Historical military art prints of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry now part of the Royal Green Jackets from the first world war. Military art prints published by Cranston Fine Arts.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment, (43rd and 52nd) became in 1958 The 1st Green Jackets

The King's Royal Rifle Corps became the 2nd Green Jackets,  and The Rifle Brigade became the 3rd Green jackets.

THE OXFORDSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY (43RD AND 52ND)  Raised in 1741 as the 54th Foot, becoming in 1748 The 43rd of Foot, and in 1755 changed to the 54th Foot and in 1757 the 52nd Foot.  

In 1881 These two Regiments became the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and again changing in 1908 to the Oxfordhsire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Battle Honours shown on standards

• 1756 - 1763,  Quebec, (1759)  Martinique (1762)  Havannah during the Seven Years War
• 1789 - 1791  Mysore  during the Third Mysore War 
• 1790 - 1793  Hindoostan in India
• 1793 - 1802  Martinique during the French Revolutionary Wars
• 1808 - 1814  Vimiera, Corunna, Busaco, Fuentos d'Onoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse during the Peninsula war
• 1815,  Battle of Waterloo
• 1851 - 1853  South Africa during the Eighth Kaffir War
• 1857 - 1858  Delhi, during the Indian Mutiny
• 1863 - 1865  New Zealand
• 1899 - 1902  relief of Kimberley, Paardeburg, during the Boer War
• 1914 - 1918  Mons, Ypres, Langemarck, Nonne Bosschen, Somme, Cambrai, Piave, Doiran, Ctesiphon, defence of Kut Al Amara during the First World War
• 1939 - 1945   Cassel, Ypres Comines Canal, Normandy Landing, Pegasus Bridge, Reichswald, Rhine, Enfidaville, Salerno, Anzio, Gemmano Ridge.

VICTORIA CROSS AWARDS  Six members of the regiments have been awarded the Victoria Cross,  three during the Indian Mutiny, one during the Third Maori War and Two during the First World War

