Tangier Garrison

The Tangier Garrison was the land force which oversaw the defence of English Tangier between 1661 and 1684 when it was evacuated. It was part of the English Army, the de facto standing army that Charles II established following the Restoration. Charles II received Tangier as part of the Marriage Treaty with Portugal in 1661. He appointed Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as governor and, on 30 January 1662, the new garrison took up its duties. Peterborough was not a successful appointment as governor, and Andrew, Lord Rutherford, was appointed in 1662/1663 to replace him.

The early garrison of Tangier was a mixture of English Protestant (and often Republican) former soldiers of the New Model Army, and Irish (mainly Catholic) Royalists who had accompanied Charles in exile, serving in the Spanish Army following the Treaty of Brussels.

The first main unit was a regiment raised in England by Peterborough, probably from amongst former Parliamentarian troops which were being disbanded. This, the Tangier Regiment (later, the 2nd Regiment of Foot and, later still, the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)) was mustered on Putney Heath on 14 October 1661. As was usual, the regiment was officially referred to by its colonel's name; thus the Tangier Regiment will be found, variously, as Peterborough's, Rutherford's (or Teviot's), Fitzgerald's, Bellasis', Norwood's, Middleton's, Inchiquin's, Fairborne's, and Kirke's. After leaving Tangier, the Regiment became quite popularly (or unpopularly) known as Kirke's Lambs. The regiment, with augmentations and changes, served throughout the English occupation of Tangier, and certainly a few soldiers individually served almost the whole, if not the whole, of that time. Notable in the initial muster list, as a captain, is Palmes Fairborne, who himself became governor in 1680, after above 18 years of service there. He was killed by a shot from the Moors, dying in Tangier on 27 October 1680.

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