Tower Hamlets Bands
to
The Rifles
1537
Tower Hamlets Bands
1860
Tower Hamlets Rifle Volunteers
1881
2nd Volunteer Bn,
The Rifle Brigade
1908
Tower Hamlets Rifles
1922
Tower Hamlets Rifles
(17 Co of London)
1937
Tower Hamlets Rifles
(RB)
1939
1st & 2nd
Tower Hamlets Rifles
1940-1945
9th & 10th
RB
1947
Tower Hamlets Rifles
to
R A
1967
4th Bn, The Royal Green Jackets
1992
The London Regiment
2 x Green Jacket Coys
2007
7th Bn, The Rifles
The Tower Hamlets Rifles was a volunteer or territorial unit of the British Army that recruited in the East End of London and served under various titles and in various roles from 1860 until it lost its separate identity in 1971.
The unit was formed as the 1st Administrative Battalion, Tower Hamlets Rifle Volunteer Corps, in May 1861. It was part of the Volunteer Force formed in response to a perceived risk of invasion by France and was formed by the grouping of six smaller rifle volunteer corps formed in 1860. The headquarters were established at Truman’s Brewery, Spitalfields.
In 1880 it was renamed and reorganised as 3rd Tower Hamlets Rifle Volunteer Corps, with headquarters at Whitechapel Road. In 1881 it became a volunteer battalion of the Rifle Brigade. In 1894 the headquarters were moved to Bow.
As a volunteer battalion of the Rifle Brigade, the regiment sent detachments to reinforce the regular regiment during the Second Anglo-Anglo Boer War in 1900-02.
On 1st April 1908 the Territorial Force was formed, and all volunteer infantry battalions in the County of London became part of a new London Regiment. The 3rd Tower Hamlets VRC became 17th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles).
With the outbreak of war in August 1914 the Territorial Force was mobilised. The size of the TF was increased by the formation of duplicates of the pre-war units.
The existing battalion became the 1/17th Battalion, and served on the Western Front from 1915-18.
A duplicate 2/17th Battalion was formed in August 1914. It was briefly in France before taking part in the Macedonian and Palestinian campaigns.
A 3/17th Battalion was formed in 1915. It was reserve unit and did not serve outside the UK.
Inter-war period
The Territorial Force was dissolved at the end of the war and reformed as the Territorial Army in 1920. The battalion was duly reformed.
In 1922 the various battalions of the London Regiment were formally reconstituted as separate regiments and it became 17th London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles). In 1926 it was renamed 17th London Regiment (Tower Hamlets Rifles)
In 1937 there was another reorganisation: much of the London-based infantry was converted to an anti-aircraft role. The Tower Hamlets Rifles escaped this fate, becoming Tower Hamlets Rifles, The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own).
As war appeared to be inevitable 2nd and 3rd battalions were formed.
The Territorial units were disembodied at the end of the war and not reformed until 1947. The Tower Hamlets Rifles was converted to artillery as 656th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA (Rifle Brigade) In 1955 there was a reduction in size of the TA. The Tower Hamlets Rifles were reduced to battery size, forming one third of a regiment, as R (Tower Hamlets Rifles) Battery, 512th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery. The two other batteries were formed from the former Finsbury Rifles and St Pancras Rifles.
In 1961 there were further amalgamations, with the absorbtion of two further artillery regiments which had once been the territorial battalions of the Essex Regiment. R (Tower Hamlets) Battery, 300th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery was formed at Bow. In 1967 it became R Battery (Tower Hamlets), The Greater London Regiment RA (T), a lightly-armed infantry unit in a home defence role. The unit was reduced to a cadre in 1969 and eventually became part of the 6th (Volunteer) Battalion of the Queen’s Regiment, losing its Tower Hamlets identity.
Battle honours
The regiment was awarded the following battle honours: South Africa 1900-02
Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 ’18, Flers-Courcelette, Le Transloy, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917 ’18, Langemarck 1917, Cambrai 1917, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Ancre 1918, Albert 1918, Courtrai, France and Flanders 1915-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1916-17, Gaza, El Mughar, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Jericho, Jordan, Tell ‘Asur, Palestine 1917-18
Mersa el Brega, Agedabia, Derna Aerodrome, Tobruk 1940, Chor es Sufan, Saunnu, Gazala, Defence of Alamein Line, Medjez el Bab, Kasserine, Thala, Fondouk, Fondouk Pass, El Kourzia, Tunis, Hammam Lif, North Africa 1941-43, Cassino II, Liri Valley, Melfa Crossing, Monte Rotondo, Capture of Perugia, Arezzo, Advance to Florence, Tossignano, Italy 1944-45
The London Regiment is an infantry regiment in the British Army, part of the Army Reserve. The regiment saw distinguished service in World War I and was disbanded after the war in 1938, shortly before World War II, when most of its battalions were converted to other roles or transferred elsewhere. However, the regiment was raised again in 1993 and continues an existence in the present day.
It was first formed in 1908 in order to regiment the 26 Volunteer Force battalions in the newly formed County of London, each battalion having a distinctive uniform.
Now part of the Territorial Force, the London Regiment expanded to 88 battalions in the First World War. Of these 49 battalions saw action in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Flanders, 6 saw action at the Gallipoli Campaign, 12 saw action at Salonika, 14 saw action against the Turks in Palestine, and one saw action in Waziristan and Afghanistan.