The Oxfordshire Light Infantry  The 43^rd Foot, formerly the Monmouthshire Light Infantry, and linked, from 1873 to 1881, with the 53^rd, was combined with the 52^nd Oxfordshire Light Infantry, which had been up to then linked with the 85^th, to form the present regiment.  The 1^st battalion was raised in 1741, and assembled at Winchester; but it did not receive its numerical title until 1751.  Its county title was bestowed in 1782, and it was made light infantry in 1803.  Its first active service was in North America in 1757, etc., where it was present at Louisburg and Nova Scotia, and took an active part in the storming of the heights of Abraham at Quebec, earning from the French the encomium that “they levelled and fired absolument comme un coup de canon.”  It shared in the defence of Quebec, at Montreal and Sillery; and also saw fighting at Martinique and Havannah.   Returning home in 1764, the regiment was sent back ten years later to America, to take part in the War of Independence, and shared in the fighting and heavy loss at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker’s Hill; at Long Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, and New York Island; at Quaker’s Hill, and other affairs, until the capture of York Town.  Then it went home, but was soon sent to the West Indies, to take part in the attacks on Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe in 1794.  The 43^rd was at Copenhagen, and afterwards saw much and distinguished service in the Peninsula: first at Vimiera, where the men displayed the greatest gallantry; next, under Moore, at Corunna, where, it is said, “many men came to take their places in the ranks crawling on hands and knees, so fearfully lacerated were their feet;” and finally, with the 52^nd and 95^th, as part of Crawford’s Light Brigade.  With it the 43^rd saw almost continous fighting.  It was at the Coa, Busaco, Pombal, Redinha, Castelnuova, Fuentes d’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Sabugal, Salamanca (where it advanced “in line for a distance of three miles under a cannonade with as clean and firm a front as at a review”), Vittoria, Vera, Bidassoa, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse.  The names of twelve of these battles and “Peninsula” adorn the colours.  After the peace the regiment embarked for America, and was under fire at New Orleans and at Fort Bowyer, Mobile.  Though too late, on its return home, to take part in the Waterloo campaign, it formed part of the Army of Occupation from 1815 to 1818, and also of that in Portugal in 1827.  Assisting to suppress the Canadian insurrection in 1837, it saw no serious active service until the Kaffir War of 1851-53, when it was present at the Wateekloof and Berea.  During the Mutiny the 43^rd marched from Bangalore to Calpee 1,300 miles-during the hot weather, and was employed at Kirwee, Bundeelcund, etc.  This campaign gained the V.C. for Private Addison and Captain F.A. Smith.  In New Zealand it took part in the campaign of 1861-63, where the loss was heavy, and has seen no further important war service since, except against the Moplas in Malabar in 1873. Among the distinguished officers of the regiment must be mentioned the historian, Sir W. Napier.A 2^nd battalion existed from 1804 to 1817, and served under Moore in Spain and at Walcheren, where the army had 12,000 men on the sick list in fourteen days.  The present 2^nd battalion, the old 52^nd, has an equally brilliant history with the 1^st.  It is difficult to even summarise it.  It was raised at the 54^th fifteen years after the 43^rd, and rendezvoused at Coventry; but it got its well-known number in 1757, its county title in 1782, and its “Light Infantry” designation in 1803.  Embarking for Canada in 1765, it was transferred to Boston in 1774, and fought at Concordm Bunker’s Hill (where the grenadier company had only eight of its total strength untouched), Brooklyn, Pell’s Point, White Plains, Fort Washington, Rhode Island, Forts Montgomery and Clinton, Brandywine, Wayne’s Skirmish, and Freehold.  The next active service of the 52^nd was in India; at Cannanore (where Private Taylor sounded the depth of the ditch under a heavy fire), Dindigull, Bangalore, Savendroog (where the band played “Britons, Strike Home” during the assault),  Outredroog, and Seringapatam (where the enemy lost 20,000 men), and Pondicherry.  For these services “Hindoostan” was added to the colours. Two years after its formation it served in the French Coast Expedition; and then at Bock, Minden, Corbach, and Warburg; at the defence of Port Philip in Minorca in 1771, where, after an heroic struggle, during which 1,900 out of a total of 2,600 had perished, the garrison was compelled to surrender.  But they marched out with all the honours of war, and “an involuntary shout burst from the enemy as they passed, and many of the French officers were affected to tears.”   In 1794 the regiment was engaged at Fiorenza and at Bastia, in Corsica, where it captured a redoubt at the point of the bayonet, and without firing; and in 1800 it didi good work in Ceylon; but its most distinguished service was in the Peninsula, where it was sent in 1808.   The 51^st was present at Corunna, and at Walcheren; returning to Portugal, it fought at Fuentes d’Onor, Sabugal, Salamanca, Badajoz, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, and Orthes, earning the right to carry seven of these names and “Peninsula” on the colours.  In 1813 “every man of the 51^st starting in pursuit of the Fench, under Soult, put a sprig of laurel in his cap, ‘according to an old custom of the corps,’ and the other regiments gave three cheers as they passed by, the bands striking up the ‘Minden March.’”  In the campaign of 1815 it was on the left at Waterloo, and shared in the storm of Cambray; but after that the 51^st saw no further active service until 1852, when it took part in the first Burmese War at Pegu, Martaban, etc., while a detachment on board the H.E.I.C. steamer Sesostris acted as marines at Rangoon, Bassein, etc.  A Burmese bell captured at Rangoon was presented after this campaign, in 1858, to the City of York.  It assisted to suppress the Harzara insurrection in 1863, and joined the Jowaki Expedition in 1877, completing its Indian service about that time by forming part of the army for the Afghan campaign.  In that war the 51^st was present at Ali Musjid, Zatra Khel, at the numerous punitive expeditions about Jellalabad, and Jugdulluck, etc.  For gallantry near Ali Musjid Lieutenant Reid gained the Victoria Cross.  The last name on the battle-roll is that of “Burma, 1885-87.”  The 2^nd battalion of the regiment was the “2^nd Madras European Regiment,” and was formed in 1839, changing its name in 1858 to the “2^nd Madras Light Infantry,” and, in 1861, to the “105^th Madras Light Infantry.”  It saw service in Madras and Burmah between 1839 and 1860.   The uniform is scarlet, the present facing blue; but those of the 51^st were originally “grass green,” and were changed to blue in 1821.  The facings of the 105^th were yellow or “pale buff.”   On the button is worn the “Minden wreath,” a French horn, or bugle, crowned, with a rose in the centre; the collar bears the bugle and rose alone; the helmet-plate and waist-plate have in addition the motto “Cede nullis,” which came from the 105^th.  The 3^rd battalion was formed from the 1^st West Yorks Militia, raised in 1759, and which was formerly a Rifle Regiment.  The only volunteer battalion is the 5^th West Riding (scarlet and blue), with head- quarters at Wakefield.  The regiment has been called the “Kolis,” from the initial letters of the words “King’s Own Light Infantry.” The depot was at Pontefract.