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A Short History
Sir Marmaduke Rawdon was a wealthy London merchant & Commander of the Red Regiment in the London trained bands & the Honourable Artillery Company (the Territorial Army of its day).
Sir Marmaduke Rawdon`s
As a result of an unsuccessful attempt to seize the city magazine & armouries, he had to flee London in the winter of 1642/3. Arriving in Oxford, the Royalist capital, he was given permission to raise a foot regiment for the King. Due to the large number of expatriate Londoners it contained, the regiment became known as the London Regiment in the Royalist press.
In the summer of 1643 the Regiment was moved to Basing House in Hampshire (owned by John Paulet, the Marquis of Winchester), where Rawdon was installed as military governor. Unfortunately, the two men argued virtually from the moment of his arrival, not least over religion (Rawdon was a Protestant, Winchester a Catholic). Nevertheless, Rawdon’s Regiment distinguished themselves on numerous occasions during the following two years, and successfully defeated two attempts to capture Basing, including a major attack led by the famous Roundhead General, Sir William Waller. In spite of these successes, for which Rawdon was knighted, the Marquis of Winchester eventually petitioned the King to remove all the Protestants from the garrison. This meant that nearly two-thirds of the garrison marched away to Faringdon, Oxfordshire, shortly before the fanatical Oliver Cromwell arrived at Basing to deal with the "Nest of Papists". The results were as predictable as they were bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, Rawdon & his Regiment once again fought bravely while besieged at Faringdon where Rawdon eventually succumbed to an illness contracted during the bitter winter of 1645/6. The Regiment fought on until the surrender of Oxford in May 1646.
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