The West Yorkshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army. he regiment was raised by Sir Edward Hales in response to the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion. Following the 1688 Glorious Revolution and deposition of James II, Hales was replaced as colonel by William Beveridge; after serving in Scotland, the unit was sent to Flanders in 1693, and gained its first battle honor at Namur in 1695. In 1766, the regiment left Portsmouth for North America and was stationed in Nova Scotia. he 14th remained in Boston until 1772, when it was sent to St Vincent in the Caribbean to help suppress a maroon rebellion. By 1774, losses caused by fighting and disease meant it was scheduled to return to England; due to the rising tensions in the colonies, it was instead redeployed piecemeal to St. Augustine, Florida and Providence Island in the Bahamas. In January 1776, the 14th was part of the amphibious expedition that took part in the burning of Norfolk, Virginia. In August, the fleet returned to New York, where the remnants of the 14th were used to supplement other units, while its officers went back to Britain to recruit a new regiment.