The Green Howards, - Origins of the Regiment

"What Are They Now (7)" by Iain Swinnerton
The following article is reproduced by kind permission of Family Tree Magazine, - the world's best selling British genealogical publication. We are extremely grateful to be allowed to include this article on this web site, and hope that it will provide visitors to the site with a further useful insight into the history of our famous Regiment.

The article below is part of a series published by Family Tree Magazine on the whereabouts of various historic British Army Regiments, - tracing their history from their early days to their current amalgamated (or otherwise) roles in the modern Army. It appeared in the January 2002 issue of the magazine. As such, it must be taken in the context of being one of a series of articles. For the previous and subsequent articles, please contact Family Tree Magazine directly. The article discusses the origins of both the Green Howards, as well as the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding). The article also proposes a reason as to why these two regiments were not amalgamated together in the 1960's and 1970's.

The King's Division is composed of all northern regiments: we have already looked at The King's Own Royal Border Regiment, The King's Regiment and The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and now we must deal with the remaining three - two from Yorkshire and one from Lancashire.

The senior of these bears a very famous name indeed -The Green Howards. Originally raised on the 25 February 1689 by Colonel Francis Luttrell, it claims to have its roots in some companies of pikemen and musketeers raised for the Revolution of 1688 against James II when William of Orange was invited to come over from Holland to take the throne.

The regiment was numbered 19th of Foot in 1751, by which time it had already acquired its nickname of the "Green Howards" from its commander, the Hon Charles Howard, and the green facings to its tunics. This was to distinguish it from the Old Buffs who were also known as Howard's after their colonel, George Howard and wore buff facings. When fifes were first introduced into the Army in 174 7, the Green Howards were the first to adopt them.

In 1782, it was given the title of 19th (1st Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot and, in 1875, received royal patronage and was able to add "Princess of Wales's Own" to its title. This, of course, was Princess Alexandra, wife of the future King Edward VII. On the general reorganisation of the Army in 1881, it became The Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment) and appears in the Army list today as The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), a rare example in today's Army of a title that has remained virtually unchanged for over 100 years and of one of only a handful of regiments which retain their original identity. It is not surprising that such a famous regiment has produced no fewer than three Field Marshals: Sir Samuel Hulse, commissioned into the regiment in 1761, Sir William Rowan, 1803, and Sir Nigel Bagnall in 1946. 18 members of the regiment have been awarded the Victoria Cross.

The Army owes a great debt to one of its colonels, Charles Cranford Hay, who commanded the regiment from 1842-1854. He founded the School of Musketry at Hythe that did so much to raise the standards of shooting in the Army and he also gave great support and encouragement to the Volunteer Rifle movement. He died a Lt General in 1873. The regiment marches to Bonnie English Rose and is one of the few regiments still to wear a khaki beret, as opposed to the standard infantry navy blue.

The other Yorkshire regiment in the King's Division was raised in 1702 by George, Earl of Huntingdon. It fought at Dettingen in 1743, the last battle at which a reigning British Monarch (George II) commanded in the field, and at Fontenoy. It was numbered 33rd in 1751 and given the title of 33rd (lst York, West Riding) Regiment of Foot in 1782. In honour of the great Field Marshal, it was renamed the 33rd (Duke ofWellington's) Regiment in 1853 - the only regiment in the British Army to be named after a person of non-royal blood.

The regiment's third colonel was George Wade, who later built all the military roads in Scotland, after the rebellion of 1745.

The regiment fought throughout the American War of Independence under its colonel, Earl Cornwallis, who was finally made prisoner after the surrender at York Town, following the shameful failure of the home government to support its Army in the field.

Meanwhile, in 1787, the East India Company paid for four new regiments, two Highland and two English, to be raised when the affairs of Holland threatened to plunge Europe into war again. They were numbered 74th - 77th and one of the English regiments was named the 76th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot and served in India for 20 years. On returning to this country, it dropped the Indian part of its title, reverting to plain 76th, until 1881 when it merged with the 33rd, to become The Duke ofWellington's (West Riding Regiment). Today, it is the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding). The regiment has a rather curious nickname of "The Havercake Lads", derived from the custom of their recruiting sergeants marching in front of the recruits with a haver or oatcake stuck on their swords.

The regiment's most famous former member is, of course, Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington who, however, was not commissioned into the regiment, but joined the 76th as a major from the 73rd in 1787, and was then gazetted as a major to the 33rd in 1793. It is said that he learned his trade with the 33rd, he purchased his Lieutenant Colonelcy in the regiment in the same year and commanded it until 1803. During those years, he took the regiment to Holland and to India. Having moved on to higher things, he was reunited with his old regiment in 1815 at Waterloo, where the 33rd fought under him and took part in the charge that routed Napoleon's Imperial Guard.

Another Field Marshal from the regiment was George Wade, already mentioned, and Field Marshal HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief, is said to have learned his drill with the 33rd!

It is alleged that when all the amalgamations. and reductions were taking place in the 1960s and 70s, It was suggested that a logical amalgamation would be of these two Yorkshire Regiments, but it was turned down flat by the Ministry of Defence, on the grounds that the rest of the Army would promptly call them The Green Wellies!.