Bermuda Regiment - Overseas Connections

Overseas Connections

During World War I, the Bermuda Regiment's predecessor, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) sent two drafts to serve with the Lincolnshire Regiment on the Western Front. After the War, the connection to the Lincolns was made official. When the Volunteer Army had been reorganised into the Territorial Force in 1908, its battalions were linked to British (Regular) Army regiments which adopted paternal roles, providing the part-time units (which, in most cases, were renamed as additional battalions of the Regular Army regiment) with loaned warrant officers and NCOs, and sometimes officers, and taking other steps to give them the benefit of their experience. During war-time, the Territorials would send drafts of volunteers to the Regular battalions, or (once the restriction on sending Territorials overseas without their consent was lifted) the entire TA battalion might be sent. The role the Lincolns adopted with the BVRC was similar to that it played with its own TA battalions, although the BVRC remained a separate unit.

The BVRC again provided two drafts to the Lincolns during the Second World War. When the BVRC (renamed the Bermuda Rifles) was amalgamated with the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA), to create the Bermuda Regiment, the Royal Anglian Regiment, into which the (Royal) Lincolnshire Regiment had itself been amalgamated, continued the paternal role.

Throughout the Bermuda Regiment's history, the Royal Anglians have provided it with Permanent Staff Instructors (PSI), now called full-time instructors (FTI) Warrant Officers (WO2) for each of its companies, as well as other personnel on long-term and short-term attachments (although it should be noted that other Regiments have occasionally provided personnel on loan). Although the Bermuda Regiment has always managed to provide commanding officers from within its own strength, it has occasionally had to use seconded officers when unable to provide its own personnel to fill roles such as Second-In-Command (2-i-c), Staff Officer, Adjutant, Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM), and Training Officer. Its first nine Adjutants (1965–1984) were all seconded from the Royal Anglians. Nine of its Regimental Sergeant Majors have been seconded, including three from the Royal Anglians. In 1996, its Second-in-Command, Staff Officer, and Adjutant were all on loan from the Royal Anglians. This frequent resort to seconded officers is due to a problem common to many Territorial units in Britain, also. These positions are all full-time ones, ideally filled by officers who volunteer from within the regiment, but whose service in these roles is restricted to three years. As relatively few officers can afford to leave their civil careers for three years, the problem is not so much caused by a lack of suitable officers, as a lack of willing ones.

The Lincolnshire Regiment was also affiliated to The Lincoln and Welland Regiment of the Canadian Army. Although joint training has occurred in the past, and short-term loans of NCOs from the Lincoln & Welland Regiment have been frequent (especially for Recruit Camps and Overseas Camps), numerous attempts to formalise the affiliation with the Bermuda Regiment have been unsuccessful.

Members of the ceremonial Gun Troop carry out occasional ceremonial training with the Royal Regiment of Artillery, which provides its Sergeant Major Instructor of Gunnery to conduct local courses, although the troop has no combat artillery role. As one of the units amalgamated into the Bermuda Regiment, the BMA, was an artillery unit (which history the Gun Troop commemorates), members of the Regiment are entitled to join the Royal Artillery Association (RAA), which has a branch located on the grounds of the former St. George's Garrison (which had been predominantly a Royal Garrison Artillery establishment).