The King's Regiment (Men-at-Arms)

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The King's Regiment, officially abbreviated as KINGS, was an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the King's Division. It was formed on 1 September 1958 by the amalgamation of the King's Regiment (Liverpool) which had been raised in 1685 and the Manchester Regiment which traced its history to 1758. In existence for almost 50 years, the regular battalion, 1 KINGS, served in Kenya, Kuwait, British Guiana ( Guyana), West Germany, Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, Cyprus, and Iraq. Between 1972 and 1990, 15 Kingsmen died during military operations in Northern Ireland during a violent period in the province's history known as " The Troubles".

The Brigade was defending positions on The Hook [a crescent-shaped ridge, ‘The Hook’ was the most notorious position of all along the UN front line]. There was considerable speculation about ‘Peace’ accompanied with an assessment that the Chinese were likely to try to over-run The Hook to gain an advantage in the negotiations. They had just achieved that qualifying age, so their training was abandoned about four months earlier than planned - their time had come. They were hastily reassigned from their training battalion to the 4th Battalion Kings Liverpool Regt. before boarding a train for the Kent coast and embarking for France on 4th April 1918. saw the creation of a Home Service Force company- E (HSF) Company, with platoons spread throughout the company locations. The HSF was disbanded, however, in 1992 at the end of the Cold War, and therefore so was the company. At the same time as E Company disbanded, the battalion was reduced down to three rifle companies, and retained this structure until amalgamation in 1999. [34] [35]It seems that he passed though the casualty treatment chain - Regimental Aid Post, Field Hospital, Casualty Clearing Station to Base Hospital near the Channel coast - in two days, and at an early stage his incapacity would have been assessed as Slight, Mild or Severe. His condition on admittance to the hospital in Rouen was described as "Severe". [xviii] V (The Liverpool Scottish) Company, at Score Lane, Liverpool (transferred from 1st Battalion, 51st Highland Volunteers)

In 1970 the Regiment regained its own identity, still as the King's Regiment, with a cap badge of the Hanover horse superimposed over the Manchester's fleur de lis. The 1stKing’s remained in Korea in and out of line until October 1953 earning the Regiment's last battle honour. The Regiment would then travel onto Hong Kong, joined by their families in their new peacetime role before returning home to Britain in 1958. Battle map used in the King’s Regiment command post in Korea, 1953 It lends credence to Michael Stedman's comment in his book "Advance to Victory 1918” referring to the last three months of the war as - "a savage period of conflict during which casualties, amongst British infantry units, rose to some of the highest levels recorded during the war."

Victorian era

The renewed search led me to the Norfolk Regiment Museum via a posting on the Great War Forum [xv] that referred to a "Norfolk Regiment Casualty Book" (NRCB). [xvi] It implied that, uniquely among British military establishments, the Norfolk Regiment had kept a record of its casualties throughout the war - and indeed this proved to be the case. The Life Guards and The Grenadier Guards have been part of the Sovereign’s personal troops since before the Restoration of the Monarchy. Today, alongside the Royal Navy and the King’s Colour Squadron of the Royal Air Force, who also received new service Colours from The King, The Grenadier Guards and The Life Guards were the first Regiments in the British Army to receive precious ceremonial flags with the new King’s Cypher and Crown; Colours and Standards that will be borne proudly on ceremonial events for years to come.

The battles and sieges of the Marlborough Wars attended by the King’s Regiment (Queen’s as it was then) were numerous. The four major battles are well known but some of the sieges are less well known and did not earn battle honours. An article ‘Marlborough’s Sieges’ by C T Atkinson in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol XIII no. 52, Winter 1934, lists all the sieges that involved the British army and the units that attended. It is generally accepted that the 8th Regiment was at the siege of Lille but they are not one of the five listed battalions (16th 18th 21st 23rd and 24th). The sieges attended by the 8th are in the list below together with the four big battles. Transferred to the Royal Artillery, November 1941 and became 101st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery [1] Some of you may be familiar with the story of the regimental plaque made in Hong Kong which carries the names of seven of our Kingsmen killed in Northern Ireland in 1972. The King's and Cheshire Regiment". Archived from the original on 7 March 2002 . Retrieved 23 August 2020.When the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot became The King's (Liverpool Regiment) in 1881 under the Cardwell- Childers reforms of the British Armed Forces, eight pre-existent militia and volunteer battalions of Lancashire and the Isle of Man were integrated into the structure of the King's Regiment. [1] Volunteer battalions had been created in reaction to a perceived threat of invasion by France in the late 1850s. Organised as "rifle volunteer corps", they were independent of the British Army and composed primarily of the middle class. [2] The only change to the regiment's structure during the period of 1881-1908 occurred during the Second Boer War. During the conflict, the regiment formed two additional regular battalions in Ireland in 1900, which required the militia to be renumbered the 5th and 6th battalions to accommodate them. The new battalions disbanded in 1901 and the militia reverted to their original designations. [1] Battalion Figure 26: WFA Pension Record Ledger 3/MR/4933 giving 'Bronchitis Pneumonia' which was '20% due to his war service'. Source: WFA Pension Ledgers The treatment of the officers had a detrimental effect on the rank and file of the Regiment. A riot was reported and many desertions. An exaggerated report reached Holland that the whole regiment had deserted. This boosted the morale of the army preparing to bring William of Orange to England. In October there was a fight between men of the regiment and those of an Irish regiment. The whole incident had far-reaching effects, and rumours of the captains being mistreated while in custody increased the ill-feeling towards the King. It was increasingly clear to him that the army could not be relied upon to maintain loyalty to a staunchly Catholic monarch. Subsequent to Kuwait's independence from Britain in June 1961, President Abd al-Karim Qasim directed belligerent speeches against the oil-rich Gulf state, declaring it an integral component of sovereign Iraq. [8] Perceiving Qassim's rhetoric to constitute a possible military threat to Kuwait's sovereignty, Sheikh Abdullah III appealed to Britain and Saudi Arabia for assistance. Britain responded to the emergency by concentrating military forces in the Persian Gulf, composed initially of naval assets, as a deterrence to aggression. [9] The Strategic Reserve's 24 Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Horsford, was transported to Kuwait in Bristol Britannias in early July to augment the country's defences. Opportunity for the Kingsmen to acclimatise before relieving 45 Commando was fleeting. Just days after arrival, 1 KINGS occupied a ridge formation approximately 30-miles west of Kuwait City to prepare a defensive position. [10]