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Though the 43^rd and 52^nd regiments were independent of each other for some 140 years from their formation, their subsequent union in to a single regiment and the way in which their fortunes were so often linked in the early years make it possible for their stories to be told as one.

Foundation
The eighteenth century saw Great Britain and France intermittently at war, both on the continent of Europe and through their colonial territories, and the British Army was continually expanded and reduced to suit the needs of the moment. One such expansion, in 1741, including the raising of the 54^th Regiment of infantry with its headquarters at Winchester. Disbandments at the end of the war in 1748 spared the regiment, by then in garrison at Minorca, but reductions among older regiments caused its renumbering as the 43^rd. In 1755 another 54^th Regiment was raised and based at Coventry, to be renumbered the 52^nd a year later.

The Seven Year's War (1756-63)
Shortly after the start of the Seven Years War with France, in 1757, the 43^rd moved to North America. It was parts of Wolfe's force which captured Quebec in 1759 and then defended the city against a French siege through the following winter, operations which led to the annexation of Canada by the British. Once North America was secured, the action moved to the West Indies, where the Regiment took part in the storming and capture of Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent and St. Lucia from the French, and Havannah, Cuba, from the Spanish.

The American War of Independence (1774-82)
The 43^rd returned to England after the peace of 1763 but crossed the Atlantic again eleven years later and was engaged throughout the American War of Independence. The 52^nd, which had waited twenty years for its first taste of active service, joined them at Boston and the two regiments fought side-by-side at Lexington and Bunker Hill, both battles won at the cost of heavy casualties.

There followed a series of successful actions around New York in which the Americans were regularly defeated and the 52^nd returned home in 1778. But the intervention of France in support of the rebellion started the turn of the tide; the 43^rd was sent to Virginia to reinforce Lord Cornwallis and was therefore present at the siege and final surrender at Yorktown in 1781 which brought the war to an end.

Southern India (1783-96)
The 52^nd landed at Madras in 1783 and for nine years was involved in intermittent campaigning against Tippo Sahib of Mysore. A succession of battles against a well-organised enemy culminated in the capture of Tippo's capital at Seringapatam. European rivalries and alliances were the cause of two other shorter expeditions in the same theatre which seized Pondicherry from the French and the coastal town of Ceylon from the Dutch.

The West Indies - Second Round (1794-1800)
In 1794 the 43^rd, now with the extra title of the Monmouthshire Regiment, was again engaged against French possessions in the West Indies, its first tasks, in which it played a distinguished part, being to capture, for the second time, Martinique and St. Lucia, which had been returned to France by the peace treaty of 1763. The 43^rd also assisted at the capture of Guadeloupe, but were then left there as a garrison with so little strength to hold off the French counter-attack and, much reduced by disease, were overpowered by a resistance lasting some three months.

The Light Brigade
For some fifty years before 1800 it had been the practice for infantry battalions to include a light company of pocked men for tasks needing rapid reactions when, in 1803, the 43^rd and 52^nd were chosen to form the first Corps of Light Infantry and joined with the 95^th Rifles (later the Rifle Brigade) to constitute the Light Brigade at Shorncliffe in Kent under the command of Sir John Moore. Moore has been described as `the very best trainer of troops that England has ever possessed. His insistence on absolute professionalism and mutual respect between officers and men (new concepts at the time) was create a formation whose contribution was crucial to Wellington's victories in the Peninsula and whose tradition survive in The Royal Green Jackets of today.

Copenhagen (1807)
In 1807, Denmark having allied itself with France, the 43^rd, 52^nd and 95^th, led by Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, were part of a force which bombarded and captured Copenhagen and with it the entire Danish Fleet. Disaster almost struck on the voyage home, when a ship carrying the 43^rd ran aground in a storm. Sure that their hour had come, an officer produced a flute and played the `Death March in Saul`, but ship and regiment in the end survived.

The Peninsula War (1808-14)
When Nelson's armies invaded Spain and threatened Lisbon in 1808 the 43^rd and 52^nd were in Wellesley's force sent to oppose them and played a central role in the sharp engagement at Vimiers (where all the four Green Jackets regiments took part) which forced the French to evacuate Portugal. When Sir John Moore succeeded to the command and advanced in to Spain, two battalions of each regiment were in his army and, with the 95^th, played a distinguished part in forming the rearguard when the army was forced to retreat in mid-winter to Vigo and Corunna. Moore was killed in the final battle but his army was able to embark in good order and return to England.

The following year the reconstituted Light Brigade returned to the Peninsula under Robert Craufurd, landing at Lisbon. Hearing that their support was urgently needed in Spain, they set out at once on a forced march of 250 miles, the last fifty-two in twenty-six hours, to join Wellington's army at Talavera, but arrived on the battle field only to find that the battle was already won. Meanwhile the 2^nd Battalions of each regiment were dispatched on a disastrous expedition to Walcheren in the Low Countries where they were decimated by fever without achieving anything of value.

