1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry
The 1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry (1810–12) was a light infantry regiment, founded as a local establishment in British service consisting mostly of Greek and Albanian enlisted men and Greek and British officers that served during the Napoleonic Wars. Later it became a regular British Army regiment as the 1st Greek Light Infantry ("The Duke of York's") (1812–16). It had no official association with the modern state of Greece or the Filiki Eteria or any Greek War of Independence groups; however, several future leaders of the War of Independence fought in its ranks, as did a number of rank-and-file klephts and armatoloi. Background The British Army during the Napoleonic Wars was small (~40,000 troops) at the outset compared to those of other European countries like France and Prussia. The British Army used foreign volunteers, such as French Royalists, Germans, Greeks and Corsicans to supplement its forces. In 1813 one fifth of the army, 52,000 men, were such volunteers. The British Army in 1813 contained over 250,000 men. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the majority of Greek-speaking areas at the time, participated in on-again, off-again alliances with France under Napoleon. Many Greeks fleeing Ottoman persecution or local disputes on the mainland ended up in the Ionian Islands, which were beyond the reach of Ottoman authorities. When Britain became the enemy of the Ottoman Empire, it provided, if not an actual chance to fight for national liberation, at least a possibility of harming a foreign power that was increasingly viewed as hostile to the Modern Greek Enlightenment and under stress due to the rise of nationalism in the empire. When Britain took over the Ionian Islands, it initially relied on small numbers of British and British-foreign troops along with the local volunteer militias, the largest of which was on Zakynthos (Zante), numbering some 2,000 men, with another approximately 2,000 dispersed over the other islands. These were armed at their own expense, and unpaid. They were drawn from the population of the islands and from mainland Greece and Albania, from men with varying levels of experience. A decision was taken to form an elite, paid unit from among the experienced troops, and to give them additional training. Service history The regiment was raised in the Ionian Islands in March 1810 by then-Captain Richard Church who already had experience managing foreign (i.e. non-British) troops from his previous appointment in the Royal Corsican Rangers. At the outset, its authorized strength was one battalion of 800 men, its actual strength was 548 officers and men when it took part in its first action, the successful capture of Lefkada (then called Santa Maura due to still-lingering Venetian influence) from the French, but suffered high casualties. Later, it was moved to Zante (Zakynthos) which served as its base and reached its full authorized strength. In 1811, Church was promoted major, and Brigadier General Robert Oswald, late of the 35th Foot as colonel for the Greek Light Infantry Corps, which at that time consisted of only the nominal