Fighting Fifth (The).

The 5th Foot. This sobriquet was given to the regiment during the Peninsular War.

The “Old and Bold Fifth,” the Duke of Wellington’s Body-guard, is now called the “Northumberland Fusiliers.” What a terrible vexation must the abolition of the time-honoured names of our old regiments have been to our army!

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.