Officers
of the
46th Regiment

Robert William Piper was born in Devonport on the 6th December, 1824, and entered the 46th Regiment as an Ensign, without purchase, on the 25th May, 1842. After three years home service with the Depot companies, he sailed for Canada to join the Headquarters of his regiment on the 29th May, 1845. The 46th Regiment was at that time serving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after having spent several years previously in the pestilential hell-hole that was the West Indies. The regiment moved from Halifax to La Prairie, Canada East (nine miles from Montreal) in July of that year, Piper purchasing his commission as Lieutenant on the 11th July, 1845, from John Mervin Nooth, who retired after an undistinguished military career of just over five years.

Piper and his regiment proceeded to Kingston, Canada West, on the 9th October, 1846, returning to Halifax, Nova Scotia a year later, from which station the regiment sailed for England in April, 1848.

Piper purchased his Captaincy, on the 23rd April, 1852, by some complicated manoeuvre involving a Captain Nesbit, whom I have been unable to trace. He sailed for the Crimea with the main body of his regiment on the 12th October, 1854, landing at Balaklava Harbour on the 8th November, 1854, and remaining with the regiment at the Front until he was listed as Absent Without Leave on the 15th January, 1855. The next few months are rather confusing - the official story goes that he was ordered to return to England with some invalids from the hospital at Scutari, and neither he nor anyone else informed the regiment, but his service papers cloud the issue by stating in two different entries that he served in the Crimea until either 15th October, 1855 or 17th April, 1856. A brother officer, writing in 1856, describes him as having been Absent since August, 1855! Further research needed here, I'm afraid...

For his services in the Crimea, Piper was awarded the Crimea medal, with clasp for Sebastopol, the Turkish Order of the Mejedie (5th Class) (God knows why he got this quasi-Knighthood from Turkey - probably because he was one of the senior company commanders of the regiment; he is not known to have distinguished himself in action in any way), and the Turkish Crimea medal. The present location of his medals is not known.

After a spell of duty with the Depot Companies in England, Piper sailed to rejoin his regiment at Corfu on the 15th January 1857, remaining at that most pleasant of stations until the regiment departed for India on the 5th October, 1858. It would appear that service in India did not suit him, for he returned home on the 19th May, 1859, and, on the 25th January, 1860, retired from the army by the sale of his commission, to Lieutenant Edward Hawker Helyar, another Crimea veteran. Reid

Captain, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

Schaw

Captain, commanding the light company of the 46th Regiment, 1816, serving on detachment in the interior of New South Wales, "reducing the aborigines to a state of obedience." Received the thanks of the Governor, Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, in a General Order of 7th May, 1816.

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Scot

Captain, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Simms

Lieutenant, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Spencer

Adjutant, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Donald Stuart

Captain, commanding advance party of four companies, 46th Regiment on their return from India, 1833.

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Sutherland

Ensign, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Talbot

Major, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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James Taylor

Lieutenant, commanding detached company, 46th Regiment, on its return from India, 1833.

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Hon. John Vaughan

Lieutenant-Colonel, appointed to the 46th Regiment in November, 1762; Colonel of the Regiment, 11th May, 1775.

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Wale

Lieutenant, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Wallis

Captain, commanding the grenadier company of the 46th Regiment, 1816, serving on detachment in the interior of New South Wales, "reducing the aborigines to a state of obedience." Received the thanks of the Governor, Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, in a General Order of 7th May, 1816. Major Commanding the 46th Regiment in India, 1824 (in the absence of the C.O., Col. Archibald Campbell, whom see).

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Thomas Willshire

Major and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, commanded a detachment of the 46th Regiment in the Southern Mahratta country in late 1824, present at the Siege and Capture of Kittoor.

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Wry

Lieutenant, captured at the Battle of Prestonpans, 21st September, 1745, by the army of the Young Pretender.

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Edward Wynne

Captain, killed at the unsuccessful assault on Fort Ticonderoga, 8th July, 1758.

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Henry Wynyard

Lieutenant-General, Colonel of the Regiment from 1st April, 1816.

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Other Sources of Information

Colonels of the 32nd and 46th Regiments and the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 1702-1958.

Commanding Officers of the 32nd and 46th Regiments and the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, 1814-1900.

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Last updated by the Adjutant on the 25^th of February, 2003

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