This is the actual 1850 publication by Richard Cannon, a work of Victorian military historiography that preserves the complete history of the Thirty-first Regiment from its birth as a Marine Corps unit in 1702 through nearly a century and a half of service to the Crown. The book chronicles the regiment's transformation when the Marine Corps was dissolved in 1714 and the Huntingdonshire Regiment of Foot was retained on the permanent army establishment, tracing its march through the wars and campaigns that built the British Empire. Cannon honors the valor and achievements of the officers and men who served across generations, from the regiment's earliest days as seafaring soldiers to its mid-nineteenth century incarnation. The work also preserves the history of the Marine Corps itself from 1664 to 1748, making this an essential document for understanding the origins of British military tradition. This is primary source material, not a modern retelling: the Victorian prose, the formal honorifics, the narrative voice all belong to an era that believed deeply in regiment and sacrifice. For military historians, genealogists tracing family service, or anyone interested in the institutional DNA of the British Army, this is where the story begins.