The London Regiment was reformed in the Territorial Army in the 1920s but ceased to exist in 1938 and the battalions were all transferred to regular infantry regiments, the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers. For example, the 10th London Regiment (Hackney) was transferred to the corps of the Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s), becoming the 5th (Hackney) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment.
The London Regiment was reformed in 1992 through the regimentation of most of the remaining successors of the original regiment (except the Rifles and the Artists Rifles). It is the only permanent infantry battalion in London District and consists of an HQ and four rifle companies.
They are;
HQ (Anzio) Company
A (London Scottish) Company
B (Queen’s Regiment) Company
C (City of London Fusiliers) Company
D (London Irish Rifles) Company
Two companies of the Royal Green Jackets, F Company and G Company, formed part of the regiment between 1998 and 2004.
In October 2003, 120 members of regiment were called up for active service in Operation Telic. They were deployed in areas around Basra in southern Iraq in January 2004. This group made up a company known as Cambrai company as part of the Multi-National Division (South East), a UK commanded division[citation needed]. In May 2004, they were replaced by Messines company, which was made up from an HQ and two platoons from across the London Regiment, along with a platoon from the Royal Irish Rangers.
Following the restructuring of the British Army in 2004, it was announced that the Guards Division would gain a TA battalion. This saw the London Regiment retaining its name and multi-badge structure, while transferring from the Queen’s Division to the Guards Division. The two RGJ companies were transferred to the Royal Rifle Volunteers in preparation for the formation of The Rifles in 2007, leaving the remaining companies in their present multi-badge formation.
Original London Regiment battalions
The London battalions formed the London District, which consisted principally of the 1st and 2nd London Divisions
1st London Division
1st London Brigade
Unit
1st (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Formerly
1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (late 10th Middlesex RVC)
HQ
Bloomsbury
Unit
2nd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Formerly
2nd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (late 23rd Middlesex RVC)
HQ
Westminster
Unit
3rd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Formerly
3rd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (late 11th Middlesex RVC)
HQ
St Pancras
Unit
4th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Formerly
4th Volunteer Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (late 1st Tower Hamlets RVC)
HQ
Shoreditch
2nd London Brigade
Unit
5th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade)
Formerly
1st London VRC (City of London Volunteer Rifle Brigade) (9th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Finsbury
Unit
6th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles)
Formerly
2nd London VRC (10th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Finsbury
Unit
7th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment
Formerly
3rd London VRC (11th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Finsbury
Unit
8th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles)
Formerly
24th Middlesex VRC (7th Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Finsbury
3rd London Brigade
Unit
9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s), Berkeley Square
Formerly
1st Middlesex (Victoria and St. George’s) VRC (4th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps) and 19th Middlesex (St. Giles’s and St. George’s, Bloomsbury) VRC (6th Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Westminster
Unit
10th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Paddington Rifles); disbanded 1912
Formerly
18th Middlesex VRC (4th Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Paddington
Unit
10th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney)
Formerly
Formed in 1912 to replace the Paddington Rifles
HQ
Hackney
Unit
11th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles)
Formerly
21st Middlesex (Finsbury) VRC (7th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Pentonville
Unit
12th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (The Rangers)
Formerly
22nd Middlesex VRC (Central London Rangers) (8th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Holborn
2nd London Division
4th London Brigade
Unit
13th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Kensington)
Formerly
4th (Kensington) Middlesex VRC (3rd Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Kensington
Unit
14th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Scottish)
Formerly
7th (London Scottish) Middlesex VRC (1st Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Westminster
Unit
15th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own Civil Service Rifles)
Formerly
The Prince of Wales’s Own 12th Middlesex (Civil Service) VRC (5th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Westminster
Unit
16th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen’s Westminster Rifles)
Formerly
13th Middlesex (Queen’s Westminster) VRC (6th Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps)
HQ
Kensington
5th London Brigade
Unit
17th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Poplar and Stepney Rifles)
Formerly
2nd Tower Hamlets VRC (9th Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Bow
Unit
18th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Irish Rifles),
Formerly
16th Middlesex (London Irish) VRC (3rd Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Chelsea
Unit
19th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (St. Pancras)
Formerly
17th Middlesex (North Middlesex) VRC (3rd Volunteer Battalion, Middlesex Regiment)
HQ
Camden Town
Unit
20th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Blackheath and Woolwich)
Formerly
2nd Volunteer Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) (ex 3rd Kent VRC)
HQ
Blackheath
6th London Brigade
Unit
21st (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles)
Formerly
1st Surrey (South London) VRC (1st Volunteer Battalion, East Surrey Regiment)
HQ
Camberwell
Unit
22nd (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen’s)
Formerly
3rd Volunteer Battalion, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) (ex 6th Surrey RVC)
HQ
Bermondsey
Unit
23rd (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment
Formerly
4th Volunteer Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (ex 7th Surrey RVC)
HQ
Battersea
Unit
24th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen’s)
Formerly
4th Volunteer Battalion, Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regt)([ex 8th Surrey RVC)
HQ
Southwark
Others
Unit
25th (County of London) Cyclist Battalion, London Regiment.
Formerly
26th (Cyclist) Middlesex VRC (Rifle Brigade)
HQ
Fulham
Unit
26th (County of London) Battalion
Formerly
Title allotted to Infantry Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company but never used
Unit
27th (County of London) Battalion
Formerly
Title allotted to the Inns of Court Regiment but never used
Unit
28th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Artists Rifles),
Formerly
20th Middlesex (Artists) VRC (6th Volunteer Battalion, Rifle Brigade)
HQ
St Pancras
Battle honours for the First World War were awarded to the individual battalions in 1924.