"British Colours for 2nd Battalions" Topic

In the Peninsula, many British regiments of foot were represented by their second battalions. Does anyone know whether their colours carried any distinguishing mark such as a Roman II etc?

Judging from the illustrations in Keith Over's 'Flags and Standards of the Napoleonic Wars' there were no hard and fast rules about this. The King's colour of the 2nd battalion 78th Highlanders is shown with the following designation in an oval badge on the upper part of the standard close to the flagstaff:

78 Regt
2d Batt

The text states: "On the regimental colour the designation was in one line along the horizontal bar of the union."

The regimental colour of the 2nd battalion of the 14th foot in 1812 is also illustrated. This time the designation is on the central shield (which is surmounted by the battle honour 'Corunna') and reads:

XIV
REGT
2.Battn

The text comments: "The 3rd battalion in 1815 had a similar flag but without the 'Corunna' battle honour and with the shield bearing the inscription 'XIV REGT'." (So presumably the fact that it was the flag of the 3rd battalion was not actually indicated on the standard?)

I am afraid it looks like the only thing to do is to research the regiments you are interested in to find out the details of their standards. I know GMB offers 2nd battalion standards for a small extra charge (in 15mm at least) so it may be worth taking a look at them.

A "pile wavy" coming from the top corner next to the staff, diagonally down towards the centre, had always been the traditional means of depicting a 2nd battalion's colours in the 18th Century. I'm not sure how far this survived into the Revolutionary/Napoleonic era, though.

Note that the Legend 'III'D BATT'N. is in the union flag canton. In this case, It's the 1st (renamed Royal Scots in 1812) Regiment of Foot, 3rd Battalion colour.

Here is the Kings Colour of the 3rd Battalion. Note that the battle honours of all the battalions of the regiment are emblazoned on the kings and Regimental colours so the design was probably the same design for all four battalions Kings and Regimental colours, with only the Regimental colour distinguishing the different battalions by roman numerals

Both of these colours were carried at Waterloo (the Waterloo legend being added later)

This type of denoting a regiment's battalion may have been common but it's not certain that this way of denoting a battalion was universal within the line regiments.

That records of any of the regimental colours of the period have survived, let alone of a particular battalion are very rare indeed.

The 3rd Battalion first saw action in the Peninsula 1808-1809 and took part in the Walcheren campaign then Peninsular War. There followed the Hundred Days where they were at the Battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo which cost the battalion between 363 to 361 casualties out of a strength of between 624 to 640.

Paul :)

Useful information. Thanks all.

On second thought, the III.D BATT'N legend in gold, is carried on the kings colour, at the top canton nearest the staff. the other three stations taken up with the fern-thistle-crown motif.

Oops! That'll teach me to post information without checking my references

Paul :)