The Duke of Cambridge’s Own Middlesex Regiment was constituted in 1881 by the union of the 57th (West Middlesex) and 77th (East Middlesex) with two militia battalions. Of the two line battalions the 57th was raised in 1755 and the 77th in 1787. A regiment with the number the 57th had been raised during the War of the Austrian Succession; but after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, when the ten marine regiments were reduced, this regiment became the 46th. At that time there were in all fifty-one regiments of the line, a number which was increased to sixty-one in 1755, when war with France was imminent. Afterwards, in 1757, the 50th and 51st regiments were disbanded, so that the 57th became the 55th and the 59th the 57th. It is with the regiment which was raised in 1755-6 as the 59th that we have first to treat.
1755-56
     On December 27th, 1755, Lieutenant-Colonel John Arabin was gazetted Colonel of a new regiment of foot, and a week later ten other officers were appointed to the same regiment. Arabin was the son of Bartholomew D’Arabin, a Hugenot officer, who fought at the Battle of the Boyne and afterwards made his home in Ireland. He was born in 1700, entered the army in 1717 and commanded the St. George’s (8th) Dragoons in the Rebellion of 1745. Since 1749 he had been Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Horse (5th Dragoon Guards). On January 7th, 1756, he received his "letter of service" authorising him, by beat or drum or otherwise, to raise men in any part of Great Britain for a regiment of foot. As a nucleus for the new regiment two companies were assigned from the 3rd (or Buffs), and the 20th. The headquarters of Arabin’s regiment were at first at Manchester. But in early March they were transferred to Gloucester, and it was from Gloucestershire and Somerset that the new recruits were raised. At the end of April there were seven companies strong enough to march to Exeter, where the other three joined them a month later, the regiment, though so recently formed, being under orders to proceed to Gibraltar.
       The original uniform of the regiment consisted of red coats, waistcoats and breeches, with lemon -colour facings and lace. The facings were of the same colour as those of Arabin’s former regiment, and of the 20th, from which Thomas Wilkinson, the Lieutenant-Colonel, came. The grenadier company wore high conical caps, lemon colour in front, with the royal cipher and crown, and a red flap at the bottom with the White Horse of Hanover, and the motto "Nec aspera terrent". The men of the other companies had three-cornered hats laced with yellow. The drummers had uniforms of yellow with red facings, and wore high caps like the grenadiers, but with a trophy of drums and flags in place of the cipher and crown. All wore long gaiters of white linen half-way up the thigh. The officers had a similar uniform, but were distinguished by their crimson silk sashes and gold lace; instead of gaiters they usually wore boots. The men were armed with musket and bayonet, the grenadiers having in addition swords and match-cases for grenades. Their equipment was completed by two broad buff belts, one over the left shoulder for the pouch, and the other round the waist for the bayonet and sword. The sergeants were armed with swords and halberts, the officers with swords and spontoons (or half-pikes), except in the grenadier company, whose officers and sergeants carried fusils. The regimental colour was lemon-yellow, with the number in the centre of a red round.
      Though there had been peace between France and Britain in Europe since 1748 the rivalry of the two nations in America and India had continued. In the spring of 1755 it was clear that a formal renewal of the war could not long be delayed. But neither country, and England least, was ready. The feeble ministry of Newcastle showed no capacity to meet the crisis, and the raising of the new regiments at the close of the year was a late and inadequate precaution to meet the coming danger. Through the spring of 1756 England was in terror of a threatened invasion. It was not, however, till May 18th that England declared war, and the formal declaration by France was only made on June 9th. Nevertheless the French had struck the first blow six weeks earlier by an attack on Minorca, which since 1708 had been the most important English possession in the Mediterranean. Although the English ministry had warning months before of what was intended, the weak garrison in the island had not been reinforced and many of the chief officers were absent from their posts on leave or other duties. Admiral Byng had sailed from England for its relief on April 6th, but when he reached Minorca on May 19th he found the English garrison closely besieged in Port Mahon. On the following day he fought an indecisive action with the French fleet, and in despondency or through lack of resolution retreated. The English in Port Mahon held out till June 28th, when they were forced to surrender with the honours of war and allowed to embark for Gibraltar.
      We must now return to Arabin’s Regiment, which with two other of the new regiments had reached Gibraltar about the end of June. Hawke, who had been sent to supersede Byng, arrived on July 3rd. He at once prepared to sail, and for the strengthening of his force part of the Gibraltar garrison, including some companies of Arabin’s, were embarked on board his fleet. Hawke left Gibraltar on July 10th, but five days later learnt that Port Mahon had fallen. He cruised for three months off Minorca and the Spanish coast without any event of importance to mark the first war service of our regiment. On October 2nd the fleet returned to Gibraltar, when the detachment of Arabin’s seems to have been disbanded.
