British Armed Forces & National Service

British Army Infantry Regiments Review

& the "Decision"

Historic Regiments To Merge
Friday, May 20, 2005

Source: The Army

Now that the election is over, changes to the organisation of the South West’s Infantry will advance speedily. The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment will join The Light Infantry, the South West’s other Infantry Regiment, which recruits in Cornwall, Somerset, Bristol south of the River Avon and also in Durham, Yorkshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire.

The 1st Battalions of The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment (D and D) Regiment and The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (RGBW) will merge to become the 1st Battalion The Light Infantry in late 2006 or early 2007, whilst the existing Light Infantry battalions will renumber to become the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. Before then the D and D and RGBW will take on interim Light Infantry titles and become part of the famous Light Division as a first step towards the formation of a new and more effective Regiment at the heart of which will be Sir John Moore’s founding ideals in ethos, character and appearance. But the Regiment will also be sensitive to the heritage of the D and D and RGBW and will celebrate the history of all the constituent parts of the new Light Infantry.

Plans for the Regiment’s future TA structure have yet to be announced, but it is almost certain that the South West’s TA Regiment, The Rifle Volunteers, will become the 5th Battalion The Light Infantry, thus confirming a strong link between the regular and TA elements of the Regiment, which will enable the Regiment to support its Light Infantry badged cadet battalions, its affiliated Combined Cadet Force Detachments and its Regimental Associations more effectively.

As the restructuring goes ahead all Light Infantrymen extend a very warm welcome to their new brothers in arms.

Older News

The decision as to which four of our infantry battalions are to be abolished is due to be finalised by Christmas 2004.

Reductions in the infantry began at the end of World War 2, when regiments lost their wartime battalions and reverted to their pre-wartime strengths of two battalions each.

The next stage was the loss to each regiment of its second battalion, a gradual process which each regimental colonel fought hard to prevent.

In the Fifties, some single battalion regiments were lost. In 1945 there were 64 infantry regiments of the line, 48 English, 10 Scottish, 3 Welsh and 3 Irish.

Of the English regiments only four retain their original name and cap badge - the Green Howards, Duke of Wellington's, the Cheshire and the Royal Hampshire.

In Scotland, four have survived - the Royal Scots, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Black Watch and the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders.

One Welsh regiment remains unaffected - the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Three Irish regiments were almalgamated into one as the Royal Irish Rangers, later renamed as The Royal Irish Regiment.

At present the Parachute Regiment has not been considered for cuts.

(Reproduced from Daily Mail - Written by Major Don Walker (retired)

The Decision

Under the controversial changes, the Army will be reduced from 40 infantry battalions to 36.

The Royal Scots and the King's Own Scottish Borderers will merge, and with four other battalions, including the Black Watch, become The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The King's Own Royal Border Regiment, the King's Regiment and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment will amalgamate to form two new battalions within the new King's Lancashire and Border Regiment.

Components of the Royal Gloucester, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment will merge with, in the case of the Gloucesters, the Devonshire and Dorsetshire Regiment, which will then merge with the Light Infantry.

Mr Hoon said reductions in heavy armour, heavy artillery and the infantry would be accompanied by an increase in specialists. The move was towards a "more balanced force organised around two armoured brigades, three mechanised brigades, a light and an air assault brigade".

The 19th Mechanised Brigade, based in Catterick, will start conversion to a light brigade in January. The 4th Armoured Brigade, based in Germany, will be converted to a Mechanised Brigade in 2006 and the "key foundations" of the new Army structure would be in place by 2008.