The 80^th Regiment of Foot as our group is interpreting it was the third such regiment of foot of the British Line and bears the name of Staffordshire Volunteers. The first regiment was raised in 1758 as the 80^th (Light Armed) Regiment of Foot but was disbanded in 1764. The second regiment was raised in 1778 as the 80^th (Royal Edinburgh Volunteers) and again disbanded twelve years later in 1790.

The regiment was again in the September of 1793 by Henry Lord Paget as the 80^th (Staffordshire Volunteers) Regiment of Foot at Chatham England. Lord Paget was later the celebrated Marquis of Anglesey who was at the time a captain in the Staffordshire Militia. He was commissioned as its Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.

The regiment remained as such until 1881 when it was amalgamated with the 38^th Regiment of Foot to form the South Staffordshire Regiment. The combined regiments were again amalgamated with the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1959 to form the current regiment known today as The Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales).

The regiment began movements from its depot at Chatham England during 1836 for Gravesend on the Thames where it was to form escorts for convict transports headed for New South Wales. The first convict guard embarked at Gravesend on the 23^rd of May 1836 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Narbourough Baker. In August of 1836 Lieutenant Christie in command of 29 men (to guard 269 convicts) embarked in the Bengal Merchant at Gravesend to sail for Australia arriving in Sydney Port Jackson in December 1836. The Regimental Colours embarked on the 6^th of March 1837 arriving in Sydney Port Jackson on the 11^th of November 1837. The rear guard embarked on the 18^th of December 1838.

Between 1837 and 1841 the regimental headquarters was located at Windsor NSW. By the 11^th of July 1837 the 80^th had begun to deploy detachments throughout the colony. The following deployments are listed in order of their deployment: Illawarra NSW, Berrima NSW, Hassan's Walls, Newcastle NSW, 17 Mile Hollow NSW, Wingill, Liverpool NSW, Port Phillip VIC, Bathurst NSW, Cors River NSW, Emu Plains NSW, Morton Bay QLD, Port Macquarie NSW, Norfolk Island NSW, Harper's Hill on the Hunter NSW, Windsor NSW, Campbelltown NSW, Tourang (Towrang) NSW, Parramatta NSW, Portland Bay, Auckland New Zealand.

Late in 1837 Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass then acting Governor of the colony ordered Major James Nun to lead a detachment of Mounted Military Police against the Kamilaroi tribe in the Liverpool Plains area of NSW. In the third week of January 1838 Major Nunn in the company of Ensign George Cobban, three sergeants and nineteen troopers escorting stockmen with packhorses down the Gwydir River came across a "great many blacks" a corporal by the name of Hannan attempted to arrest an aboriginal warrior. In response Corporal Hannan was speared in the calf, next followed a chain of events, which came to be known as The Slaughterhouse Creek massacre. Corporal Hannan was the only injury inflicted on the troopers, however accounts as to the numbers of Kamilaroi wounded or killed varied. Nunn and Cobban thought only four or five were killed, Sergeant Lee thought the figure was more like forty or fifty. This was the last purely Military action undertaken against the Aboriginal population by British troops.

During 1839 Major Thomas Bunbury was forced to suppress a mutiny within his own men while Commandant of Norfolk Island.

In 1841 a detachment under the command of Major Thomas Bunbury were sent to New Zealand. One of the accomplishments of the detachment was to build a stone barracks, which is still standing in Auckland. The detachment was recalled in 1845 and despatched to rejoin the regiment in India. The New Zealand detachment was not involved with the Maori Wars but was present at the declaration of British Sovereignty. The regimental headquarters moved from Windsor to Parramatta in 1841 where it remained until all detachments were consolidated again in Sydney in 1844.

Private Thompson of the Military detachment at Maitland was of the murder of a woman at Wallis Creek Maitland in 1844. He was detained on the wharves at Morpeth as his detachment was boarding the steamer for Sydney. He was tried in the Civil Court East Maitland and found not guilty.

The 11^th of June 1844 saw the 80th aboard ship once more, this time the regiment was to depart Australia for service in Indian. The bulk of the regiment landed in Calcutta India on the 16^th of November 1844 where they camped at Fort William. Three Companies under the command of Major Bunbury did not arrive until March 1845 after the transports Briton and Runnymede were wrecked en route to India in the Andaman Islands, where they were stranded for 50 days. On the 8^th of January the lead Companies of the 80^th left from Calcutta for Agra, with the remainder following on the 12^th of January 1844. The Companies that had been shipwrecked rejoined the regiment on the 5^th of April 1845 after travelling by Steamboat from Calcutta. The 80^th whole once more left Agra on the 20^th of October 1845 to join the rest of the Army. The regiment was to see bitter fighting during the First Sikh War winning battle honours at Moodkee and Ferozeshah.

We are constantly researching the 80^th Regiments Australian and New Zealand Service and will be adding further pages in the near future. We hope to provide a comprehensive history of the Officers and Men of the Regiment, telling the stories of their lives, exploits, and adventures (including their misadventures). Any one who has a copy of the following and would loan, sell or copy extracts (subject to copyright of course) of the following please contact us through our Adjutant.

I must also offer our sincere apologies to Peter Stanley for the typographical errors made on our earlier web page where his name was spelt incorrectly.