The 96th Regiment of Foot was a British Army regiment, raised in 1798. Under the Childers reforms it amalgamated with the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot to form the Manchester Regiment.
History
thumb|left|Lieutenant Colonel [[Charles Stuart (British Army officer, born 1753)|Sir Charles Stuart, founder of the regiment, by George Romney]]
Formation
thumb|[[The Battle of Alexandria (painting)|The Battle of Alexandria, 21 March 1801, by Philip James de Loutherbourg]]
The regiment was raised in Menorca (then called Minorca) as Stuart's Regiment by Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Stuart from German-speaking prisoners of war of Swiss regiments in Spanish service on 12 December 1798.
The regiment embarked for Gibraltar in October 1800 and then sailed on to Abu Qir in Egypt in January 1801 to take part in the Egyptian Campaign. The regiment sailed for home in autumn 1801. The regiment embarked for Portugal in spring 1808 for service in the Peninsular War. The regiment embarked for Halifax, Nova Scotia in summer 1824, transferred to Bermuda in 1825 and then returned to Halifax in 1828 before embarking for home in 1835.
In 1843, amid tensions in New Zealand between British settlers and Māoris related to breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, a detachment from the regiment was dispatched to the North Island of New Zealand. Four members of the regiment were killed in action at the flagstaff blockhouse when captured by a large Māori force during the Battle of Kororāreka in the Bay of Islands on 11 March 1845; the blockhouse crew were forced to withdraw to the lower blockhouse. On 1 July 1881 the Childers Reforms came into effect and the regiment amalgamated with the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot to form the Manchester Regiment.