Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
The Queen's Royal Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Army line infantry order of precedence.
In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the East Surrey Regiment, to form a single county regiment called the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment which was, on 31 December 1966, amalgamated with the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment to form the Queen's Regiment. Following a further amalgamation in 1992 with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, the lineage of the regiment is continued today by the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.
Titles
The regiment was raised in 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry when she married King Charles II. From this service, it was also known as the Tangier Regiment. As was usual at the time, it was also named after its current colonel, from one of whom, Percy Kirke, it acquired its nickname Kirke's Lambs. It was withdrawn along with the rest of the Tangier Garrison when Charles II abandoned the colony.In 1685, it was given the Royal title the Queen Dowager's Regiment of Foot and in 1703 became The Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot. In 1715, it was renamed The Princess of Wales's Own Regiment of Foot after Caroline of Ansbach, then Princess of Wales, and was re-designated The Queen's Own Regiment of Foot in 1727 when the Princess became Queen. It was ranked as 2nd Foot in the clothing regulations of 1747, and was renamed 2nd Regiment of Foot by Royal warrant in 1751.
In the Childers reforms of 1881 it became the county regiment of West Surrey, named The Queen's Regiment. In 1921, its title was slightly altered to The Queen's Royal Regiment . By 1950 it was known as The Queen's Royal Regiment. In 1959, it was amalgamated with the East Surrey Regiment, to form the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment.
History
Early years
The regiment shipped to Tangier where it remained until the port was evacuated in 1684, when it returned to England. It took part in the suppression of the Monmouth Rebellion, fighting at the Battle of Sedgemoor, where it earned a widespread reputation for brutality. After the Glorious Revolution, it fought in Ireland for the new king, William III, defending the besieged Derry in 1689 and at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. From 1692 to 1696 it fought in Flanders in the Nine Years' War, at the Battle of Landen and the recapture of Namur in 1695.During the War of Spanish Succession it served in the Iberian campaign, at Cadiz, Vigo, the sieges of Valencia de Alcantara, Alburquerque, Badajoz, Alcantara and Ciudad Rodrigo, and was virtually destroyed in the disastrous Battle of Almansa. In the campaign in the Low Countries in 1703, it defended Tongres against overwhelming odds, giving Lord Overkirk time to re-group his forces, until it was eventually captured. It was for this action that it was awarded its Royal title and its mottoes. It spent most of the remainder of the 18th century on garrison duty, being one of the regiments involved in putting down the Gordon Riots.
French and Napoleonic Wars
On the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, detachments were in the West Indies and acting as marines in the Channel Fleet, notably at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, where they served on Howe's flagship, Queen Charlotte and also on board Russell, Defence, Royal George and Majestic. In recognition of the regiment's service, it was granted the distinction of wearing a Naval Crown superscribed 1 June 1794 on its colours.The regiment was then reunited and sent to the West Indies where it took part in the capture of Guadeloupe in 1794, although the occupation was short-lived owing to outbreaks of disease, particularly yellow fever, among the troops, and the capture of Trinidad in 1797. A second battalion was formed in 1795 and stationed in Guernsey before being shipped to Martinique, where it was disbanded in 1797, its personnel being absorbed by 1st Battalion.
The regiment was transferred to Ireland in 1798 where it helped put down the Irish rebellion and then took part in the unsuccessful 1799 Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. In 1800, it was part of the abortive expedition to Belle Isle, from which it sailed to Egypt where it fought at the Battle of Alexandria, the Siege of Fort Julien and the Siege of Alexandria.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment first fought in the Peninsular War at the battles of Vimeiro and Corunna. It then took part in the disastrous Walcheren Campaign before returning to the Peninsula to fight at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro, the second Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the Battle of Salamanca and the unsuccessful Siege of Burgos. By the winter of 1812, the regiment was so depleted by casualties and disease that four companies were amalgamated with the equally weakened 2nd Battalion, 53rd Foot, to form the 2nd Provisional Battalion. Six cadre companies returned home to re-form. As part of the 4th Division, the Provisional Battalion took part in the Wellington's triumph at the Battle of Vittoria on 21 June 1813, followed by the Siege of San Sebastián and, 1814, the battles of Orthes and Toulouse.
