Troopships and the Regiment

Troops for the Mediterranean

The Illustrations on our front page show the second battalion of the 2^nd (Queen’s Royal) Regiment leaving Aldershott, on Thursday week, and going on board the transport-ship Euphrates on the Watering Island Jetty in Portsmouth Dockyard. This battalion numbered twenty-four officers, thirty-six sergeants, and 835 rank and file, with seven horses. The men were mostly very young, but had a soldierly appearance. They were in heavy marching order, and each man carried the new pattern valise, mess-can, water-bottle, top coat, and haversack, with the Martini-Henry rifle, and side-arms; but the shako was left behind, and a light Glengarry cap worn instead, to be replaced by a pith helmet at Malta. The troops marched from the Factory Gate through the dockyard in fours, but without any music of the band, which has been found to distract the dockyard labourers from their work. An hour or two later came a detachment of the 104^th Regiment, from the Curragh, part of which embarked in the Euphrates; the same vessel had already received, on the previous day, about 500 men of the 64^th, the 108^th, and the 27^th Regiments. These troops did not like the 2^nd Regiment, carry their own kits and rifles on board the ship. At seven in the evening when all the detachments had come on board, the Euphrates was towed from the jetty, amidst the cheers of the assembled spectators, the band playing and the troops cheering on the deck. These forces are to join the head-quarters of the 27^th and 98^th Regiments, forming the garrison of Malta. The transport-ship Crocodile also takes out from Portsmouth some draughts from the 104^th Regiment, at the Curragh, the 79th Highland Regiment, from Fort George, and the 78^th and 71^st Highland Regiments, from Edinburgh. These arrived at Portsmouth and embarked in the Crocodile the same evening. The Malabar, the Jumna, and the Serapis will convey other detachments of troops.

The strength of the garrison of Malta about ten years ago, before the reduction of our military establishments in the colonies, was eight batteries of  Artillery, with an aggregate strength of 805 non-commissioned officers and men; two companies of Royal Engineers, numbering 178; six battalions of Infantry, 4232 strong; and the Malta Fencible Artillery, 591; the whole garrison numbering 5854 non-commissioned officers and men. The establishment of the present garrison, including  officers, is 5098-viz., Artillery, seven batteries, 1022; Engineers, two companies, 198; Infantry, five battalions, 3440; and the Malta Fencible Artillery, 371. The additions now being made consist of the second battalions of the 2nd Queen’s and the 13^th Light Infantry, each 902 of all ranks, or 1804 altogether, with draughts as follows:- 195 to the 27^th Regiment, 288 to the 42^nd, 245 to the 71^st, 239 to the 98^th, and 231 to the 101^st, making the total reinforcements 3002, and bringing the strength of the garrison up to 81000 of all ranks.