Although a regiment of the line, many of its companies were initially deployed as marines, serving with Admiral Boscawen's fleet during the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758.

Being used as light infantry, the regiment took part in General John Burgoyne's doomed campaign, culminating in the Battles of Saratoga.

[18] After serving at various Indian stations, the 99th was called to active service to form part of General Sir Hope Grant's force during the Second Opium War.

Rather than return the 99th to India, the regiment was ordered to join the Hong Kong garrison, securing the new Kowloon territory acquired by the Convention of Peking.

[21] Assigned to Lord Chelmsford's column, they marched to the relief of British forces under Colonel Charles Pearson besieged by the Zulu impis.

[27] Eventually, the brigade commander was forced to pull back the Wiltshires to prevent the Boer Commandos from breaking through and threatening other towns.

Pausing to resupply, Clemments' brigade attempted to destroy De Wet's commando at the Battle of Slabbert's Nek (23–24 July 1900).

With the Royal Irish Regiment, two companies of the 2nd Wilts conducted a night assault up the Nek, capturing the ridge overlooking the Boer position.

[29] Although they cleared the Nek, taking 4000 prisoners, the British forces had not been in time to capture De Wet and some his commando, who managed to escape to the mountains.

The 2nd Wilts would join Major-General Paget and the West Riding Regiment in patrolling the areas northeast and northwest of Pretoria.

[27] After being moved to help block De Wet's attempt to raid the Cape Colony in February 1901, it was assigned to defend the Pretoria-Pietersburg rail line with the 2nd battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.

[32] The 3rd (Royal Wiltshire Militia) Battalion was embodied in January 1900 for garrison duty at Saint Helena, where a large contingent of Boer prisoners were sent.

Following the end of the war in June 1902, most of the officers and men returned home on the SS Dominion, which arrived in Southampton in September.

[36] Nearly 5,000 officers and other ranks of the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) had been killed in action or died of wounds sustained during the Great War.

In March 1918 the battalion was involved in Operation Michael, the opening phase of the German Army's Spring Offensive, and subsequently reduced to company strength.

[40] In three years of action on the Western Front, the 2nd Wilts took part in most of the major engagements, including the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Loos, Albert, Arras and Third Ypres.

[41] Under the pre-war British Army system, created during the Haldane Reforms, each regiment, in addition to having two regular battalions would have two reserve formations associated with it.

Initially assigned to reinforce the forces at Cape Helles on 6 July 1915, the division was temporarily withdrawn and then landed at ANZAC Cove to support the operations there.

With the rest of the division, it was withdrawn to Egypt in January 1916 before being dispatched to Mesopotamia as part of the ill-fated attempt to relieve the garrison of Kut.

[44] Also formed at the Wiltshire Regiment's depot in Devizes in September 1914, the 7th (Service) Battalion was part of the Third New Army (or K3) of Kitchener's scheme.

[45] In the Second World War, the Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's) lost 1,045 officers and other ranks killed in action or from wounds sustained and were awarded 34 Battle honours.

During the reorganization of the Burma front in 1943, the battalion became responsible for guarding the lines of communications and support for the Arakan offensive as part of the Eastern Army.

From March until late May, the battalion fought in the Battle of Anzio, enduring terrible conditions and fighting in trench warfare, similar to that on Western Front nearly 30 years before.

However, the 5th Division instead joined the British Second Army, at the time fighting on the Western Front, to participate in the final drive into Germany in April 1945.

[15] The 4th and 5th Battalions of the Wiltshire Regiment were both Territorial Army (TA) units called up to active duty with the start of the Second World War.

Because of an error in landing on an island in the Seine, rather than the far shore, by the other battalion, the 4th Somerset Light Infantry, the 5th Wilts found themselves cutoff initially.

[60] "The final attritional scenes" of From the City, From the Plough by Alexander Baron (1948, republished by the Imperial War Museum in 2019) describe the 5th Wiltshire's near annihilation at Mont Pincon, represented by the fictitious 5th Battalion, Wessex Regiment.

Although initially earmarked to be sent to Malaya during the Emergency, the Wilt's orders were changed en route and they joined the Hong Kong garrison in 1950.

This tradition continued through its descendants, the 1st Battalion, Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment until it too was amalgamated to form part of The Rifles.

This name came about from an incident during the Seven Years' War when the regiment ran out of ammunition and were forced to melt their buttons down to make musket balls.