the various Task Forces which served in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014. History The regiment has a long history, which includes perpetuating the 2nd Regiment of York Militia from the War of 1812. Its formal lineage descends from the 13th Regiment, formed 11 December 1862, on a general order issued by the Governor General. It has earned thirty-nine battle honours in the two world wars. Most recently, members from the regiment deployed to Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). They suffered their greatest single day of losses at Dieppe, France, on 19 August 1942. The anniversary of Dieppe is recognized each year by the regiment. History 1862–1913 The Royal Hamilton Light Infantry has a rich history in Hamilton and Wentworth County. The regiment has two direct antecedents, and indirect antecedents include the 1st and 2nd Companies of Volunteer Rifles (Hamilton), formed in 1855, and the Volunteer Highland Company (No. 3 Company) formed in 1856. The RHLI's earliest direct ancestor is the 13th Battalion of Volunteer Militia established in 1862, which along with the 2nd Battalion the Queen's Own Rifles are modern Canada's oldest fighting regiments, having first seen combat in June 1866 at the Battle of Ridgeway against an invading Irish American Fenian insurgent army composed of better armed and more experienced recent civil war veterans. The regimental cap badge still bears the supposedly unlucky number from its oldest official antecedent. When the 13th Battalion first saw action at the Battle of Ridgeway it took heavy casualties and was forced to fall back along with the Queen's Own Rifles. The 13th Battalion commanding officer Lt. Colonel Alfred Booker who was in command of the brigade deployed in the battle was blamed for the disaster. In 1870, another contingent from the battalion served in Manitoba during the Red River Rebellion. The regiment also traces ancestry to the 77th (Wentworth) Battalion of Volunteer Militia. Founded under that name in 1872, it was renamed the 77th Wentworth Regiment in 1900. Between 1899 and 1902, during the Boer War, many members of the 13th served in South Africa as members of the 2nd (Special Service) Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles. Not asked to mobilise for the war, the 13th Battalion remained in Canada and was redesignated 13th Regiment in 1900 and 13th Royal Regiment in 1910. History 1914–1938 When the Great War began