The Victorian era
The regiment was on garrison duty in Baluchistan when the First Afghan War broke out in 1839. It formed part of the force that attacked the previously impregnable city of Ghazni, taking the city by storm because the army lacked siege equipment, and opening the way to Kabul. It returned to India in November 1839, storming the city of Khelat en route, and avoiding destruction along with the rest of Elphinstone's army.The regiment was shipped to the Cape Colony during the Eighth Xhosa War in 1851. On 25 February 1852 a detachment of 51 men under the command of Ensign Boyland were aboard HMS Birkenhead travelling from Simon's Town to Port Elizabeth when the ship struck rocks. The troops were assembled on deck and remained at attention to afford the embarked women and children time to take their place in the lifeboats. Shortly after this the ship broke up and the vast majority of the troops on board were either drowned or fell victim to sharks. The bravery of the troops, made up of cadres from ten different regiments, led to the naming of the Birkenhead Drill. It once again became the 1st Battalion when the 2nd Battalion was reformed in 1857, and went to China in 1860 at the time of the Second Opium War, fighting at the Third Battle of Taku Forts and the capture of Beijing. It was stationed in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda from 1864 to 1866. Although too far North for yellow fever to establish itself in perpetuity, the disease was introduced to Bermuda several times during the 19th century by mail boats from the West Indies, causing endemics that resulted in many deaths, most particularly among members of the armed forces. Under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel F. L. O. Attye, the battalion arrived at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda on 15 July 1864, in the midst of one of these epidemics and its losses in Bermuda included Assistant Surgeon James Murray Chalk at St. George's Garrison on 8 February 1865 and Douglas James Mounteny Rose, the five-year-old son of Lieutenant-Colonel Rose, who died the following day. The battalion lost fifty-two officers and men in the epidemic. The battalion departed Bermuda for Cork, Ireland, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Werge, aboard HMS Orontes on 3 November 1866.
The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Stoughton Barracks in Guildford from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms it became The Queen's Regiment on 1 July 1881. In 1897–98, a battalion took part in the Tirah Expedition on the North-West Frontier.
The 1st battalion was stationed at Malta from 1891, then in India where it was posted at Rawalpindi until late 1902 when it moved to Peshawar near the historic Khyber Pass on the border to Afghanistan. The 2nd Battalion fought in the Third Anglo-Burmese War from 1886 to 1888 and in South Africa from 1899 to 1904 including during the Second Boer War. From October 1910 until October 1912, it was stationed in the Imperial fortress colony of Gibraltar. From October 1912 through 1914 it was stationed in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, as the regular infantry battalion of the Bermuda Garrison. While in Bermuda, the Edison Studios filmed The Relief of Lucknow and For Valour there, and was provided extensive support from the garrison, with parts of Prospect Camp providing sets, and personnel from the 2nd Battalion appearing as extras.
A 3rd Battalion was formed from the former 2nd Royal Surrey Militia, with headquarters at Guildford. The Battalion was embodied in December 1899 to provide troops for the Second Boer War, 550 men embarked for South Africa in February 1900; and returned to the United Kingdom in May 1902, when it received a public welcome and reception at Guildford.
Under the Childers Reforms, two battalions of the Volunteer Force were attached to the regiment in 1883. These had originally been raised in 1859–60 in response to an invasion scare. The 1st Volunteer Battalion was formed from the 2nd Surrey Rifle Volunteer Corps, at the Old Barracks, Mitcham Road, Croydon, while the 2nd VB was formed from the 4th Surrey RVC at Reigate Both Volunteer Battalions contributed to service companies of volunteers who served alongside the regulars during the Second Boer War, and received the battle honour for the campaign.
Under the Haldane Reforms of 1908 the Militia became the Special Reserve and the Volunteers became part of the Territorial Force. The regiment now had the 3rd Battalion, with the 4th Battalion at the Old Barracks in Croydon and the 5th Battalion at Sandfield Terrace in Guildford.