37th Regiment of Foot, 1742 (c)

Engraving from, 'A Representation of the Cloathing of His Majesty's Houshold and of all the Forces upon the Establishments of Great Britain 1742', a volume of 104 coloured engravings, published 1742 (c).

This regiment was raised in Ireland in 1702 by Thomas Meredith, an experienced Protestant officer who had risen to adjutant general, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1713). It was posted to Flanders less than a year later and went on to fight at Schellenberg (1704), Blenheim (1704), Ramilies (1706) and Malplaquet (1709).

The regiment stayed in Europe until setting sail for Canada in 1711. Later that year, it lost 260 men in a shipwreck on the St Lawrence River and had to return to Britain.

It remained in England and Ireland for much of the next 45 years, apart from a year spent raiding the Spanish coast in 1719. It also served at Dettingen (1743) and Lauffeld (1747) during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), and against the Jacobites at Falkirk and Culloden between 1745 and 1746.

In 1751, it was given the numeral 37 in the infantry order of precedence.