      During the rest of the Seven Years’ War Arabin’s Regiment remained at Gibraltar, shut out from any share in the great events of that most memorable conflict. The refusal of the Spanish governor of Algeciras to surrender a British ship which had been bought into port by a French privateer, led to a sharp encounter, in which Ensign William Townshend, of Arabin’s was slain, the first of the regiment to be killed in action. This was at the close of 1756. Early in the following year the regiment was renumbered as the 57th, and on February 16th lost its first colonel by the death of Arabin, who was succeeded by Sir David Cunynhame. In August of the same year Lieutenant-Colonel Wilkinson, whom Wolfe had described as "a martinet and parade major", was replaced by Thomas Townshend. Townshend had been gazetted to the regiment as major at its formation and served with it until his death in 1773.
1756-1768
      The seven years of service at Gibraltar, in spite of occasional alarms of a French attack, were uneventful. Sometimes troops from the garrison were embarked as marines on the fleet, and such service may have  supplied the 57th with a little variety. At the end of the war Minorca was restored to Great Britain. The 57th was one of three regiments sent from Gibraltar to take possession of the island. A detachment of the regiment, Captain Clifford’s company, was apparently the first to land and occupy Fort Fornelles on June 1st, 1763. In Minorca the regiment remained for nearly five years, being stationed sometimes at Alayor and sometimes at Port Mahon. In the autumn of 1763 the strength was reduced to nine companies, the whole regiment, officers and men, mustering only 332. At Minorca the regiment suffered much from sickness, and when it left the island in May 1768 its numbers all told were only 225.
1768-1775
      On May 30th, 1768, almost exactly twelve years after leaving England, the 57th, which had been placed on the Irish Establishment, landed at Cork. In spite of their weak strength they were reported at the inspection two days later to be "a very fine body of men and very fit for service". It was the custom for regiments in Ireland to change their station every summer, so in the next seven years the 57th had a variety of moves which it would be wearisome to relate. However, Ireland was in its usual disturbed state, and the regiment got a little variety by such unpleasant duties as assisting the revenue officers in suppressing "unstatutable stills", and helping to quell disturbances due to evictions. The last move in 1775 was to Kilkenny, where the 57th had been stationed little over four months when orders to proceed to America bought the long years of inaction to an end.
      During its service in Ireland there had been considerable changes in the uniform and organisation of the regiment. Whilst still in Minorca the colour of the facings had been changed from lemon to deep yellow. In December 1768 there were further alterations, of which the most important were the adoption of white waistcoats and breeches, of black gaiters with black garters and white linen tops, and of white lace with a black stripe. The accoutrements were also made lighter, and the belts were pipeclayed. The grenadiers and drummers now wore black bearskins I place of the old sugar-loaf caps, whilst the other companies had cocked hats ornamented with white lace for the rank and file, and with gold and silver for the officers and sergeants respectively. The officers kept the gold lace on their uniforms, and now had in addition gold epaulettes and crimson and gold sword knots. In 1770 the strength of the regiment was raised to 450 non-commissioned officers and men, the number of companies remaining as before. In the following year a tenth, or light company was added. The men in this company wore jackets instead of coats, with short gaiters, and caps instead of cocked hats. They had two frogs to their waist-belts, the second being for a hatchet, whilst the officers and sergeants carried fusils instead of spontoons or halberts. In August 1775 the nominal establishment was again increased, to 62 non-commissioned officers and men in each company.
    The Colonel now was Lieutenant-General Sir John Irwin, who was Commander-in -Chief in Ireland from 1775 to 1782. He was a good soldier, who had served with distinction in the Seven Years’ War. He had also an Irishman’s ready wit, taste for good living, and extravagance. " They tell me, Sir John," said George III "that you love a glass of wine". "Sir, they have done me great injustice, they should have said a bottle". He had held the last inspection of his regiment at Dublin in May 1775, when he found that the officers saluted indifferently; the men were of good size, extremely well-dressed and clean; the arms unserviceable and the recruits indifferent, but the regiment "in very good order and very fit for service".
      Thomas Townshend had died in 1773, and was succeeded  as Lieutenant-Colonel by John Campbell of Stachur, a veteran who had fought at Culloden and seen much service in America and at Havannah. He came from the 17th Foot to be associated with the 57th, first as Lieutenant-Colonel
and afterwards as Colonel for over thirty years. He is described as a man of stern and proud disposition and very methodical. He must have had a sense of humour, for when in 1787 in common with other colonels he received orders that regiments which had been reduced should send their supernumerary recruits to Chatham for the new units being raised fir India, he replied that the 57th being in Nova Scotia cannot have received the order for reduction: ! I can therefore inform you that there can be no non-commissioned officers or any supernumerary recruits belonging to the 57th Regiment to march to Chatam in pursuance of the late orders". Campbell proved himself in the American War to be a gallant and capable officer before his death in 1806.