Royal Tank Regiment

 

Royal Tank Regiment

Officer’s Beret, c. 1961

 

Tanks were first employed at Flers–Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme in September of 1916. At that time the six tank companies were grouped as the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps (MGC). That November, the tank companies were expanded to form battalions and designated the Heavy Branch MGC. In July of 1917, the Heavy Branch was separated from the rest of the Corps by Royal Warrant and given official status as the Tank Corps.

 

After the Great War, the Tank Corps was pared down to four battalions and on the 18th of October, 1923, became the Royal Tank Corps with King George V as Colonel-in-Chief. In 1939 the Corps was renamed the Royal Tank Regiment and became a wing of the newly created Royal Armoured Corps.

 

Officer in full dress uniform of the Royal Tank Regiment.

Durham Light Infantry

Durham Light Infantry
Officer's Forage Cap, c. 1881 

The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 106th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Light Infantry) along with the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham. On formation of the regiment the 1st Battalion was in India at Meerut and the 2nd Battalion was in Ireland at Dublin.

In 1885 the 2nd Battalion was transferred to Egypt to take part in the Mahdist War, fighting at the Battle of Ginnis. 

The 1st Battalion arrived in South Africa in November of 1899 for the Second Boer War, participating in the Relief of Ladysmith. One company of the 2nd Battalion was dispatched from India in January of 1900, forming part of the Burmah Mounted Infantry. The 3rd and 4th Militia Battalions were also sent to South Africa in February of 1900 and February of 1902, respectively. The 1st Battalion and the company from the 2nd left South Africa for India at the end of October of 1902. The two militia battalions departed that September.

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. That regiment was further amalgamated in 2007 to the form The Rifles.

Officers of the Royal Bucks Militia in patrol jackets with forage caps, c. 1893.

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's)

Basket-hilted Broadsword - 1865 Pattern, George V cypher, produced by Wilkinson in 1912

Etched for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's)

The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 91st (Argyllshire Highlanders) Regiment of Foot and the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot. During the Crimean war, the 93rd (later 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) earned the sobriquet of "The Fighting Highlanders" and carried with it the status of having been the original "Thin Red Line". This title was bestowed following the Battle of Balaklava when the regiment stood alone facing four squadrons of charging Russian cavalry.

The 1st Battalion took part in the Boer War, arriving in the Cape in 1899. They played leading roles in the Battle of Modder River, the Battle of Magersfontein, and the Battle of Paardeberg. During the Great War, the 1st Battalion landed at Le Havre in December of 1914. The 2nd Battalion landed at Boulogne-Sur-Mer in August of 1914. The 2nd Battalion was later stationed in Claremorris, County Mayo in 1919, during the Irish War of Independence. 

As part of the restructuring of the British Army's infantry in 2006, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders were amalgamated with the other Highland regiments into the seven-battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland.

 

An officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) in levee dress.

Captain Alister Hillyar Darby Chapman

 

Captain Alister Hillyar Darby Chapman

 1882-1915

Dress Tunic, c. 1911

 

 Chapman studied at Eton and was gazetted to the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry on the 19th of September, 1900. The battalion was originally the Shropshire Militia and had been redesignated as the 3rd (Militia) Battalion in 1881. He transferred to the 1st (Royal) Dragoons in December of 1901, joining the regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War. Upon their return to England in 1902, the regiment was inspected by its Colonel-in-Chief Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany. Chapman was advanced to lieutenant in January of 1905. He obtained his captaincy in February of 1910. The regiment was once again posted to South Africa when the Great War began. They returned to England and then landed at Belgium with the 6th Cavalry Brigade of the 3rd Cavalry Division in October of 1914. The regiment participated in the First Battle of Ypres in October of 1914. Chapman was mentioned in despatches during the Second Battle of Ypres in April of 1915. During the Battle of Loos, under heavy shelling, Chapman was killed in action on the 27th of September, 1915. He was laid to rest in the Noeux-Les-Mines Communal Cemetery in the Pas de Calais region of France.