Uniform Button

46th Regiment of Foot (South Devonshire)

Please let me know if you have a 1813-1819 era button!

Courtesy of Cultman Collectables: This button dates from around 1860-1870, so is not contemporary with the regiment’s period in Australia.

The first detachment set off as escorts for convicts bond for New South Wales in August 1813, to replace the 73rd in NSW and Tasmania.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW), 12th February 1814 page 2.

Whilst in Van Diemen’s Land, they had orders to suppress a gang of bushrangers.

The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas), 12th July 1817 page 1. This was the infamous group originally lead by Mike Howe, the most notorious bushranger in Tasmania’s history.

In 1816, (after crimes such as the murder of a farming couple and theft of pigs), they were required by Governor Macquarie to kill, terrorise and take as prisoners as many aboriginals as possible in the Nepean, Hawkesbury and Grose River valleys of NSW, although that was not the way it was described in the news …

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW), 11th May 1816 page 2.

The Campbelltown News (NSW), 10th April 1951 page 1.

They left NSW in September 1817 and Hobart in June 1818, bound for India. However, there were still members of the 46th during 1819-1828 bringing convicts to Australia.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW), 28th August 1819 page 3.