The 5th Royal Tank Regiment (5 RTR) was an armoured regiment of the British Army until 1969. It was part of the Royal Tank Regiment, itself part of the Royal Armoured Corps. It originally saw action as E Battalion, Tank Corps in 1917.
In December 1946 the regiment was the first use Centurion tanks in regular service.
In 1960, under the command of Hugo Ironside, it amalgamated with 8th Royal Tank Regiment without change of title. It was disbanded in 1969.
The 5th Royal Tank Regiment Reunion Association holds annual reunions.
In 2007 an image of a 1944 tank commander in the 5th Royal Tank Regiment uniform was used on one of a series of Royal mail stamps featuring British army uniforms.
Famous quotes containing the words royal and/or regiment:
“Are you there, Africa with the bulging chest and oblong thigh? Sulking Africa, wrought of iron, in the fire, Africa of the millions of royal slaves, deported Africa, drifting continent, are you there? Slowly you vanish, you withdraw into the past, into the tales of castaways, colonial museums, the works of scholars.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)