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The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the
infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...
s of the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
. The reforms were done by
Secretary of State for War The Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The Secretary of State for War headed the War Office and ...
Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation was effected by General Order 41/1881, issued on 1 May 1881, amended by G.O. 70/1881 dated 1 July, which created a network of multi-
battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...
regiments. In England, Wales and Scotland, each regiment was to have two regular or "line" battalions and two
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
battalions. In Ireland, there were to be two line and three militia battalions. This was done by renaming the numbered regiments of foot and county militia regiments. In addition, the various corps of county rifle volunteers were to be designated as volunteer battalions. Each of these regiments was associated by headquarters location and territorial name to its local "Regimental District". The reforms became effective on 1 July. From 1881, regimental seniority numbers were officially abolished and battalions came to be known by their number within the regiment and the regimental district name. Unofficially, the regiments were still referred to by their numbers by their officers and men, as tradition, and several regiments, such as "
the Buffs The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...
" (the Royal East Kent Regiment), the Cameron Highlanders, and " the Black Watch", lobbied to keep their distinct names as part of their battalion titles. In practice, it was not always possible to apply the scheme strictly: the Cameron Highlanders initially had only one regular battalion, while several regiments had more or fewer militia regiments than specified by the initial scheme. In addition, the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) had no local regimental districts, and their affiliated militia and volunteer battalions were selected not on a territorial basis, but due to their "rifle" traditions. This structure lasted until 1948, when every regiment of line infantry had its regular battalions decreased to one, with only the three original Guards Division regiments retaining two regular battalions. Also in 1881, short service was increased to seven years with the colours, and five with the reserve, of the twelve-year enlistment period that the Cardwell Reforms had introduced. See Lord Childers: 'In the second place, we propose that the terms of enlistment should remain 12 years, as now, but that the period with the colours should be seven instead of six years...'. He also introduced the ability for time-served soldiers to extend service in the reserve by four years, albeit classed as the second division, or Section D, of the First Class Army Reserve. See Lord Childers: 'The Bill is a very simple one, and it has been in print for some time. egulation of the Forces Act.It contains certainly two important clauses — one to enable the Chelsea Commissioners to grant certain pensions... and the other to enable the Crown to increase the Reserve by allowing men, after their 12 years' engagement, to volunteer for four years more into a second Reserve. See Lord Childers: 'The only clause of importance was the 5th, which related to the Reserves, and which enabled a second Reserve to be formed for four years of men who had completed their 12 years' engagement. The remainder of the Bill would not require much discussion.'.


Standardisation of uniforms and colours

For reasons of economy and efficiency, an attempt was made to have the facings of uniforms standardised: Royal regiments would have dark blue facings, English and Welsh regiments would have white facings, Irish regiments would wear green facings (in effect only the Connaught Rangers as all other Irish Regiments were 'Royal Regiments'), and Scottish regiments would have yellow facings. Officers' uniforms had lace in distinctive national patterns:
rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
pattern for England and Wales,
thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves ...
for Scotland and shamrock for Ireland. In the case of regular battalions, the lace was gold, while that of the militia battalions was silver. There were also attempts to assimilate regimental insignia and remove "tribal" uniform distinctions. This was less successful, as regimental tribalism and tradition caused much criticism. Two regiments that displayed a strong reaction were the 75th and the 92nd that were grudgingly joined together to become the Gordon Highlanders. The 75th went so far as commissioning a marble monument to themselves in Malta where they were based at the time. They had spent so long away from Scotland that they were effectively an English unit that had to relearn how to wear kilts. The 92nd, though they lost much less identity in the amalgamation, staged a mock funeral procession to themselves, complete with a full-size coffin with the number '92' on it. During 1890, The Buffs succeeded in being allowed to resume the wearing of buff facings, initially at regimental expense and design. Within a few years, a number of other regiments had replaced white facings with traditional colours. After 1935, the ruling on blue facings for royal regiments effectively lapsed. That year, in celebration of his silver jubilee,
King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...
designated three regiments as royal. In each case, they were ''"permitted to retain their present facings"''. During 1939, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who had worn blue facings since 1881, were issued buff regimental colours ''"by request and gracious permission"''. In 1946, three more infantry regiments were designated as "royal" for services during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Of these, only the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment replaced its (white) facings with blue.


Regiments created

* Berwickshire, Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire were transferred to the regimental district of the King's Own Scottish Borderers district 1887. † Huntingdonshire was originally included in the regimental district of the Suffolk Regiment. There were no volunteer units recruited in the county from 1889 until 1900, when the 4th (Huntingdonshire) Volunteer Battalion, The Bedfordshire Regiment was formed. In 1908, it became part of the 5th Battalion of the Bedfords. In 1914, the Huntingdonshire companies were transferred to a newly formed Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, affiliated to The Northamptonshire Regiment. The successors to the cyclist unit continued to be part of the Northamptons.The Huntingdonshire Battalion (Regiments.org)
‡ It was originally proposed to disband the Royal Irish Fusiliers during 1922. However, the 2nd battalion of that regiment and of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were disbanded instead. During 1924, the two regiments formed a single "corps" sharing a depot and regimental district consisting of Counties Armagh, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. In 1937, the regiments were again separated, with each forming a second battalion the next year.


Later changes

Between 1897 and 1900, the regular army was increased in size in response to a number of conflicts, especially the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...
. The Cameron Highlanders raised a second battalion, while third and fourth regular battalions were added to the Northumberland Fusiliers, Warwickshire Regiment, Royal Fusiliers, King's (Liverpool Regiment), Lancashire Fusiliers, Worcestershire Regiment, Middlesex Regiment and the Manchester Regiment. The recruiting areas of each of these regiments included parts of large conurbations. The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 reformed the reserve forces during 1908. A number of militia battalions were disbanded with the remainder being transferred to a new Special Reserve. At the same time, the volunteer battalions became part of the new
Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...
, and were redesignated as numbered battalions of the regiments. The army was expanded for the duration of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, with the territorial battalions being duplicated and numerous war-time service battalions being formed. During 1921 - 1922, the system was somewhat changed: the special reserve battalions were reorganized and a number of Irish regiments were disbanded on the creation of the
Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...
. All remaining regiments were reduced to two regular battalions. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, regiments were again expanded, although not to the same extent as for the previous conflict. After the independence of
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during 1947, regiments lost their second battalion, although some were reformed temporarily for the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
. The system introduced during 1881 finally ended with the reforms introduced by the Defence White Paper of 1957. A number of pairs of regiments were amalgamated, while regimental depots were closed with recruiting and training being organised in multi-regiment brigades.


Sources

*


See also

* List of Regiments of Foot * List of British Army regiments (1881) * Cardwell Reforms * Haldane Reforms


References

* *{{cite book , title=The Victorian army at home: the recruitment and terms and conditions of the British regular, 1859-1899 , last=Skelley, first=Alan Ramsay , edition=illustrated, publisher=Taylor & Francis , year=1977 , isbn=978-0-85664-335-4


External links


Transcript of a speech on the reforms given by Hugh Childers in 1882
* The Highland Regiment

19th-century history of the British Army 1881 in the United Kingdom 19th-century military history of the United Kingdom British defence policymaking 1881 in military history Military reforms Lists of British Army units and formations