The Buffs” was officially made part of the regiment’s name by royal warrant in the 1750s, according to several histories we consulted. (It’s now the East Kent Regiment.) The strong fortress of Bois-le-Duc, occupied by the Catholic forces, was situated at the confluence of the rivers Dommel and Aa. The English regiments of Vere, Wimbleton, Morgan and Harewood were part of the Prince of Orange's army. There were also Scots troops, and English cuirassiers and harquebusiers. The siege lasted 5 months and surrendered on 15th Sep 1629. Sir Edward Vere and 4 captains lost their lives in the fighting. Several more forts were recaptured from the Spanish that autumn and the duchies of Cleves, Berg and the country of Mark were reclaimed. But the States had run out of money and failed to pay their soldiers. The Prince of Orange remonstrated with his government and claimed that some units had not been paid since 1614. Subsequently the army pay was regularised. From Singapore the 1st Buffs went to India, in Jan 1887 but it was not until March 1895 that they went on campaign on the Northwest Frontier with Sir Robert Low's 1st Division. The aim of the expedition was to relieve Chitral, a fort that was garrisoned by Sikhs and Kashmiri levies, besieged by Pathan tribesmen. The Buffs went by train to Nowshera and faced a march of 120 miles to Chitral. In the event they were beaten to it by a column of Sikhs who approached from the east but they suffered a gruelling trudge through hostile mountains in freezing temperatures with only a greatcoat to sleep in at night. They were accompanied by a company of Seaforths and 4 companies of Gurkhas and reached the fort with much-needed supplies after a 26 day march.

The 4th Buffs had spent most of the war in Bareilly, northern India, and in March 1927 the 1st Battalion were stationed there for more than 3 years. There are a number of houses in Kent with the name 'Bareilly' as a result of this pleasant posting. In Oct 1930 they went to Burma, stationed at Maymyo, to help deal with a rebellion but there was little action involved. However, they remained in Burma until 1935 when they returned to India. We found an example in White City (2007), a memoir by the British writer Donald James Wheal of his childhood in World War II-era London. Knight, Captain H. R. (1935). Historical records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment, 3rd Foot, formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment 1572-1704. Vol.1. Gale & Pollen. Prince Maurice besieged Sluys and captured it with a force that included 6 companies of English and 7 of Scots. But at Ostend the town was in ruins and the war there had cost 120,000 lives. An assembly of the of the States of the United Provinces reluctantly decided to give it up and at the beginning of September 1604 the 4,000 defenders marched out with drums beating and Colours flying. The inhabitants also quit the town except for one old man and two women. Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Catch Phrases calls it an expression “of self admonition or self-adjuration or self-encouragement” that originated in the military. Its origin? Partridge says only that it comes “from an incident in the history of the East Kent Regiment.”

G.O. 41/1881 1 May 1881 amended by G.O.70/1881 1 July 1881. "X. The facings, and the Officers lace will be the same for all regiments belonging to the same Country (Royal and Rifle Regiments excepted), and will as follows: English Regiments: Facings – White, Pattern of Lace – Rose" Colonel Morgan, as he is referred to at this point of the history, was recalled to England with 700 men of his regiment. They were reviewed by Queen Elizabeth at St James's Palace and then 400 of them were sent to Ireland to deal with Popish insurgents. They were 'the first good harquebusiers seen in England, and their activity and dextrous use of fire-arms brought the musket and harquebus into more general use in Her Majesty's dominions.' James's second wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son and heir on 10th June 1688, named James Edward and who later became the Old Pretender. (There was a rumour that Mary's child was still-born and replaced by the new-born son of Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, Colonel of the Holland Regiment.) The prospect of a Catholic prince to continue James's plans of returning England to the old religion gave heart to the king but prompted William of Orange to take an army to England and gather support from the king's many enemies to dethrone him. The Holland Regiment was mostly posted around Kent at the time when William landed at Brixham on 5th Nov 1688. He entered Exeter without opposition and by December was in London. James after a bungled attempt to leave the country, finally embarked for France towards the end of December. As a precautionary measure, William posted the British regiments outside London and only allowed his Dutch troops and the English troops in his service to guard the capital. The Holland Regiment were stationed at Chesham and Amersham. Churchill, Winston L. Spencer (1898). The Story of the Malakand Field Force: an episode of frontier war, CHAPTER XII: AT INAYAT KILA. London, UK: Longmans, Green.

Sir Francis Doyle: Moyse, the Private of the Buffs". The Heretical Press . Retrieved 30 December 2015. However, he was probably using the expression loosely as an expression of surprise or amazement, much like “I’ll be damned!” or “Blow me down!” or “I’ll be a son of a gun!” The Dutch fight for independence from Spain in the 1568–1648 Eighty Years' War was supported by Protestants across Europe; the origins of the regiment were Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot, a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands formed in 1572. [2] In 1586, these English and Scottish volunteer units were brought together in the Anglo-Scots Brigade, which in various formats served in the Dutch military until 1782. [3] Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below. The 1st Battalion returned to Fermoy in Sep 1919 to be faced with the prospect of fighting against Sinn Fein militants. It was not simply a matter of peace keeping, and the violence escalated. By the time they left the country in Jan 1922 two soldiers had been killed.We also found this example, from an October 1899 issue of the Sketch: “ ‘Good the Guards!’ is becoming a military catchword, just as ‘Steady the Buffs’ and half-a-dozen other short sentences of the kind are.” During the Battle of Taku Forts, Private John Moyse was captured: he was later executed by Chinese soldiers for refusing to kow-tow to a local mandarin. His act of defiance was later immortalised in The Private of the Buffs, a poem by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle. [72] Naval and Military Intelligence". The Times. 13 September 1890. p.7. The regimental colours will in future be buff instead of white; and the Commander-in-Chief has directed that the facings of the regiment be described in the Queen's Regulations and the Army List as buff. From various documents the regimental history was able to compile a list of English officers who served in the Dutch service in 1665 and they are listed under four regiments named after their Colonels: Sir Humphrey then laid siege to Ter-Goes in which action Morgan's Company distinguished themselves. The siege failed, however, because a force of Spanish and Wolloons marched 7 miles through water from Bergen-op-Zoom to relieve the town. The Duke of Alva advanced on Holland and besieged Harlem which was garrisoned by 3,000 men including 200 English and Scots. Reinforcements arrived in the form of 10 newly raised companies from England now commanded by Sir Thomas Morgan. But Harlem was forced, through hunger, to surrender in August 1573 and the Spaniards executed 2,000 inhabitants. Morgan's men were also engaged at Delft.