[1][3] The regiment fell victim to a raid on Dartmouth in May 1751 during Father Le Loutre's War when French monarchist (natives and Acadians) from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town, killing twenty British villagers and torturing and mutilating a sergeant from the 45th Foot.

[6] The regiment also saw action in North America during the American War of Independence, fighting at the Battle of Long Island in August 1776[7] before returning to England in 1778.

[1] In March 1786 the regiment embarked for the West Indies[10] and garrisoned Martinique, Dominica and Îles des Saintes during the French Revolutionary Wars.

[19] The regiment embarked for Portugal in July 1808 to serve under General Sir Arthur Wellesley in the Peninsular War.

[37] It formed part of an army which advanced up the River Irrawaddy to the Kingdom of Ava[38] and then returned to England in March 1838.

[39] In May 1838 the regiment took part in the Battle of Bossenden Wood, a skirmish between a small group of labourers from the Hernhill, Dunkirk, and Boughton area and a detachment of soldiers of the 45th regiment sent from Canterbury to arrest the marchers' leader, the self-styled Sir William Courtenay, who was actually John Nichols Tom, a Truro maltster who had spent four years in Kent County Lunatic Asylum.