"Short book review - Tangiers 1662-80 The First Battle Honour" Topic

A short review of a great book I bought recently on the not so well known subject of the Defence of English Tangiers.

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I've been trying to find information on the Moors as well, so thanks for this lead. Does it give much description of their weapons and dress as well?

Not a great deal, but it does mention they wore turbans, and they do seem to have a lot more muskets than I thought they'd have???

I think I recall an article or two in Arqubusier back in the day including a first hand account from the Tangier garrison. Perhaps a member of the Pike and Shot Society can help you out.

This may be something of a sidebar but the battle honour 'Tangier 1662-80' was only granted to the 1st Dragoons and the Queen's Regiment in 1909. So it is something of a sleight of hand by the author (and perhaps the regiments involved) to call it the 'earliest battle honour'.

It would be fairer to describe it as the earliest campaign for which an honour has been awarded. Which admittedly does not trip of the tongue so lightly.

Battle honours are sometimes referred to as if they arrived like laurels presented to a victorious general on the field of battle but as the custom developed into a formal system battle honours became the subject of determined- and prolonged- lobbying by regiments years- centuries!- after the event. Minden, an early example, was awarded was 40-odd years after the event.

I believe the first recorded distinction awarded by the sovereign was to the Royal Regiment of Ireland (later 18th Royal Irish) who were authorised to add the motto Virtutis Namurcensis Praetium to their colours for the siege of Namur in 1695.

42 Flaker – According to the book like you said the 1st Dragoons and the Queens were both given the honour Tangier 1662=80, but the other units, the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards and Royals Scots were given the honour Tangier 1680. But you're totally right the title is a play on words.
Oh 8ugger – Sounds interesting, its definitely worth asking?

Yes, yaar68, that's correct. A separate honour was granted for Tangier 1680- but only in 1909!

I find it's always worth asking!- but, in this particular case- what?

What Oh B ugger suggested, above your 1st comment ;0)

This may be something of a sidebar but the battle honour 'Tangier 1662-80' was only granted to the 1st Dragoons and the Queen's Regiment in 1909. So it is something of a sleight of hand by the author (and perhaps the regiments involved) to call it the 'earliest battle honour'.

The first battle honour awarded was Gibraltar so anything that predates that was awarded retrospectively. It was a kind of one-up-manship that starts about the time county regiments went into permanent barracks after the Cardwell reforms.

Thanks for the review and flagging this up. It is one of the Leonaur titles that reprint and collate a number of different pieces. Halkett's diary originally was printed and annotated by the Society of Army Historical Research as their first special publication in the early 1920s.

Clifford Walton's study of the army is still very useful if this includes only 38 pages then it is on a fraction of the original. More has been unearthed subsequently particularly in the works of John Childs. He provides an account to the army in Tangiers in his 'Army of Charles II' book (it is one of his case studies).

Both Walton and Halkett maybe found online at the Internet Archive:

Walton full version

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Halkett

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I tend to be suspicious of early C20th regimental history which I assume is what the 1910 stuff might be. The authors as a rule tended to treat myth and rumour as fact plus they hardly ever quote sources. Much of course depends on who was the author some were more assiduous than others. All in all the book seems like a useful compendium of materials that are otherwise expensive in the second hand market and scare in libraries. It is listed as 138 pages and costs £15.00 GBP for the hardback or £8.00 GBP for the paperback so there are a couple of options in addition to the material available on the web.

Not a great deal, but it does mention they wore turbans, and they do seem to have a lot more muskets than I thought they'd have???

The Moors had long cultivated firepower – their victory over the Portuguese in 1578 owed much to their superior numbers of shot. Among other things the PorTuguese were outgunned. Likewise the army that they sent hutling into the Song Hai empire in the late C16th was also shot heavy. Morrocco had a supply of saltpetre that it was quite happy to trade for other munitions – one prominent client was Elizabeth I who was quite happy to trade cannon etc in exchange for saltpetre – notwithstanding being formally allied to Portugal. You can pick some of this up through E W Bovill's two books The glden Trade of the Moors' and 'The Battle of Alacazar'

The Tangier part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry was useful to Charles II in that it gave him the need/opportunity for an army that parliament would otherwise have refused to fund. It also gave him a valuable source of patronage plus giving operational experience to many who proved to be an influential group in the development of the army as a whole over the coming years.

The first battle honour awarded was Gibraltar so anything that predates that was awarded retrospectively. It was a kind of one-up-manship that starts about the time county regiments went into permanent barracks after the Cardwell reforms.

Yes, Gibraltar in 1782 was the first honour to be awarded contemporaenously to several units for the same action, or campaign.

'Emsdorf' granted to the 15th Light Dragoons in 1768 eight years after the action concerned, is often claimed as the first battle honour. In some respects it was the retrospective acknowledgement of distinctions that the regiment already wore on their helmsts, to which had been added a plate bearing an image of the French colours captured that day. It certainly predates Gibraltar, although I think the Royal Irishdid have a fair claim with the motto awarded them in 1695. Not that it really means anything. I think the hustling for honours started shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, partly as a result of the Duke of York's creation of the National Miltary Record, and the enshrining of regimental reputations gathered momentum.