19TH REGIMENT OF FOOT...IN PORTUGAL
24th August 2009

John Sly has recently returned from Portugal where he made an interesting discovery...

The 19th Regiment of Foot did not take part in the Peninsula War. During the period, none of its soldiers fought in Spain, Portugal, in America or at Waterloo. The War Office thought that the 1/19th would be better off on an extended holiday in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where hundreds of them died from disease or in combat with the natives, none of which was considered sufficient for the survivors to earn a medal.

 It was therefore with some surprise that, on a recent holiday in Cascais, a very pleasant resort to the west of Lisbon, I came across a street named for the Regimento 19 Da Infanteria, and later came across a statue celebrating the same unit. This was, of course, the Portuguese 19th Infantry Regiment, which took part in the Penunsula campaign, and was clearly associated with the town of Cascais. I will now have to research this unit's part in the war...

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