67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot Formed in 1758 and became the South Hampshire Regiment in 1782. From 1833 to 1842 the 67th did duty at Gibraltar, in Demerara and Berbice, Barbados and Canada. In 1881 they were rolled into the Royal Hampshire Regiment with the 37th North Hampshire.
The 1/67th, during this time, had been stationed in India ever since 1805. When they returned to England in 1826, George IV recognized their 21 years of faithful if unspectacular overseas service by granting them the right to add the Royal Tiger and the name “India” to their Colours. This distinction gave the 67th Regiment their nickname “The Tigers”. Back again in the Far East in time for the outbreak of what was tantamount to a trade war with China in 1860. the 67th earned the unusual Battle Honour “Taku Forts”, winning their first four VCs in the process. One of these went to Ensign John Chaplin, who despite being severely wounded several times, managed to hoist the 67th’s Queen’s Colour above the enemy ramparts, at which sight the Chinese defenders promptly gave up what had until then been a fierce resistance.
The next summons to arms took the 67th to Afghanistan for the campaign of 1879, where they collected three more Battle Honours, and they were still in India when in July, 1881, they heard the traumatic news that they were to be henceforth the 2nd Battalion, The Hampshire Regiment. While it is doubtful if either the 37th or the 67th welcomed this arbitrary loss of their earlier individuality, the fusion did mark the beginning of a much closer relationship between the regiment and the county to which they belonged, and whose capital of Winchester was to become the home of the Regimental Depot.
Khaki-colored uniforms were used officially by British troops for the first time during the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-68, when Indian troops traveled to Ethiopia (Abyssinia) under the command of general Sir Robert Napier to release some British captives.
This was the first major campaign in which some of the troops wore khaki, which had been officially introduced as approved working dress in 1861. Although approval was withdrawn in 1864, many troops, particularly those who had seen active service on the North-West Frontier (Pakistan), continued to dye their white drill uniforms with tea leaves or other substances. Khaki ('dusty') was said to have been invented by Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-general) Harry Lumsden when, in December 1846, he founded the Corps of Guides.
Subsequently, the British Army adopted khaki for the campaign dress in 1897.
