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REGIMENTAL HISTORY (From 1881)
Cardwell Reforms 1881
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Wiltshire Regiment soldiers at Devizes Station
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In 1881, under the Cardwell reforms, Infantry Regiments
were reorganised and the 49th and 66th Regiments became the 1st
and 2nd Battalions of Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Berkshire)
Regiment and the 62nd and 99th the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the
Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire) Regiment. The Berkshire Regiment
Depot was established at Brock Barracks, Reading and The Wiltshire
Regiment Depot at Le Marchant Barracks, Devizes.
Battle of Tofrek - Granting of "Royal" Title
1885 found the 1st Battalion of the Princess Charlotte of Wales’s
(Berkshire) Regiment, the old 49th Regiment, in the Suakin area
of the Sudan. It was part of the British Force sent to assist in
protecting British authority which was being threatened by a fanatical
Moslem leader, the Mahdi, and in particular a local chief, Osman
Digna, who was supporting the revolt.
On the morning of 22nd March, working parties were
out building a defensive Zariba. Without warning thousands of yelling
Arabs erupted from the dense scrub through which they had crawled
unobserved. The Berkshires were able to grab their rifles moments
before the Arabs struck and their volleys, fired at only a few yards
range, inflicted hundreds of casualties. Once an organised line
was established the danger was over but the Arabs continued to attack
with fanatical bravery. The disciplined fire of the soldiers inflicted
over a thousand casualties although the Arabs’ determination brought
them at times to close quarters and there followed fierce hand to
hand fighting. The Arabs eventually fled and Osman Digna’s power
was broken.
Tofrek was another "Soldiers’ battle" in which
the discipline of individual soldiers averted a terrible disaster
and turned it into total victory. To mark its conduct at Tofrek
the Regiment received what was then a unique honour. This was the
granting of the title "Royal" to a Regiment as a reward for service
in the field. The Regiment became the Princess Charlotte of Wales’s
Royal Berkshire Regiment and its facings changed from white to blue.
The Boer War
Both the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Berkshire)
Royal Regiment, the old 66th Regiment and the 2nd Battalion The
Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire) Regiment, the old 99th Regiment,
were involved in the Boer War. The Berkshires' experiences were
routine rather than memorable but it acquitted itself well at Mosilikatse
Nek where Pte House earned the Victoria Cross. The Wiltshires fought
in all the major engagements of the war.
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Hand to Hand fighting on the Western Front
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The devastation of war - a Western Front panorama
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The Great War 1914-1918
The misery of trench warfare and the catastrophic
scale of losses that developed on the Western front during the Great
War do not need further elaboration. Suffice to say that both the
Royal Berkshires and the Wiltshire had their full share of both.
The Royal Berkshires raised 13 Battalions and the Wiltshires 11
Battalions which served in France, Flanders, Italy, Salonica, Gallipoli,
Mesopotamia and Palestine.
The Regiments earned 55 Battle Honours and 60 Battle
Honours respectively. 2Lt Alexander Turner and LCpl James Welch
of the Royal Berkshires and Captain Reginald Hayward of the Wiltshires
were awarded the Victoria Cross. The cost in deaths was heavy. The
Royal Berkshires lost 6,688 men and the Wiltshires nearly 5,000.
Change of Titles
In 1920 the Regiments changed their titles to The Royal Berkshire
Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) and The Wiltshire Regiment
(Duke of Edinburgh’s).
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A Royal Berkshire soldier in Burma
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Second World War 1939-1945
During the second World War both Regiments fought
over an even wider front than 1914-18. A total of eleven Royal Berkshire
Battalions were eventually raised of which six (1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th,
10th and 30th) saw service in France, North West Europe, Italy,
Sicily and Burma while The Wiltshire Regiment raised six Battalions
of which four (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th) saw action in France, North
West Europe, Italy, Sicily, the Middle East, Burma and Madagascar.
Sergeant Maurice Rogers MM, The Wiltshire Regiment, was awarded
the Victoria Cross posthumously for his gallantry while serving
with the 2nd Battalion in Italy. Although the overall cost in lives
did not approach that of the Great War, individual Battalions at
times suffered heavily. For example, the 1st Battalion The Royal
Berkshire Regiment lost 300 men at Kohima and the 10th Battalion
was reduced to 40 men defending the Anzio beachhead.
Post War Years
The post war years saw the start of the scaling down of the British
Army which reduced each Regiment of the Line by one Battalion by
amalgamating the 1st and 2nd Battalions. Thus the 1st Battalion
The Royal Berkshire Regiment amalgamated with the 2nd Battalion
at Asmara, Eritrea in March 1949 to become the 1st Battalion The
Royal Berkshire Regiment and the 1st Battalion the Wiltshire Regiment
amalgamated with its 2nd Battalion at Krefeld, BAOR, on 10 January
1949 to become the 1st Battalion the Wiltshire Regiment. Each Regiment
was honoured by the appointment of a Royal Colonel in Chief. In
1947 HM King George VI became Colonel in Chief of the Royal Berkshire
Regiment and in 1953 HRH The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh Colonel
in Chief of the Wiltshire Regiment.
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