Raising of the 89th Regiment of Foot.
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| Uniform of the 89th Regiment, 1794. Note the black facings that were in velvet on officers dress. |
The Regiment, when it was placed on the Establishment of the Army, had been raised in Dublin by Colonel William Crosbie, late of the 22nd of Foot. He was later promoted to Major-General and then commissioned as the Regiment's Colonel Commandant on 3 December 1793. The first Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Handfield (late of Fitch's Regiment), was also appointed on 3 December 1793. These appointments, or commissions as they were described at that time, were notified in the London Gazette dated 18 - 24 January 1794.
When raised, the Regiment's title was 'Major-General Crosbie's Regiment of Foot' until the number 'Eighty-Ninth' was allocated to it, designating it as a 'Regiment of Foot'. In later years the Regiment was to have various titles:
•1793 - 89th Regiment of Foot
•1866 - 89th (The Princess Victoria’s) Regiment of Foot
•1881 - amalgamated with the 87th to become the 2nd Battalion, The Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers)
