SECOND BATTALION ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WARWith A Description Of The Operations In The Aden Hinterland

The Royal Dublin Fusiliers RDF was formed in 1881, as a result of the Cardwell reforms, by the linking of the 102nd Royal Madras Fusiliers with the 103rd Royal Bombay Fusiliers, which became respectively the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the regiment. Both battalions traced their origins back to the Honourable British East India Company, the 2nd Battalion being descended from the Bombay Regiment, formed in 1661,the first of the Companys European regiments. When the South African War broke out in 1899 the battalion was already in the country, having arrived in Natal from India in 1897, and so it had had time to get acclimatised and learn the