28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot

The 28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot was a British infantry regiment from 1782 to 1881.

For their conduct at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801 the 28th were given the unique honour of wearing a badge on both the front and rear of their head dress. This commemorated a possibly unique feat, when, drawn up in two ranks to repel a French infantry attack, they were simultaneously attacked from the rear by French cavalry. The rear rank simply turned round and both attacks were repelled. They served throughout the Peninsula War including the battles of Talavera, Albuhera and Vittoria. They were one of the few Peninsula veteran regiments which was available for the Hundred Days campaign and fought in the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo as part of the 8th Brigade commanded by James Kempt. Because of their actions in this campaign, they earned distinguished mention in the dispatches of the Duke of Wellington. During the hundred days the 28th continued to wear the old style stovepipe shako, distinguishing them from most British regiments that had adopted the new Belgic shako.

From 1751 to 1782 they were the 28th Regiment of Foot, and in 1881 they merged with the 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot to form the Gloucestershire Regiment.

The 28th Regiment were the subject of a famous oil painting on canvas from 1875 by Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler), portraying the regiment in action at Quatre Bras.

Archive material of the 28th Regiment of Foot is held by The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum in the Historic Docks Gloucester.

Battle honours
Battle Honours:
 * Egypt campaign: No individual battle honours were awarded immediately after the campaign, instead the Sphinx badge superscribed "Egypt" (8 March –26 August 1801) was awarded in 1802. Mandora, awarded 1813–1817. The battles of the campaign which the 28th were involved in were: Aboukir, Roman Camp, Alexandria (21 March), Cairo, Alexandria (17 August – 2 September 1801)
 * Peninsula War: Corunna, Talavera, Barrosa, Albuhera, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, Peninsula
 * Quatre Bras
 * Waterloo
 * Crimea War: Alma, Inkerman, Sevastopol

Colonels

 * 1854–1878 Henry John William Bentinck