Royal African Corps

The Royal African Corps was a unit in the British Army officially established on 25 April 1804. Fraser’s Corps of Infantry, had been raised for the defense of the Island of Goree, Senegal in August 1800. The regiment was one of several penal battalions composed primarily of deserters and condemned men from the hulks, with some additional Black soldiers being attached to the unit.

History
Originally raised in 1800 as the Goree Corps, this unit subsequently was renamed the African Corps. On 25 April 1804 the distinction of "Royal" was added to the title. In 1806 a detachment of the Royal African Corps was sent to serve in the West Indies as the Royal West India Rangers. The remainder of the Corps continued to perform garrison duties in various African colonies until 1819, when the four companies serving in Sierra Leone and Gambia were disbanded.

Prior to 1817 several companies of the Royal African Corps had been posted to the Cape Colony. Its behaviour there was complained of by local residents. By now recruited from foreigners as well as British Army deserters and convicts, the Corps was finally disbanded in 1821.