Editing Royal Marines (section)

===Early British Empire===
On 5 April 1755, '''His Majesty's Marine Forces''', fifty Companies in three Divisions, headquartered at [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]], [[Portsmouth]], and [[Plymouth]], were formed by Order of Council under [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] control.<ref name="Origins of Royal Marines"/> Initially Marine [[field officer]] ranks were honorary [[sinecure]] positions awarded to senior Royal Navy officers. This meant that the furthest a Marine officer could advance was to lieutenant colonel. It was not until 1771 that the first Marine was promoted to colonel. This attitude persisted well into the 1800s. During the rest of the 18th century, they served in numerous landings all over the world, the most famous being the [[Capture of Belle Île|landing at Belle Île]] on the [[Brittany]] coast in 1761.<ref name="Origins of Royal Marines"/> They also served in the [[American Revolutionary War|American War of Independence]], notably in the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] led by Major [[John Pitcairn]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/lobsters/pitcairn.html |title = Major John Pitcairn |publisher = Silverwhistle |access-date = 30 January 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160130234404/http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/lobsters/pitcairn.html |archive-date = 30 January 2016 |url-status = live }}</ref>
[[File:Major General John Tupper.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Major General John Tupper His Majesty's Marine Forces]]

In 1788 a detachment of four companies of marines, under Major [[Robert Ross (British Marines officer)|Robert Ross]], accompanied the [[First Fleet]] to protect a new colony at [[Botany Bay]] ([[New South Wales]]). Due to an error the Fleet left Portsmouth without its main supply of ammunition, and were not resupplied until the Fleet docked in Rio de Janeiro midway through the voyage.<ref>Moore 1987, p.41</ref> Some scholars contend that the Marines deliberately spread smallpox among Australia's Indigenous population in order to protect the settlement, but this incident does not appear in contemporaneous Marine or government records and most researchers associate the disease outbreak with other causes.<ref name="whowhenwhy">{{cite journal | author = Warren Christopher |title = Smallpox at Sydney Cove – Who, When, Why | journal = Journal of Australian Studies |volume = 38 |pages = 68–86 | year = 2013 | doi=10.1080/14443058.2013.849750|s2cid = 143644513 }}</ref><ref>''The History of Biological Weapons Use: What We Know and What We Don't'' {{DOI|10.1089/hs.2014.0092}}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Warren |first=Christopher |title=Could First Fleet smallpox infect Aborigines? – a note |url=http://epress.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Notes_documents4.pdf |quote=several authors – including Josephine Flood, [[Alan Frost]], Charles Wilson and Judy Campbell – maintain that First Fleet smallpox did not cause the outbreak |access-date=6 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106080141/http://epress.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Notes_documents4.pdf |archive-date=6 November 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Blainey|first= Geoffrey|author-link= Geoffrey Blainey|date= 2020|title= The Story of Australia's People: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia|url= |location= Southbank|publisher= Viking|page= 323|isbn= 9781761041952}}</ref>
[[File:Private of Marines.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Private of Marines, 1815]]

