Military uniform prints and military art of the Wiltshire Regiment now part of the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment ( Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiments ), published by Cranston Fine Arts the military print company.

The 62^nd, the Wiltshire Regiment, was amalgamated with its linked battalion, the 99^th Duke of Edinburgh’s (Lancashire), in 1881.  As the 2^nd battalion of the 4^th Foot, it assisted in the defence of Minorca, and began a separate existence as the 62^nd in 1758.  The county title was given in 1782.  The first regiment so numbered became a battalion of the 60^th in 1755.  As an independent regiment the 62^nd was with Wolfe at Quebec in 1759; behaved with great gallantry in the defence of Carrickfergus against the French the following year; surrendered with Burgoyne at Saratoga, after bearing the brunt of the battle there and at Stillwater; and, after other services, was sent to Jamaica against the Maroons, in 1791, when it lost twenty-five officers and the bulk of the men from disease.  In the Egyptian campaign of 1801 the regiment did duty at Alexandria and Rosetta; the flank companies were despatched to relieve the castle of Seylla in 1808; and for the second time the 62^nd embarked for Sicily (in 1809), and assisted on this occasion to capture Ischia and Procida.  The destruction of the batteries at Palermo was effected by three companies in 1811, and the grenadier company also saw service at the Bidassoa, Nivelle, and the “Mayor’s House” near Boulogne.  After much general duty in various parts of the world, it shared in the glories of Ferozeshah (losing 18 officers and 280 men killed and wounded) and of Sobraon, whilst a detachment was present at Aliwal.           Curiously enough, twice during the campaign were the colours lost; the first time they were sunk in a boat on the Ganges, and though they were recovered, they were, on the second occasion, destroyed by fire in a boat on the same river.           The 62^nd was despatched to the Crimea in 1854, and lost heavily during the prolonged siege which added “Sevastopol” to the list of regimental honours.           A 2^nd battalion, raised in 1804, served in the Peninsula at the nive and Nivelle, formed part of the Army of Occupation of France, and was disbanded in 1820.

           The 99^th was formed at Glasgow in 1824, was named “the Lanarkshire Regiment” in 1832, and the “Duke of Edinburgh’s” in 1874.  It has had five predecessors.  The first existed from 1760 to 1763; the second (the Jamaica Regiment), 1780 to 1783; the third, 1794 to 1798; the fourth (Prince of wale’s Tipperary), formed in 1804, became the 98^th in 1818; and the fifth, raised in 1805 as the 100^th, became the 99^th in 1815, and was disbanded in 1818 as “H.R.H. the Prince Regent’s county of Dublin Regiment.”  The first active service seen by the regiment was in the Maori War of 1845, when two companies were despatched from Sydney, and the men shared in the repulse at Ohaianai and its final capture, and in the fight at Ruapekapeka the next year.           The year 1860 saw them in China.  The 99^th was engaged in that campaign against the pirates of Chusan, in the actions on the 18^th and 21^st September between Pehtung and Pekin, and the capture of the capital-returning at the peace to Hong Kong.  Thence one company was transferred to Shanghai in 1862, to assist in the suppression of the Taeping Rebellion there, the whole regiment returning home from the China seas in 1869.           In 1878 the 99^th embarked for South Africa, where two companies fought at the battle on the Inyezane and were then shut up in fort Ekowe, and the rest of the battalion formed part of the column of relief which defeated the Zulus at Ginghilovo.  Since then the 99^th has seen much foreign but no active service.

           Formerly the “splash” was worn on the buttons of the 62^nd, because at the siege of Carrickfergus Castle by the French, in 1760, the men ran short of ammunition and used their buttons instead.  The buff facings of the 62^nd and the yellow of the 99^th were changed to white in 1881.  The Maltese Cross the badge of both the 62^nd and the Royal Wilts Militia; but to that has been added the cipher and coronet of the “Duke of Edinburgh.”  The coronet and cipher appears on the button (with Wiltshire Regiment), on a Maltese Cross on the collar; the same, with the name added, on the helmet, waist-plate, and forage-cap.       The Royal Wiltshire Militia, formed in 1759, composes the 3^rd battalion.  The Volunteer battalions are the 1^st Wiltshire, Warminster, and the 2^nd Wiltshire, Chippenham.  Both are dressed in green with black facings.           The 62^nd were known as the “Springers,” when acting as Light Infantry in Burgoyne’s campaign, from the rapidity of their pursuit of the Americans in 1777.      The depot was at Devizes (Excerpt from her majesty's Army by Richards)