72nd Highlanders

72nd Highland Regiment
Regimental cap badge
Active	1778–1881
Country	Kingdom of Great Britain (1778–1800)  United Kingdom (1801–1881)
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry Regiment
Role	Infantry
Size	One battalion (two battalions 1804–1816)
Garrison/HQ	Stirling Castle
Engagements	Second Anglo-Mysore War Third Anglo-Mysore War French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars Crimean War Ambela Campaign Second Anglo-Afghan War

The 72nd Highlanders was a British Army Highland Infantry Regiment of the Line, raised in 1778. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 78th (Highlanders) Regiment to form the 1st Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders in 1881.

The regiment was raised in the Western Highlands by Kenneth Mackenzie as the Seaforth (Highland) Regiment in January 1778 in an act of gratitude for the restoration of the family Earldom which had been forfeited during Jacobite rising of 1715. A corps of 1,130 men was raised of whom 900 were Highlanders and the remainder came from the Lowlands: it was established at Elgin, its first base, in May 1778.

In August 1778 the Regiment marched to Leith for embarkation to the India – but a dispute regarding their terms of service led the men to march back to Edinburgh and they took up a position of protest in the vicinity of Arthur's Seat, remaining for several days. During this protest, the men were amply supplied with food and ammunition by the people of the capital, who had taken side with them in their grievances. After three days of negotiations, compromises were reached and the men again marched from the capital to their quarters at Leith, this time led by the Earl of Seaforth, but the idea of sending them to India now having been abandoned. At this time, the regiment was designated the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, or Seaforth (Highland) Regiment. The regiment embarked for Jersey in September 1778 and helped repulse a French invasion of Jersey in May 1779 before returning to England in April 1781.

The regiment embarked from Portsmouth, with a unit strength of 973 rank and file, in June 1781. Because of change of diet, rough seas and scurvy 274 had died on the voyage and on arrival at Madras on 2 April 1782, only 369 were fit to carry arms. They joined the army of Sir Eyre Coote at Chingleput at the beginning of May 1782 but because of their general health, they were considered unfit for service. Those able to wield arms were drafted into the 73rd (Macleod’s Highlanders) Regiment. By October 1782 they had recovered their strength and "the colours were once again unfurled" to allow the Regiment to take part in the wars against Tipu Sultan. Following the death of the Earl of Seaforth during the passage, Lieutenant Colonel Humberston Mackenzie was appointed colonel of the regiment. Humberston Mackenzie was in turn killed in April 1783 on board the sloop HMS Ranger in action against a Mahratta fleet on his return journey from Bombay to Madras during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Major-General James Murray then succeeded to the colonelcy in November 1783.