The regiment was raised in 1694 and won in action one of the proudest mottoes ever bestowed on a regiment, that of "Firm." The 29th was the last of the regiments in the Peninsula to retain the queue, in which the men fought at Vimiera, the officers wearing the old fashioned and picturesque cocked hats.

Nicknames: "The Ever-sworded 29th" owing to a peculiar custom, which demands that the captain and subaltern of the day shall dine with their swords on. Up to the fifties all the officers sat down to dinner wearing their weapons, the custom having originated in 1746, when a part of the regiment, stationed at the Leeward Islands, was surprised without its arms, and treacherously murdered by the Indians. The "Vein Openers," given on account of its being the first to draw blood, in 1770, when the disturbances, which preceded the outbreak of the American War, commenced. They are also known as the "Old and Bold," "The Star of the Line," and "The Saucy Greens."