The 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1793 and amalgamated into the Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers) in 1881.
The regiment was raised in 1793 as the 87th (The Prince of Wales's Irish) Regiment of Foot, taking its title from George IV, then Prince of Wales, later modifying its title to 87th (The Prince of Wales's Own Irish) Regiment of Foot, then to 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot following the Prince's accession to the throne.
The 87th were famous for being the first British Regiment to capture a French Imperial Eagle during the Peninsular War. At the Battle of Barrosa on 5 March 1811, Ensign Edward Keogh and Sergeant Patrick Masterson captured the Eagle of the 8th Ligne. Keogh only managed to get a hand on the shaft when he was shot and bayoneted, he was killed instantly. Masterson had followed his officer and after killing several men he wrenched the Eagle from the dying hands of its bearer, Lieutenant Gazan.
It was bugler Paddy Shannon of the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Regiment of Foot who "picked up" Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's baton after the battle of Vittoria . The baton was sent to George the Prince Regent by Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington, who in return awarded Wellington, his English field marshal's baton.
Famous quotes containing the words irish, regiment and/or foot:
“The Irish say your trouble is their
trouble and your
joy their joy? I wish
I could believe it;
I am troubled, I’m dissatisfied, I’m Irish.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“Christians would show sense if they dispatched these argumentative Scotists and pigheaded Ockhamists and undefeated Albertists along with the whole regiment of Sophists to fight the Turks and Saracens instead of sending those armies of dull-witted soldiers with whom they’ve long been carrying on war with no result.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“The first promise exchanged by two beings of flesh was at the foot of a rock that was crumbling into dust; they took as witness for their constancy a sky that is not the same for a single instant; everything changed in them and around them, and they believed their hearts free of vicissitudes. O children! always children!”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)