Saturday, August 8

I have been to.. The Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Museum

Time for another update..  and I've been travelling..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Picture courtesy visitwiltshire.co.uk
I happened to be in Salisbury this week on a dual mission, one of which involved beer, but the other of which was a long planned visit to the museum of the Wiltshire and Berkshire Regiments..

Dedicated to those two regimens and their antecedents and subsequents (is that even a word? 😏) succeeding, formations. 

This is a cracking little museum - quite small, in fact only one floor of that magnificent house pictured  (known as 'The Wardrobe' due to one of its connections, which is to the Cathedral opposite)...  in fact the house has had almost as many changes of use as the regiments the museum now represents!

These two veteran county regiments, like many others in the British army to be fair, have a very tortuous and convoluted lineage.. but to try and summarise... 
  • The Royal Berkshire Regiment was formed in 1881 (as a result of the Childers Reforms), by the amalgamation of two regiments: the 49th Regiment of Foot (which became the 1st Battalion) and the 66th Regiment of Foot (which became the 2nd Battalion) - these two single battalion regiments had been 'linked' in the earlier Cardwell reforms (the Cardwell Reforms were enacted  to among other things increase efficiency by linking single battalion regiments, and assigning them to a specific geographic area so as to improve supply lines, recruitment, etc.) :
    • The 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Regiment of Foot, originated in 1655 in Jamaica as a number of independent company's formed as defence during the the Anglo Spanish war after Britain had captured Jamaica ("no, she came of her own accord" 😂). Recognised as a regiment in 1743 (originally as the 66th, it became the 49th in 1751). The regiment served in all the corners of the world and in most of the British armies campaigns, including the the American War of Independence, the War of 1812, the Napoleonic Wars, the 1st Opium War, and the Crimea (where men in the regiment won three Victoria Crosses). 
    • The 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, raised in 1758, also saw active service across the British Empire including the Napoleonic Wars, the Anglo-Nepalese War and the 2nd Afghan War. This was also the regiment (the 2nd Battalion) that acted as Bonaparte's guard garrison on St Helena - in fact six of the regiments grenadiers were the coffin bearers.
Spot the Martini-Henry.. 

After it's formation, the 1st Battalion then deployed to Egypt in 1882 where the regiment got it's Royal status as a result of it's performance at Tofrek (1885), it also fought at Ginnis (1885) and Suakin (1888). The 2nd Battalion meanwhile were in South Africa and served in the Boer War. 

During WW1 (where the regiment expanded by 12 battalions!), 1st and 2nd Battalions were on the western front. Now it gets a bit esoteric, as at least one company of 2nd Battalion were engaged in the Russian Civil War (!) in 1919. 

Crimean War display - packed with artefacts and information..

During WW2, after 1st Battalion was evacuated from Dunkirk, both senior* Battalions served in Burma throughout (*the regiment again expanded by nine territorial battalions during the war, some of which were engaged in Sicily/Italy, and some of which were in NW Europe - 5th Battalion, for example landed at Juno Beach ).

  • The Wiltshire Regiment was also formed in 1881 as a result of the Childers Reforms (and were also linked in the Cardwell Reforms), this time by the amalgamation of the 62nd Regiment of Foot and the 99th Regiment of Foot. 
    •  The 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot, was raised in 1756, and served with distinction in multiple campaigns including the 7YW, the American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars (where they served among many other places in Egypt!), and later, in the first Anglo-Sikh War (Battle of Ferozeshah) and the Crimea.
    • The 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot, raised in 1824, also served widely across the British Empire including the 1st Maori War, the 2nd Opium War and the Zulu War, along with long periods of garrison duty in Australia and Mauritius.

After it's formation only 2nd Battalion saw action - in South Africa for the Boer War, for the vast majority of the time I'm guessing the regiment saw fairly typical Imperial army service - garrison duties in Burma, India and (peacetime) South Africa. 

I was always going to be very interested in the Sudan displays for obvious reasons.. 😁

This all changed with WW1 of course, the two senior battalions (they also raised another 8 for war service) were on the Western Front throughout (wining 60 battle honours but losing over 5000 men)

Between the wars other than a company of the 1st Battalion that also went to serve in the Russian Civil War (that's a rabbit hole I need to explore, as I know another connection as well) most of the time they were in garrison in the likes of Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, India and Palestine.

During WW2 (and the regiment raised an addition 6 war battalions), 

  • 1st Battalion was in India and apart from a year in Burma (Arakan front) it remained there until Independence in 1947.
  • 2nd Battalion deployed straight to France in 1939 and was evacuated from Dunkirk. In April 1942, it was part of the invasion of Madagascar (another rabbit hole! I had no idea this had happened), then the invasion of Sicily, and the campaign in Italy

Then in 1959, these two regiments were then themselves amalgamated (again) to form The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire), the regiment served all over the world (Cyrpus and Hong Kong notably) and had six tours of duty in Northern Ireland during the troubles..

Martini Henry and Jezail - which would you rather have? 😏 Tulwar at bottom..

In 1994, as part of further army restructuring, the regiment was amalgamated (again - what's that fourth time? 😏) with the Gloucestershire Regiment to form The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, it served in Bosnia, Kosovo and again in Northern Ireland. The regiment only lasted a little over ten years before the final changes started and the regiment was renamed The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry (RGBWLI) - change of role/function. 

After a spell on service in Afghanistan, that change of role (to light infantry) then fed into another amalgamation (the fifth in their history?) with the The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment in 2005. In 2007 they became 1st Battalion of  The Rifles (the other battalions of this new regiment were provided by The Royal Green Jackets and The Light Infantry).

Been 19 years now - must be time for another amalgamation? 😒

...another from the Sudan display..

Amazing visit - the Museum is chock full of displays and information (as you can see from the pictures), and I learned a whole lot more as a result of the visit not only about the regiments themselves, but also about the Childers and Cardwell Reforms (as an aside, in addition to the regimental "linking" mentioned above, purchase of commissions also ended with this Reform).

..and last of all another rabbit hole to investigate - I was very much taken with the story of this guy - what first got my attention was the truly magnificent moustache, but then his name which apparently, I now learn, was a traditional boys name back in the day, only in more modern times has it become more commonly associated with girls/women. These things aside, what a life story..  and such a sad, sad ending (dementia is a bastard disease), but, Highland Road Cemetery is in Pompey - and I think I'm going to take Gertrude for a ride and go and find him to pay my respects..  

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)