"12th Regiment of Foot (East Suffolk)" Topic

"Australian colonies were garrisoned on rotation by British regiments between 1788 and 1870. Apart from the defence of the colonies, the Regiments were also involved in surveying,
exploration, police duties and the supervision of convicts.
Of all the British Regiments that served in Australia, only the 12th Regiment can claim that it restored order in a rebellion as well as in civilian riots. The 12th Regiment (1st Battalion) was engaged in the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, and the 12th Regiment was engaged in
restoring order after the riots at the Lambing Flat goldfields (1861 – 62) and the Brisbane Bread Riots (1866). The 12th also fought in two of the three Land Wars in New Zealand (1860 – 67).

In appalling weather conditions, the Battalion undertook the longest winter march by any British regiment in Australia when a detachment of fifty-one men returned from Lambing Flat to Sydney in August 1862. The march, exceeding 240 miles (400km), was completed in thirteen days with a
rest of only one day.

And in April 1863, the 12th permitted the Sydney press to attend the General Court Martial of one of its Officers, Captain Saunders, who had intended to shoot his commanding officer for taking liberties with Saunders' wife. The taking of liberties, however, was not proved. The "story" was subsequently retold in almost every Australian newspaper of the day, humiliating the officer and family on a grand scale. The transcript of the trial has given us a rare insight into the character of the Officers and men, and the administration of a Battalion. To improve his case,
Colonel Hamilton imprisoned Private James Bevil for his "honesty" albeit as a lesson to others who might give contrary evidence, and persuaded the Court not to hear the evidence of Mrs Saunders…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Of all the British Regiments that served in Australia, only the 12th Regiment can claim that it restored order in a rebellion as well as in civilian riots. The 12th Regiment (1st Battalion) was engaged in the rebellion at the Eureka Stockade in 1854, and the 12th Regiment was engaged in

Not quite right,…
The NSW Regiment, later 102nd Regiment of Foot, later still the 100th Regiment of Foot had a scrap also:
The Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 was a rebellion by convicts against colonial authority in the Castle Hill area of the British colony of New South Wales. The rebellion culminated in a battle fought between convicts and the colonial forces of Australia on 5 March 1804 at Rouse Hill, dubbed the Second Battle of Vinegar Hill after the first Battle of Vinegar Hill which had taken place in 1798 in Ireland. It was the first and only major convict uprising in Australian history suppressed under martial law.

On 4 March 1804, according to the official accounts 233 convicts led by Philip Cunningham (a veteran of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, as well as mutiny on the convict transport ship Anne) escaped from a prison farm intent on "capturing ships to sail to Ireland". In response, martial law was quickly declared in the Colony of New South Wales. The mostly Irish rebels, having gathered reinforcements, were hunted by the colonial forces until they were sequestered on 5 March 1804 on a hillock nicknamed Vinegar Hill. Under a flag of truce, Cunningham was arrested and troops charged and the rebellion was crushed by a raid. Nine of the rebel leaders were executed and hundreds were punished before martial law was finally revoked a week after the battle.

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