FIFTIETH FOOT.
The Regiment was raised, it is said=, in Ireland.
The first Regiment numbered the 50th was raised in 1745 as “Shirley’s American Provincials,” made 50th in 1754, and disbanded in 1757.
It bears “The Sphinx” for Egypt, 1801.
It was nicknamed “The Blind Half-Hundred” from so many men suffering from ophthalmia during the Egyptian Campaign; also “The Dirty Half-Hundred” from the men in action wiping their faces with their black facings, during the Peninsula War; also known as “The Gallant Fiftieth” for its gallantry at the battle of Vimiera, 1808.