantly understrength, and heavy demand for sailors for the Navy had limited the number of new recruits available for the Army. [6]


References

  1. ↑ "124th Regiment of Foot". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008.
  2. ↑ Heathcote, T. A. (2010). Wellington's Peninsular War Generals & Their Battles. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. p. 12. ISBN   978-184884-061-4.
  3. ↑ McGuigan, Ron (2014). "British Generals of the Napoleonic Wars: Beresford, Lord George Thomas". Napoleon Series.
  4. ↑ Brown, Steve (2011). "British Regiments and the Men Who Led Them 1793-1815". Napoleon Series.
  5. ↑ Chart, D. A. (1917). "The Irish Levies during the Great French War". The English Historical Review. 32 (128): 497–516. doi:10.1093/ehr/XXXII.CXXVIII.497. ISSN   0013-8266. JSTOR   550855.
  6. ↑ Prebble, John (1980). Mutiny: highland regiments in revolt, 1743 - 1804. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 439. ISBN   0140043284.


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