The Pattern - the 33rd Foot in the AWI

 

I mentioned a while back that I was gradually working through the collection of 18th century books from Helion that I bought in May. After finishing These Distinguished Corps (Don Hagist's work on the flank British battalions of the AWI), I took the Pattern as holiday reading. And very glad that I did. This is a fascinating book, and a good companion to the Hagist book. A great example of scholarship, and well written. Definitely recommendations for both books.

A bit of background. The 33rd was Cornwallis' regiment. In the years before the American War, he raised the regiment's standards of drill, deportment, dress and tactical flexibility to such a level it earned the nickname 'the Pattern'. An older nickname for the 33rd was the 'Havercake Lads', after the oak cakes of that name popular then in the White Rose county. In the immediate pre-war years the regiment was sent around Britain and Ireland to show other regiments how it was done. A key element of the regiment's evolution pre-war was the development of light infantry tactics. MacNiven makes the case that the regiment was able to perform so flexibly that it may have been used at times as light infantry as a whole, and not just the light company (which spent most of the war with one of the combined LI battalions). 

All you Napoleonic fans will know of Wellesley's colonelcy, and even later it was named after the Iron Duke. The West Yorkshire connection was already strong in Cornwallis' time. Now it's merged into the Royal Yorkshire Regiment, one of the multi-battalion infantry regiments created in the Noughties, and has the unimaginative nickname 'the Yorkshire Warriors'. I should imagine that British Army wit has come up with something much more colourful.

Postscript: without knowing it last night when I penned the above, today, as well as being Minden Day is Yorkshire Day, as my cousin’s husband reminded us on a family WhatsApp group.  So Happy Yorkshire Day. Eh up!