[5] First assembled at Fort George in July 1793,[6] the regiment moved to the Channel Islands in August 1793,[7] and embarked for Holland in September 1794 for service in the French Revolutionary Wars.

[6] Leaving Java in September 1816, the vessel the battalion was travelling on, Frances Charlotte, was wrecked off Preparis, Burma, on 5 November on the way to Bengal.

[17] Three companies of the regiment were captured at Al Hamed near Rosetta: among the prisoners was Thomas Keith who converted to Islam and entered Ottoman service.

[18] Returning home in January 1808, a draft from the battalion were present at the disastrous Dutch Walcheren Campaign in autumn 1809, which suffered substantial losses due to malaria.

[19] Although under strength, the battalion embarked for Holland in January 1814, and routed a larger French force during a skirmish at Merksem, near Antwerp.

[6] In 1831 Major Jonathan Forbes, while returning on horseback from a trip to Pollonnuruwa, encountered the "bush covered summit of Sigiriya".

[21] After home service that included responding to industrial riots in Lancashire in 1840,[14] the 78th travelled to India in April 1842,[6] to replace forces lost during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

[22] While at Sindh, largely due to cholera, the regiment lost two officers, 496 soldiers and 171 women and children between September 1844 and March 1845.

[34] The regiment, together with 17 young local women who had married soldiers, embarked for Ireland in the troopship HMS Orontes in November 1871.

In March 1879 the 78th arrived in India,[1] moving to Afghanistan to undertake garrison duty at Kandahar over the winter of 1880–81 at the end of the Second Afghan War.