This is the regiment whose original county title was never used because no one knew what it was supposed to represent. When the 65th Foot and the 84th Foot were selected for amalgamation in 1881, the title proposed for the new regiment was The Hallamshire Regiment. It was intended to recognise the fact that the regiment’s recruiting area would include a part of South Yorkshire known as Hallamshire that embraces modern Sheffield, Ecclesfield and Bradfield. However, the proposal was highly unpopular as the name Hallamshire was unfamiliar and considered archaic, even though it was eventually used by the regiment’s 4th Territorial Battalion, previously the Hallamshire Volunteer Rifle Corps. To resolve the issue a vote was taken among the officers who chose York and Lancaster in recognition of the fact that it was the territorial title of the 84th Foot, which enjoyed historic links with both the city of York and the north Lancashire garrison town of Preston, home to its 2nd Battalion in 1808. However, the regiment’s title refers not to the modern counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire but to the ancient Duchies of Lancaster and York and was a reminder of the Wars of the Roses and the historical rivalry between the houses of York and Lancaster. This was symbolised in the use of the Tudor rose in the regiment’s cap badge, marrying the white rose of York and the red of Lancaster. It sat above a Royal Bengal tiger which was awarded in 1823 and gives rise to the badge’s colloquial nickname ‘the cat and cabbage.’
When the boundaries between the modern counties were being drawn in the mid-nineteenth century a large part of the Duchy of Lancaster was incorporated within the West Riding of Yorkshire. Basically, the regiment always considered itself to be affiliated to Yorkshire with its main recruiting area in the south of the county incorporating the major towns of Barnsley, Sheffield and Rotherham. On its formation in 1881 that relationship was cemented with the construction of the new regiment’s brick-built depot which was situated in Pontefract and it still stands in Wakefield Road. It closed in 1963 and is now a business centre. The York and Lancs (also known locally as the Young and Lovelies) was a relatively short-lived regiment. In 1968 it agreed that, instead of amalgamating with another Yorkshire regiment and losing its separate identity, it would choose disbandment. The final parade was held in Sheffield on 14 December 1968 and the Regimental Colours were laid up in the Chapel of St George in Sheffield Cathedral.
The older component of the regiment began life in 1758 when it was founded as the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Regiment of Foot, later to become The Suffolk Regiment. This was very much an emergency measure to increase the size of the army during the Seven Years War, the idea being to add a second battalion to a number of regiments which were reasonably well recruited. The scheme was so successful that within the same year the new regiment was given its own number and was retitled the 65th Regiment of Foot with its recruiting area being designated in 1782 as the North Riding of Yorkshire. It soon saw active service when it was part of a force of six infantry regiments sent to the West Indies in the following year with the objective of capturing the French ‘sugar islands’ of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Cuba. These were valuable acquisitions but as an early regimental historian explained, the operation placed great strains on those taking part: ‘The troops, unaccustomed to the climate, suffered greatly from fevers, from the flux, the scurvy from the use of salt provisions and from an accidental evil, the smallpox, which broke out amongst the transports.’
It was a difficult birth for the young regiment but it survived the dreadful hardships and was able to return home with the battle honour ‘Guadeloupe 1759’, to be stationed in Ireland, where it remained until 1768. Later in the century the 65th served in North America and the Caribbean and its travels continued during the Napoleonic Wars when it was stationed in Mauritius and India. Perhaps its most unusual period of service within the Empire came when it was based in Australia and New Zealand between 1845 and 1865. In the latter country the regiment took part in the Land Wars between the colonists and the native Maoris who provided the regiment with its nickname ‘Hickety Pip’ from their pronunciation of the number 65th.
The records also show that, despite being on opposite sides, there was a good deal of mutual respect: when pickets from the 65th went into the bush at night they would identify themselves to the Maori warriors and ask them if there would be fighting that night. If the reply was ‘Not tonight - too wet and cold; we’d better get some sleep. Good night, Hickety Pip’ both sides would honour the agreement. If there was to be an attack, they would be given a warning and would be expected to fight like any other regiment. While taking part in the Waikato Campaign of 1863-65 two soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross – Colour Sergeant Edward McKenna from Leeds and Lance Corporal John Ryan from County Tipperary, both of whom demonstrated supreme gallantry under fire after their officers had been killed. McKenna stayed in the country after the 65th returned to England and joined the New Zealand Railways. Sadly, a year later, Ryan died while attempting to save a drunken soldier from drowning in the Waikato River. His medal is on display in the York and Lancaster Museum at Clifton Park in Rotherham.
