Durham Light Infantry


The Durham Light Infantry was a light infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1968. It was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th Regiment of Foot and the 106th Regiment of Foot along with the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham.
The regiment served notably in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II, the Korean War and the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. During times of peace it had duty in India, China, West Germany and Cyprus.
In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the King's Shropshire Light Infantry to form The Light Infantry, which again amalgamated in 2007 with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Royal Green Jackets to form a new large regiment, The Rifles, which continues the lineage of the regiment.

Formation

As part of the Cardwell and Childers Reforms of the British Army's regiments, in 1881 the 68th Regiment of Foot and the 106th Regiment of Foot became the 1st and 2nd battalions of the Durham Light Infantry. Both already had their depots at Sunderland Barracks in Sunderland, as was the Brigade Depot. The militia battalionsthe 1st Durham Fusiliers and 2nd North Durham Militiabecame the 3rd and 4th battalions of the new regiment, with their depots in Barnard Castle and Durham City. The five Volunteer Force battalions of Durham Rifle Volunteersthe 1st to 4th Administrative battalions of the Durham Rifle Volunteers and the 3rd Durham Rifle Volunteer Corpsbecame the 1st to 5th Volunteer battalions.
A new regimental badge was to be worn, a Tudor rose, this was never worn on any article of clothing, but did appear on the colours until 1934. Instead the light infantry bugle horn was modified with a crown and the regiment's abbreviation.
The system was designed to permit one regular battalion of a regiment to be stationed at home, providing trained recruits for the other on overseas service.

History

1881–99

On formation of the regiment the 1st Battalion was in India at Meerut and the 2nd Battalion was in Ireland at Dublin. The elements of the new regiment still maintained a separate and independent existence, as they had since being grouped together in 1873, however the introduction of shorter service and the increase in cross posting of officers in the linked regular and Militia battalions, increased the assimilation into a single regiment.
In August 1882 the 2nd Battalion was sent to the garrison the Mediterranean, being split between Gibraltar and Malta, it was reunited in March 1883 at Gibraltar.
In 1884, the Depot moved from Sunderland to Fenham Barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne which it shared with the Northumberland Fusiliers as there was no suitable site near Durham City "which could not be relied upon as not being undermined". The move was not popular as it took the Depot out of the County, it was not to return until 1939, when it was transferred to Brancepeth Castle.
In 1885 the 2nd Battalion was transferred to Egypt to take part in the Mahdist War and was employed with the force under General Stephenson to repel attacks on the railway between Wadi Halfa and Akasha, fighting at the Battle of Ginnis. After the battle, while securing one of the Arab's nuggers, an Arab child of about two years was found by the battalion's mounted infantry. Brought back and baptised as James Francis Durham he would enlist with the regiment and become a corporal of buglers before dying in August 1910. In January 1887, the 2nd Battalion sailed from Suez to India, while in March, the 1st Battalion returned from there to Britain.
While in India, the 2nd Battalion came to dominate the Indian polo scene, winning 17 tournaments against "rich men's regiments" and cavalry regiments. In 1897 and 1898, it assisted the authorities in containing outbreaks of the plague in Poona and Bombay.

Second Boer War

The 1st battalion was dispatched from Britain to South Africa to take part in the Second Anglo-Boer War, arriving in November 1899, after local forces had been besieged in Mafeking, and the British forces stationed there had been surrounded in the town of Ladysmith. The battalion was involved in General Redvers Buller's unsuccessful attempts to approach Ladysmith across the Teluga river, in reserve for the Battle of Colenso, launching diversionary attacks to the east of Spion Kop, and in early February attacked Vaal Krantz with the battalion taking two hills of the ridge, before the position was abandoned. The battalion was in a supporting role for the Relief of Ladysmith and took little part in the offensive that ended with the annexation of the Transvaal in September 1900.
The war now became one of guerilla raids by the Boers against the British forces and their lines of communication. The battalion was deployed guarding a section of railway line in the Transvaal, while sending two platoon sized units to the mounted infantry. During this time the battalion was joined or reinforced by other units from the regiment. One company from the 2nd battalion came from India in January 1900 and formed part of the Burmah Mounted Infantry, seeing action at Sanna's Post.
The 3rd and 4th battalions were embodied and also served in South Africa. The 3rd arriving in February 1900, where it guarded lines of communications in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, escorted convoys and garrisoned Dewetsdorp for 6 months. The 4th arrived in February 1902 and was split into detachments serving in many places, and a mounted infantry company, which escorted convoys. Almost 800 officers and men of the 4th battalion returned to the United Kingdom on the SS Roslin Castle in September 1902, following the end of the war, and returned to Newcastle for disembodiment.
The volunteer battalions supplied contingents to form three special service companies, reinforcing the 1st battalion, which served individually from March 1900 to April 1902.

