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

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Through a Glass Darkly: The Appointment of T/Lieutenant-Colonel C.J. Hobkirk DSO as GOC 14 Australian Brigade, July 1916 When Princess Anne ascended to the throne in 1702 the Regiment became the Queen's Regiment of Foot. A Jacobite rebellion followed in 1715 when Queen Anne died. The Jacobite supporters hoped to install James Stuart (the legitimate son of James II of England) to the throne instead of the Hanoverian King George I. As unrest escalated in Britain, the Queen's Regiment fought against the numerically superior Jacobite army at the Battle of Sheriffmuir and succeeded in suppressing the rebellion. To honour the Regiment's service to King George I, the Queen's became the King's Regiment of Foot with the White Horse of Hanover as its badge. The Regiment then remained on garrison duties in Scotland and England until 1739.

The flags are decorated with elaborate symbols and battle honours, gained through the centuries, and these flags soon took on a mystical quality as it was believed that within their precious threads was woven the spirits of all those that had died fighting in their name. To dishonour the Colours was to dishonour the sacrifice and memory of past heroes, and the regiment’s current and future reputation. The Life Guards are dual role soldiers and the sovereign’s trusted guardians. As well as their impressive ceremonial excellence seen daily guarding the entrance to the Royal Palaces at Horse Guards, the Household Cavalry are first and foremost formidable light armoured reconnaissance soldiers who, when required, will courageously venture deep into hostile territory to gather military intelligence, to seek out and destroy the King’s enemies. Members of the Life Guards are currently deployed on a UN mission in Cyprus where they are patrolling daily as part of a multinational operation to preserve peace on the island.I'd always known that my Dad had been gassed in the war. I don't recall anyone ever telling me that, it seems to have been one of those bits of instinctive knowledge you just absorb unconsciously as you grow up, but to find that he suffered a bullet or shrapnel wound is a surprise - it was never mentioned at home. It would seem that the wound may have been so slight that he made a complete recovery and deemed it unworthy of comment in later life … but it was his second narrow escape - by inches. The King's Regiment fielded 49 battalions and lost 13,795 officers and other ranks during the course of the war. The regiment's territorial components formed duplicate second and third line battalions. As an example, the three-line battalions of the 5th King's were numbered as the 1/5th, 2/5th, and 3/5th respectively. Many battalions of the King's were formed as part of Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener's appeal for an initial 100,000 men volunteers in 1914. They were referred to as the New Army or Kitchener's Army. The 17th to 20th King's, New Army "Service" battalions, were referred to as the Liverpool "Pals" because they were predominantly composed of work colleagues. The Volunteer Training Corps were raised with overage or reserved occupation men early in the war, and were initially self-organised into many small corps, with a wide variety of names. Recognition of the corps by the authorities brought regulation and as the war continued the small corps were formed into battalion sized units of the county Volunteer Regiment. In 1918 these were linked to county regiments. [10] Battalion Figure 21: 7th Norfolk's advance 8th Aug. - 28 th Oct.1918 overlaid (in red) onto a map published in The Times on 27 th Aug 1918. Locations from April to July referred to in the text are underlined in red.

Music for the ceremony in the Palace Gardens was provided by His Majesty’s Band of the Royal Marines, the Band of the Grenadier Guards, and the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment, playing in harmony in tribute to a splendid joint force occasion. Nine Victoria Crosses were awarded to men of the regiment, the first in 1900 and the last in 1918. An additional two were awarded to Royal Army Medical Corps officer Noel Godfrey Chavasse, who was attached to the 10th (Scottish) Battalion during the Great War. The 12th (Eastern) Division was relieved by the 27th American Division and the next day they left the Somme front and began the 25 mile journey north towards Arras to occupy a trench line between Lens and Oppy, and I think it likely that it was at this point, whilst they were regrouping for the final advance, that my Dad re-joined the Battalion.

Second World War

The King’s Company guards the body of the Sovereign in life and even after death. Few will forget the sight of members of The King’s Company standing vigil by and then bearing Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin at Her funeral in September 2022. vi] With the digitisation of the records now being underway, the 'manual search' process is no longer available. ii] It is said that about a third of army service records survived but my searches have yielded far less than that.