By contrast the 84th Regiment of Foot had a much less settled beginning. It was formed in 1759 for service in India, its first Colonel being Eyre Coote, who had already seen meritorious service in India, fighting under Robert Clive at the Battle of Plassey. Despite his later fame as one of the creators of British India, Coote, born in Kilmallock in County Limerick, had experienced an indifferent start to his military career. Commissioned into Blakeney’s Regiment of Foot (later the 27th), he lost his nerve and ran away while in charge of the Colour Party before the Battle of Falkirk during the Jacobite uprising of 1745-46. Coote was court-martialled for cowardice but survived to fight another day in India and the 84th fought with great credit in the First Mysore War. Even so it was disbanded in 1763 and when it was raised once again, this time by Colonel Allan Maclean in 1775, it was given the title The Royal Highland Emigrants and earmarked for service in Canada. The men wore Highland dress with Black Watch tartan and among those who served in the regiment was Allan Macdonald of Kingsburgh, the husband of Flora MacDonald, the saviour of Bonnie Prince Charlie when he was on the run in the Highlands after Culloden. Again it was a short-lived existence, being disbanded and re-raised in its final form in 1793 for service in the war against Revolutionary France. In 1809 it was given the new title 84th (York and Lancaster) Foot.
The new regiment won its spurs during the Indian Mutiny where it came under the command of Lieutenant General Sir James Outram, an experienced soldier known throughout the army as the ‘Bayard of India’ on account of his well-known courtesy and knightly virtues. When the 84th left India in 1859 he was moved to say of its service: ‘A private letter is hardly a proper medium for giving expression to the strong feelings I bear to the glorious old 84th, but the feelings I do bear it are very strong, and every officer, non-commissioned officer and private of the Corps is, and ever shall be, my comrade and my friend!’ During the fighting six soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross.
Carried on the Regimental Colour
Guadeloupe 1759, Martinique 1794, Arabia, Nive, Peninsula, India, Lucknow, New Zealand, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882–84, Relief of Ladysmith, South Africa 1899–1902
Aisne 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1915, 17, 18, Gravenstafel, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Hooge 1915, Loos, Somme 1916, 18, Albert 1916, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917, 18, Scarpe 1917, 18, Arleux, Oppy, Messines 1917, 18, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917, 18, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Lys, Hazebrouck, Bailleul, Kemmel, Scherpenberg, Marne 1918, Tardenois, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Havrincourt, Èpéhy, Canal du Nord, Selle, Valenciennes, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914–18, Piave, Vittorio Veneto, Italy 1917–18, Struma, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1915–18, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1916
Those in bold carried on the Queen’s Colour
Norway 1940, Odon, Fontenay Le Pesnil, Caen, La Vie Crossing, La Touques Crossing, Forêt de Bretonne, Le Havre, Antwerp-Turnhout Canal, Scheldt, Lower Maas, Arnhem 1945, North-West Europe 1940, 44–45, Tobruk 1941, Tobruk Sortie 1941, Mine de Sedjenane, Djebel Kournine, North Africa 1941, 43, Landing in Sicily, Simeto Bridgehead, Pursuit to Messina, Sicily 1943, Salerno, Vietri Pass, Capture of Naples, Cava di Terreni, Volturno Crossing, Monte Camino, Calabritto, Colle Cedro, Garigliano Crossing, Minturno, Monte Tuga, Anzio, Advance to Tiber, Gothic Line, Coriano, San Clemente, Gemmano Ridge, Carpineta, Lamone Crossing, Defence of Lamone Bridgehead, Rimini Line, San Marino, Italy 1943-45, Crete, Heraklion, Middle East 1941, North Arakan, Maungdaw, Rangoon Road, Toungoo, Arakan Beaches, Chindits 1944, Burma 1943–45
Lance Corporal (later Lieutenant Colonel), Abraham Boulger, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Private Joel Holmes, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Sergeant Major (later Lieutenant) George Lambert, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Lance Corporal John Sinnott, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Augustus Anson, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Private (later Sergeant) Patrick Mylott, 84th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1857
Colour Sergeant Edward McKenna, 65th Regiment, Maori War, 1863
Lance Corporal John Ryan, 65th Regiment, Maori War, 1863
Private Samuel Harvey, 1st Battalion First World War, 1915
Private John Caffrey, 2nd Battalion First World War, 1915
Sergeant Frederick Charles Riggs, 6th Battalion, First World War, 1918
Sergeant John Brunton Daykins, 2/4th Battalion, First World War, 1918
Corporal John William Harper, 4th Hallamshire Battalion, Second World War, 1944