British 56th Regiment of Foot - The Pompadours

    This regiment, along with ten others, was first raised in 1755, due to escalating incidents in North America, and expected war with France. It was originally numbered as the 58th Regiment, but was renumbered to the 56th the end of the following year, when 2 other regiments below them were disbanded.  It spent most of the 7 Year's War in garrison in Scotland, but was sent to the Caribbean in late 1761, and stormed the Moro fortress guarding the harbor at Havana, Cuba in January of 1762. It garrisoned the city until the end of the war in 1763, and was awarded the battle honor of "The Moro".

    The regiment was sent to Gibraltar in 1770, where it served for 12 years. This time included the Great siege of Gibraltar during the American Revolutionary War. In 1782, the County designation of  West Essex was added to the title of the Regiment. At the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the Battle Honor of "Gibraltar" was awarded, along with the right to have the castle and keys emblem on its colors.

The 56th or West Essex Regiment of Foot.

When first raised, the unit had deep crimson facings, but these were felt to be unsuitable, so in 1764 the facings were changed to purple, making it unique among British regiments. This was described as a shade of Rose - Purple called Pompadour, after the mistress of King Louis XV of France, Madame  de Pompadour, who called this color her favorite. The men of the regiment liked to claim it was the color of her underwear!  Regardless, it accounts for the regimental nickname, "The Pompadours"

During the French Revolutionary Wars the regiment first was dispatched to the Caribbean, including time on Barbados, followed by participation in the captures of Martinique, St. Lucia, and finally Guadeloupe, before entering garrison duty on Jamaica. It returned to England in 1788, and participated in the unsuccessful campaign in the Low countries in 1799. 

During the Napoleonic Wars, a second battalion was added to the regiment in  1804, and a third in 1813.  The first battalion was sent to India in 1805, and the 2nd battalion joined it there in 1807. The 3rd battalion served in the Low Countries in 1813. In 1810, the first battalion participated in the capture of Ile Bourbon, and then Mauritius, the last remaining French possessions in the Indian Ocean. 

The 56th fought in the Crimean War, earning the battle honor "Sevastopol". In 1881, it was amalgamated with the 44th Foot to form the Essex Regiment. As the 56th's wartime service was almost exclusively outside Europe, it is fitting that it chose "Rule, Britannia" as its regimental march!

While I was outfitting this unit (and the 35th) with colors from Warflag, I added the missing flag to my 2nd (Coldstream) Guards. As usual. the printed enhanced by some paint to deepen the color of the field. 

There are many eccentricities to the flags of the Foot Guard regiments. First, in the Guards regiments, the flags bearing the Union design are the Regimental colors, and the flags with colored fields are King's colors - the reverse of the usual pattern for the Line regiments. Second, the field of these King's Color's was crimson, rather than dark blue, and lacked the Union in the upper staff canton. Finally, there were multiple versions, each with different emblems There was apparently one for each company, it would seem (although usually only one would be taken on campaign).