Friday 22 May 2020

Flags of French Irish Infantry Regiment Clare

These are the flags carried from 1691-1775 (when Clare was absorbed into the Irish regiment Berwick):


Clare was another Irish emigré unit that entered French service in 1690.  As with so many French regiments there were various changes of name throughout its history, usually reflecting the name of a new colonel.

For the first years of the SYW Clare was guarding the coasts of Normandy with its quarters at Valognes. On the 7th August 1758 "it made glorious if ineffectual efforts, with the Liege regiment Horion, opposing the landing of a corps of 10,000 English [i.e. British], which seized Cherbourg" (my translation from Susane, Histoire de l'ancienne infanterie française, Volume 7). It was this attack which made France aware of the importance of this part of the coast, and led to the transformation of Cherbourg into one of its most redoubtable war ports (again, according to Susane).

Clare's single battalion was sent in 1760 to join the army of Germany and performed well at the combats of Corbach and Warburg. It contributed to the defence of Marburg in 1761 and fought bravely at Vellinghausen. It took part in the camp of Dunkirk in 1762 and on 21st December of that year incorporated the remains of the Scottish regiment of Ogilvy which had been raised in 1747.

At the peace of 1763 it went into garrison at Valenciennes, then Gravelines in May 1763.

And this is the uniform at the beginning of the Seven Years War (there were changes in 1758 with, for example, the addition of yellow lapels):


6 comments:

  1. Great stuff again David, and I will be using these.
    If you are interested in the Wild Geese, I'd recommend Graham's 'The Irish Brigade' and 'Lord Mountcashel' books. I know the author, sound bloke ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you; glad you like these too. :-)

    Thanks for the book recommendations; I'll look out for those.

    Cheers,

    David.

    P.S. I'll be doing all the SYW Irish flags over the next few weeks - or possibly even sooner if the spirit moves me!

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is something very sad and perhaps a bit romantic about those wild geese regiments.. in my War of the Spanish Succession project I have represented Dorringtons and Lee's (also lovely flags!) but I wonder how many Irish were still in the regiments, 30 to 40 years after they formed.. I must hunt down those books...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for commenting, Steve. Yes, I agree. I wonder if it was like the KGL in the Peninsular War, where by the end the ranks had many foreign deserters and others, and far fewer Hanoverians? That was in a far shorter period, too. I imagine someone may have done the research on that question... It would certainly be interesting to know.

    I shall be doing Dorrington's flags = Rooth. And according to Charrie, Lee's flags were the same as Bulkeley's, my last French Irish flags for the moment.

    Cheers,

    David.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I always thought that Dillon and Clare had the best looking uniforms of the whole French Irish infantry.

    Very nice flag too. Thanks for all your work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, André. I agree about the uniforms too.

    I shall post the rest of the French Irish flags soon...

    Cheers,

    David.

    ReplyDelete

Saturday 6th June 2020 I've decided to allow comments from Anonymous Users but I'll still be moderating posts, as I'm sure the spam will probably flood in now! We'll see...