29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot - Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

In 1745, the Regiment was were sent to Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. The following year, the 29th Regiment was in the Battle at Port-la-Joye during King Georges War. The Canadiens and Mi'kmaq warriors massacred a significant portion of the regiment, in part, because they were unarmed. The battle led to an order that all officers in the regiment must always be armed, thus earning their first nickname as the Ever Sworded due to the swords the officers are required to wear even when off-duty a tradition still in effect today as the orderly officer is still armed even at the officers mess.

In 1749, the regiment was at the site of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the soldiers cleared the land for the new town during Father Le Loutre's War.

Until the middle of the eighteenth century British Army regiments were known by their colonel's name. This led to frequent changes of title. In 1747 regiments were required to establish their precedence, with each unit taking a numerical "rank". The process was completed in 1751 when a royal warrant formally substituted numbers for the names of colonels. Accordingly, Colonel Peregrine Hopson's Regiment became the 29th Regiment of Foot.

In 1759 Admiral Lord Edward Boscawen gave to his brother Colonel George Boscawen 10 black youths he acquired in the capture of Guadeloupe from the French in the same year. These young men were released from slavery and joined the regiment as drummers, a tradition the regiment continued until 1843. These men received the pay of a corporal and if they survived to retire received a pension from the army.