Royal Warwickshire Regiment


The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War and both the First and Second World Wars. On 1 May 1963, the regiment was re-titled, for the final time, as the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers and became part of the Fusilier Brigade.
In 1968, by now reduced to a single Regular battalion, the regiment was amalgamated with the other regiments in the Fusilier Brigade – the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Royal Fusiliers and the Lancashire Fusiliers – into a new large infantry regiment, to be known as the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, becoming the 2nd Battalion of the new regiment.

History

17th century

The regiment was raised in December 1673 by Sir Walter Vane, one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, a mercenary formation whose origins went back to 1586. During the 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, it took part in the Siege of Maastricht and the battles of Cassel and Saint-Denis. In June 1685, the brigade was sent to England in 1685 to help James II suppress the Monmouth Rebellion and returned without seeing action; while there, the unit was designated the 6th Regiment of Foot.
During the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, it accompanied William III to England in 1688; en route, a ship carrying four of its companies was captured by, but the soldiers were released after James went into exile. It was transferred onto the English establishment in May 1689, although its seniority dated from 1685.
Until 1751, most regiments were considered the personal property of their Colonel and changed names when transferred. In April 1690, 'Babington's Regiment' joined the army commanded by Schomberg fighting the Jacobites in the 1689–1691 Williamite War in Ireland. Three companies were detached to garrison Charlemont Fort after its capture in May, while the rest fought at the Battle of the Boyne in July, suffering heavy casualties.
Following the battle, it was part of a detachment under Lieutenant-General James Douglas that unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Jacobite-held town of Athlone. After Babington died of disease, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt became the new Colonel in January 1691; he commanded the regiment at Aughrim, and the Second Siege of Limerick in August 1691 that ended the war in Ireland.
Sent to Flanders in 1692, it was one of five British regiments almost wiped out at the Battle of Steenkerque in July and was out of action for over a year. In 1694, Prince George was replaced as Colonel by the French Huguenot exile Henri Nompar de Caumont, Marquis de Rade, who died of wounds received in a duel with Bevil Granville in June 1695. Under its new Colonel Ventris Columbine, the regiment won its first battle honour for the 1695 Siege of Namur.
The Treaty of Ryswick ended the Nine Years War in 1697; Parliament was determined to reduce costs and by 1699, the English military was less than 7,000 men. Since England, Ireland and Scotland each had their own Parliaments and funding, one way around this was to transfer regiments and the regiment appears on the Irish military establishment for December 1698.

18th century

When the War of the Spanish Succession began, the regiment took part in the 1702 Cádiz Landing; in 1703, it was sent to the West Indies, a notoriously unhealthy posting in an expedition that achieved very little. Colonel Columbine died in June 1703, shortly before reaching Jamaica and was replaced by James Rivers.
The rest of the war was spent campaigning in Spain and Portugal, including Almansa in 1707 and the 1708 capture of Minorca. In 1710, it fought at Almenar and Saragossa before being surrounded and captured at Brihuega. After the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, it was posted to Ireland and with the exception of the 1719 Vigo expedition, remained there until 1740.
In 1739, commercial tensions with Spain led to the War of Jenkins' Ear; in January 1741, the unit returned to the West Indies and took part in the expedition to Cartagena de Indias, modern Colombia. The expeditionary force suffered losses of between 80 and 90% from dysentery and yellow fever. The survivors returned to England in December 1742; the unit was brought up to strength as a result of the 1740–1748 War of the Austrian Succession, then sent to Scotland.
At the beginning of the Jacobite Rising in July 1745, detachments from the regiment garrisoned the line of forts between Inverness and Fort William. Two companies were captured at the Battle of Prestonpans; some changed sides and were executed as deserters in 1746. Several companies defended Fort William in March 1746 and after Culloden, took part in the pacification of the Highlands.
The regiment remained in Scotland until 1753; it was transferred to Gibraltar, where it spent the next 19 years before moving to the West Indies in 1772. On the outbreak of the American War of Independence, detachments from the 6th arrived in New York in 1776 and saw action, but were of insufficient strength and were sent home. To aid recruiting, each infantry unit was linked with a county in 1782 and the 6th became the 6th Regiment. During the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794 in the West Indies, the 6th took part in the invasions of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia from the French and in Casdebar, in August 1798, it gained a battle honour.

19th century

The 1st Battalion went from Gibraltar to the Iberian Peninsula and was at Roliça and Vimeiro in 1808. The battalion took part in the Corunna, losing 400 men during the march. The men were then shipped to UK before taking part in the Walcheren Campaign before returning to the Peninsula in 1812. The regiment was present at Vitoria in 1813 and heavily engaged at the later action at Roncesvalles. At the Heights of Echalar, in August 1813, Wellington watched the regiment's attack against 6,000 French in rugged positions in the mountains and described it as "The most gallant and the finest thing he had ever witnessed". The regiment was held in reserve at the Nive and was again heavily engaged at Orthez in 1814.
In 1832, the 6th became a Royal Regiment and its title was changed to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The 6th took part in the 7th and 8th Xhosa Wars in South Africa and helped suppress the Indian Rebellion in 1857.
The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Budbrooke Barracks in Warwickshire from 1873, or by the Childers reforms of 1881; since it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms, the regiment became the Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 1 July 1881 and became the county regiment for Warwickshire and encompassed its Militia and Volunteer Infantry. Under these reforms, the regiment now consisted of the following battalions:
Regulars
  • 1st Battalion in 1881 based in London
  • 2nd Battalion in 1881 based in Jubbulpore
Militia
  • 3rd Battalion, based in Warwick, formerly the 1st Warwick Militia
  • 4th Battalion, based in Warwick, formerly the 2nd Warwick Militia
Volunteer Infantry
  • 1st & 2nd Battalions, 1st Warwickshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, based in Birmingham, renamed as 1st Volunteer Battalion in 1883
  • 1st & 2nd Battalions, 2nd Warwickshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, based in Coventry, renamed as 2nd Volunteer Battalion in 1883
In 1898, the regiment fought at Atbara and Omdurman during Lord Kitchener's reconquest of the Sudan and saw service at Diamond Hill and Bergendal during the Second Boer War.

20th century

The 2nd battalion started the century in South Africa, where they were engaged in heavy fighting in the early phases of the Second Boer War. After a large portion of the men were struck down with malarial fever, they were in August 1901 transferred to Bermuda to guard Boer prisoners. The battalion returned home in November 1902, after the end of the war earlier that year, to be stationed at Raglan barracks, Devonport, Plymouth.
The 5th battalion, formed from the 1st Warwick Militia in 1881, was a reserve battalion. It was embodied in January 1900, disembodied in October that year, and later re-embodied for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War. Almost 700 officers and men returned to Southampton on the SS Briton in September 1902, following the end of the war.
In 1908, Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane implemented a series of reforms, which merged the Volunteer Force and Yeomanry into the larger Territorial Force. After these reforms, the regiment was now organised as follows:
Regulars
Special Reserve
  • 3rd Battalion based in Warwick, formerly 3rd Militia Btn
  • 4th Battalion based in Warwick, formerly 4th Militia Btn
Territorial Force
Cadet Affiliations
  • 1st Cadet Battalion based at The Barracks, Aston Manor, affiliated to 8th Btn
  • 2nd Cadet Battalion based at Stevens Memorial Hall, Coventry, affiliated to 7th Btn
  • 3rd Cadet Battalion based at Thorp Street Drill Hall, Birmingham, affiliated to 5th Btn
  • 4th Cadet Battalion based at 15 & 16 Exchange Buildings, Birmingham, affiliated to 6th Btn
In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had two Reserve and four Territorial battalions.