With the addition of two battalions of Portuguese light infantry the Brigade grew into the Light Division and for the next four years was continuously the cutting edge of Wellington's force until the French were driven out of Spain. By that time it had fought another dozen great battles and sieges and as many lesser actions. At the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo Lieutenant Gurwood of the 52^nd commanded the `forlorn hope` and received the French Governors sword in surrender.

North America (1814-15)
Napoleon's abdication in 1814 led to a temporary peace and disbandment of the Light Division. An expeditionary force, including the 43^rd, was despatched against the United States, which was allied to France and threatening British possessions in Canada. A series of sharp engagements culminated in the capture and burning of Washington, but the British force was later repulsed before New Orleans and the 43^rd returned to Europe just too late to fight at Waterloo.

Waterloo (1815)
When Napoleon escaped exile on the island of Elba to lead his army to the decisive battle of the war at Waterloo the 52^nd found itself brigaded with the 95^th and 71^st and started the day in reserve. They were moved forward to resist successive attacks by French cavalry and their position was crucial when Napoleon launched his Imperial Guard in a final stroke against the centre of the British line. The French were halted by the fire of Maitland's Brigade of Guards and, as they faltered, Sir John Colborne led the 52^nd in a charge against their flank which turned their advance into disorderly retreat and swept the rest of the French army away with it.

The Kaffir Wars and the Birkenhead (1851-53)
The defeat of Napoleon was followed by thirty years of peace, but the remainder of the century was punctuated by campaigns to secure the Empire. In the 1850s the 43^rd fought in the Kaffir War in South Africa; their discipline and self-sacrifice in the ship-wreck of the Birkenhead off Natal, when the troops paraded on deck as the women and children took to the boats, stirred the imagination of Victorian England and caused Frederick of Prussia to have the story read out at the head of every regiment of his army as an example of devotion to duty.

Campaigns from 1863 - 1902
In 1863 the 43^rd was called on to fight a tragic and bloody but ultimately successful war against the Maoris in New Zealand, in which their opponents were not only courageous but showed exceptional humanity to the wounded. In the next thirty years the 43^rd and 52^nd were involved in sporadic operations in India, Burma and the Sudan. The 43^rd fought throughout the Boer War in South Africa (1899 - 1902), notably at the relief of Kimberley and the decisive battle of Paradeburg, which resulted in the surrender of the Boer General Cronje. Their mounted infantry company was active throughout the war.

Amalgamation
The Cardwell reorganisation of the Army in 1881 recognised the historical links between the 43^rd and 52^nd and decreed that they should become the 1^st and 2^nd Battalions of The Oxfordshire Light Infantry, though the old regimental numbers continued in unofficial use. The combined regiment was based at a new Depot at Cowley, in Oxford. In 1908 `Buckinghamshire` was added to the title.

World War 1 (1914 - 19)
The 1^st Battalion (43^rd) fought the Turks in Mesopotamia, where they suffered very heavy casualties, were besieged at Kut and eventually starved into surrender. Of 300 men who were taken prisoner only ninety survived the war. In 1919 the reconstituted battalion took part in the inconclusive campaign against the Bolsheviks in North Russia.
The 52^nd and most of the affiliated Territorial Force battalions fought on the Western Front. In 1914 they achieved fame at Nonne Boschen by routing the Prussian Postam Guards, almost 100 years after they had defeated the French Imperial Guard at Waterloo. From then on, however their experiences of appalling casualties for little apparent gain mirrored those of the rest of the Army. Other battalions fought in Italy and Salonika.

World War 2 (1939 - 45)
The 43^rd and 1^st Bucks Battalion (TA) were in the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 and escaped through Dunkirk after suffering heavy casualties. Another TA battalion (4^th Oxf Bucks) was encircled by the Germans and overrun. The regiment was represented by the 7^th Battalion in Tunisia and Italy (at the Anzio and Salerno landings), the 43^rd in Northwest Europe (in the advance from Normandy to Hamburg) and by the 6^th in Burma (from Arakan down the west coast to Tamandu). The 52^nd was chosen to pioneer the new role of air landing by glider. At midnight before the D-Day landings in Normandy coup de main parties from the battalions seized and held the bridges over the Caen Canal (Pegasus Bridge) and River Orne (Horsa Bridge). In March 1945 the Battalion carried out a costly assault landing as part of the operation to cross the Rhine before fighting its way across Germany to meet up with the Russians on the Baltic.

The Post-War Years (1945 - 1958)

After the war the 43^rd were engaged in peace-keeping in Trieste and Yugoslavia while the 52^nd faced the Jewish uprising against the British mandate in Palestine. In 1948 the two Battalions amalgamated to form the 1^st Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 43^rd and 52^nd, which was in Greece during the Civil War, in Egypt and in Cyprus confronting the Enosis insurgents demanding union with Greece. There in 1958 it once again changed its title to the 1^st Green jackets (43^rd and 52^nd) and in 1962 was the first battalion to take part in the Borneo Campaign.