The two Battalions were raised in 1740 and 1755, and were brought together quite early in their careers, fighting side by side at Louisburg, at Quebec, and again at Salamanca, Vittoria, and in the Pyrenees. The regiment has seen active service in many parts of the world, and it is stated was the first to realise the value of modern musketry, through the bitter experience gained in the first Boer War. So impressed was the commanding officer by the terrible casualties suffered at the hands of the Boer marksmen, that he vowed he would make his battalion the best shooting unit in the Army, and after the war succeeded in so doing.

Nicknamed "The Steelbacks," so called from the unflinching manner in which the men took their floggings; also called "The Black Cuffs."