Skinner was the engineering officer responsible for the construction of defensive positions atop Signal Hill in the aftermath of the French and Indian Wars.

The ruse was successful, causing the naval force to abandon any attempts to land at St. John's; instead, the navy sailed south for Bay Bulls and burned all of the houses before departing the area.

In 1797 the Grenadier Company escorted Governor Waldergrave aboard HMS Latona, which had recently been the site of an unsuccessful mutiny attempt.

Winter food often spoiled, and a fire at Fort William in 1798 destroyed much of the regiment's bedding and medical supplies, making life that much harder for the soldiers.

Matters for the regiment further worsened in April 1800 when 50 soldiers loyal to the United Irish Movement attempt to desert en masse from Signal Hill.

The newly appointed commanding officer, Brigadier John Skerrett (formerly of the West India Regiment) ordered the five ringleaders hung and the remaining deserters sent by prison ship to Halifax.

Having no further need for local defence units in North America, Britain disbanded the Royal Newfoundland Regiment of Foot in March 1802.

Brigadier Skerrett was tasked with recruiting an infantry unit consisting of ten companies in Newfoundland for the purposes of local defence.

The regiment was also involved in the British Raid on Sacket's Harbour, New York on May 29, 1813, and provided soldiers who served as marines in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813.

In 2012, on the occasion of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the Government of Canada, responding to recommendations made by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Advisory Council and similar recommendations made by an advisory committee to the Minister of Canadian Heritage for the War of 1812, awarded the Royal Newfoundland Regiment three battle honours.

Over the next three months thirty soldiers of the regiment were killed or mortally wounded in action and ten died of disease; 150 were treated for frostbite and exposure.

[21] The 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment had been involved in the invasion of France in August 1914 and had been manning the Beaumont-Hamel section of the line for nearly 20 months prior to the battle.

[21] The German troops had been spending a great deal of their time not only training but fortifying their position, including the construction of numerous deep dugouts and at least two tunnels.

[21][22] The infantry assault by the 29th Division on 1 July 1916 was preceded ten minutes earlier by a mine explosion under the fortified Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt.

[24] Following the explosion, troops of the 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment moved from their dugouts into the firing line, even preventing the British from taking control of the crater as they had planned.

With the exception of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on the right flank, the initial assault foundered in No Man's Land at and short of the German barbed wire.

[26] At divisional headquarters, Major-General Beauvoir De Lisle and his staff were trying to unravel the numerous and confusing messages coming back from observation posts, contact aircraft and the two leading brigades.

[27] In an effort to exploit the perceived break in the German line he ordered the 88th Brigade, which was in reserve, to send forward two battalions to support the attack.

[28] The Newfoundland Regiment was situated at St. John's Road, a support trench 250 yards (230 m) behind the British forward line and out of sight of the enemy.

[31] Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Lovell Hadow, decided to proceed immediately into an offensive formation and advance across the surface, which involved first navigating through the subsequent series of barbed wire defenses.

[30] As they breasted the skyline behind the British first line, they were effectively the only troops moving on the battlefield and clearly visible to the German machine gun positions.

[34] Although significantly under strength, the Newfoundland Regiment continued to see service and after taking on reinforcements was back in the front line on 14 July near Auchonvillers.

In November 1917 at Masnières-Marcoing during the Battle of Cambrai the regiment stood its ground although outflanked and in April 1918 stemmed a German advance at Bailleul.

Following a period out of the line, providing the guard force for General Headquarters at Montreuil, they joined the 28th Brigade of the 9th (Scottish) Division and were in action again at Ledegem and beyond in the advances of the Hundred Days Offensive during which Thomas Ricketts became the youngest army combatant of the war to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Volunteers were clothed in khaki uniform and wore the distinctive Caribou cap badge of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

[36] Governor Davidson strongly felt that the Newfoundland Regiment deserved special recognition for its actions during the battles of Ypres and Cambrai.

[43] Since 1992, soldiers and sub-units of the regiment have served to augment Regular Force units in Cyprus, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan on peacekeeping and combat missions.

On 30 August 2010, Corporal Brian Pinksen died of his wounds eight days after being injured by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, making him the regiment's first combat fatality since the First World War.

[51][52] The government of Canada does not recognize an unbroken lineage of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment to earlier units as there were gaps in existence.

The regiment did not contribute sufficient forces to meet the minimum level of 20 per cent of effective strength to qualify for the theatre honour “Afghanistan".