79th Regiment of Foot (Royal Liverpool Volunteers)

History

It was raised on 8 January 1778 in Liverpool, and was also known as the Liverpoool Blues, raised at the expense of the city, and was one of many volunteer regiments to be formed during the time of the American Revolution against the British. It was the second of three regiments to be numbered the 79th. The first was formed in 1757 as the 64th Foot, becoming the 79th the following year. The third regiment was the 79th (Highland-Cameron Volunteers) Regiment of Foot (later the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) that was formed in 1793.

The regiment, in the role of marines, moved abroad for the first time in 1779, when it arrived in Jamaica in the West Indies. In February 1780 the 79th took part in expedition against Spanish-controlled Nicaragua in Central America. The 79th, along with the rest of the forces, suffered heavily, not from the Spanish thesemlves, however, but from the inhospitable climate that cause disease and duly decimated the British expedition. The British eventually had to evacuate its forces later that year.

In 1781 Banastre Tarleton became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Liverpool Volunteers though remained in command of the 5th American Regiment (British Legion). He was a legendary (though controversial) British cavalry officer during the American Revolution, and the son of the former Mayor of Liverpool. Another noted indivudual in the regiment during its existence was Pudsey Dawson, who became Colonel of the regiment.

The regiment returned to Liverpool in early 1784, where it was disbanded like so many other regiments in the immediate aftermath of the end of the war in America.