In 1802, largely at the instigation of Admiral the [[John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent|Earl St Vincent]], they were titled the '''Royal Marines''' by King [[George III]]. The '''Royal Marines Artillery (RMA)''' was formed as a separate unit in 1804 to man the artillery in [[bomb ketch]]es. These had been manned by the Army's [[Royal Artillery|Royal Regiment of Artillery]], but a lawsuit by a Royal Artillery officer resulted in a court decision that Army officers were not subject to Naval orders. As RMA uniforms were the blue of the Royal Regiment of Artillery they were nicknamed the "Blue Marines" and the infantry element, who wore the red uniforms of the British infantry, became known as the "Red Marines", often given the semi-derogatory nickname "Lobsters" by sailors.<ref name=crest>{{cite web |url = http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/item/researching-family-and-royal-marine-history/the-crest-colours-beret-nicknames-and-prayers-of-the-royal-marines |title=The crest, colours, beret, nicknames and prayers of the Royal Marines |publisher=Royal Marines Museum |access-date=30 January 2015 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324144220/http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/item/researching-family-and-royal-marine-history/the-crest-colours-beret-nicknames-and-prayers-of-the-royal-marines |archive-date=24 March 2012 }}</ref> A fourth division of the Royal Marines, headquartered at [[Woolwich]], was formed in 1805.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1790 |title=Admiralty: Royal Marines, Woolwich Division: Correspondence, Registers and Papers |publisher=National Archives |access-date=12 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413072133/http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1790 |archive-date=13 April 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the [[Napoleonic Wars]] the Royal Marines participated in every [[:Category:Naval battles involving the United Kingdom|notable naval battle]] on board the Royal Navy's ships and also took part in multiple amphibious actions. Marines had a dual function aboard ships of the Royal Navy in this period; routinely, they ensured the security of the ship's officers and supported their maintenance of discipline in the ship's crew, and in battle, they engaged the enemy's crews, whether firing from positions on their own ship, or fighting in boarding actions.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Britain/Marines/c_marines.html |title = Per Mare Per Terram – the Royal Marines 1793–1815 |publisher = Napoleon Series |access-date = 30 January 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150627075528/http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Britain/Marines/c_marines.html |archive-date = 27 June 2015 |url-status = live }}</ref> In the Caribbean theatre volunteers from freed French slaves on [[Marie-Galante]] were used to form [[Alexander Cochrane|Sir Alexander Cochrane]]'s first [[Corps of Colonial Marines]]. These men bolstered the ranks, helping the British to hold the island until reinforcements arrived. This practice was repeated during the [[War of 1812]], where escaped American slaves were formed into [[Alexander Cochrane|Cochrane]]'s second [[Corps of Colonial Marines]]. These men were commanded by Royal Marines officers and fought alongside their regular Royal Marines counterparts at the [[Battle of Bladensburg]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.comcast.net/~1812RoyalMarines/history.htm|title=The Royal Marines in the War of 1812|access-date=30 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930221656/http://home.comcast.net/~1812RoyalMarines/history.htm|archive-date=30 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Throughout the war Royal Marines units raided up and down the east coast of America including up the [[Battle of Hampden|Penobscot River]] and in the [[Chesapeake Bay]]. They fought in the [[Battle of New Orleans]] and later helped capture [[Battle of Fort Bowyer|Fort Bowyer]] in Mobile Bay in what was the last action of the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortbowyer.html|title=The Battle of Fort Bowyer, Alabama|publisher=Explore Southern History|access-date=30 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214081926/http://exploresouthernhistory.com/fortbowyer.html|archive-date=14 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:British Marines in Chania, 1897.jpg|thumb|Royal Marines march through the streets of [[Chania]], Crete, in spring 1897, as part of the British occupation during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|Greco-Turkish War]]]]
In 1855 the infantry forces were renamed the '''Royal Marines Light Infantry (RMLI)'''. During the [[Crimean War]] in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the [[Victoria Cross]], two in the Crimea and one in the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]].<ref name=cross>{{cite web|url=http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/item/researching-family-and-royal-marine-history/the-victoria-cross-the-royal-marin |title=The Victoria Cross and the Royal Marines |publisher=Royal Marines Museum |access-date=30 January 2015 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115060248/http://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/item/researching-family-and-royal-marine-history/the-victoria-cross-the-royal-marin |archive-date=15 January 2014 }}</ref> In 1862 the name was slightly altered to '''Royal Marine Light Infantry'''. The Royal Navy did not fight any other ships after 1850 and became interested in landings by Naval Brigades. In these Naval Brigades, the function of the Royal Marines was to land first and act as skirmishers ahead of the sailor infantry and artillery. This skirmishing was the traditional function of [[light infantry]].<ref>Chappell, pp. 14–15</ref> For most of their history, British Marines had been organised as [[fusilier]]s. In the rest of the 19th Century the Royal Marines served in many landings especially in the [[First Opium War|First]] and [[Second Opium War]]s (1839–1842 and 1856–1860) against the Chinese. These were all successful except for the landing at the Mouth of the [[Hai He|Peiho]] in 1859, where [[James Hope (Royal Navy officer)|Admiral Sir James Hope]] ordered a landing across extensive mud flats.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pdavis.nl/China2.htm |title=Second Anglo-Chinese War ("Opium war") of 1856 – 1860 (part 2) |publisher=William Loney |access-date=30 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503184523/http://www.pdavis.nl/China2.htm |archive-date=3 May 2012 }}</ref>

The Royal Marines also played a prominent role in the [[Boxer Rebellion]] in China (1900), where a Royal Marine earned a [[Victoria Cross]].<ref name=cross/>