Pre First World War

The 1st battalion and the company from the 2nd left South Africa for India on the SS Assaye at the end of October 1902, and on 15 November both battalions met at Calicut, before the 2nd battalion, which had been guarding Boer prisoners, left for Britain. The 1st battalion was stationed at Wellington in Madras Presidency.
In 1908, as part of the Territorial Forces Act, the 3rd and 4th battalions exchanged numbers and were recast as the 3rd and 4th battalions in a draft finding role. The 1st to 5th Volunteer battalions were renumbered as the 5th to 9th battalions Durham Light Infantry of the Territorial Force. The 5th formed part of the York and Durham Brigade and the 6th–9th battalions formed the Durham Light Infantry Brigade of the Northumbrian Division Brigade and 151st Brigade respectively of the 50th. The 5th Battalion was based at Paradise Row in Stockton-on-Tees, while the 6th Battalion was based at Union Street in Bishop Auckland, the 7th Battalion was based at Livingstone Road in Sunderland, the 8th Battalion was based at Gilesgate in Durham and the 9th Battalion was based at Burt Terrance in Gateshead. In 1911, the 1st battalion took part in the Delhi Durbar, receiving new colours from the King.

First World War

During the First World War, the D.L.I. expanded to 42 battalions, comprising two Regular, two Militia, 17 Territorial and 21 service and other types, with 22 seeing active service overseas – on the Western Front, in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India. Some battalions were part of the Army of occupation in Germany after the War. In addition, ten battalions of County Volunteers were raised under the terms of the 1859 Volunteer act.
The regiment earned 59 battle honours and won six Victoria Crosses, but at the cost of 12,006 dead NCOs and other ranks. When officers are included this rises to approximately 12,530the 10th highest of any of the infantry regiments of the British Army.
When War was declared, the 1st battalion was in India part of the Nowshera Brigade, 1st Division, and was one of only eight of 52 British Army regular infantry battalions to remain in India. When volunteers for drafts to fight in France were called for, 880 out of 900 responded. The 2nd battalion was in Whittington Barracks, assigned to the 18th Brigade of the 6th Division. The Territorial battalions had been withdrawn early from their summer training camp to their home mobilisation stations.

1914

The 6th Division reached France on 10–11 September as part of the British Expeditionary Force. By this time the German Army's advance had been halted on the Marne and pushed back to beyond the Aisne. The 6th Division was dispersed among the units of the BEF holding the line on the ridge of the Chemin des Dames, with 2nd battalion the penultimate battalion on the right of the line. On 20 September the Germans attacked the junction of the British and French forces but were held; in this introduction to the war the 2nd battalion lost in one day almost as many men as the 1st battalion lost in the whole of the Boer War. The Allies and the Germans now began a series of moves to try and outflank each other resulting in a northwards movement called the Race to the Sea. Rejoining the rest of the division in early October during this northward movement the 2nd battalion fought at the Battle of Armentières, dispersed in companies to reinforce other units to the south-east of Armentiers. By the end of October when it was withdrawn from the front, the 2nd battalion had lost over 80% of its original complement killed or wounded.
On 16 December, the 18th battalion became the first New Army battalion to come under enemy fire when two companies on coastal defence duty at Hartlepool suffered five dead and 11 wounded when the town was attacked by the battlecruisers SMS Derfflinger, SMS Von der Tann and SMS Blucher.