London Regiment

London Regiment

The London Regiment is a Territorial Army regiment in the British Army. It was first formed in 1908 in order to regiment the various Volunteer Force battalions in the newly formed County of London, each battalion having a distinctive uniform. The Volunteer Force was merged with the Yeomanry in 1908 to form the Territorial Force. This resulted from the impending insolvency of the Volunteer Force's voluntary civilian administration. The administration was taken over by the War Office, and most volunteer units lost their unique identities, becoming territorial battalions of their regular army county regiment. The London corps were a notable exception, being grouped to form their own regiment, each retaining a measure of its original identity, and independent of any regular army regiment. Following the First World War, the Territorial Force was reorganised and renamed the Territorial Army. The London Regiment ceased to exist in 1938 with the battalions transferring to regular infantry regiments, the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers.

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 Company
• A (London Scottish) Company
• B (Queen's Regiment) Company
• C (City of London Fusiliers) Company
• D (London Irish Rifles) Company

Two companies of Royal Green Jackets, F Company and G Company, formed part of the regiment between 1998 and 2004 thus the Artists' Rifles became the only former unit of the old London Regiment not represented in the regiment during that period (the heritage of the Artists' Rifles is maintained by 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve)). The Honourable Artillery Company is also still separate but, although ordered to do so, never actually became part of the original London Regiment.

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. In May 2004 they were replaced by Messines company, this 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.

Continuously since March 2007, members of the regiment have been deployed to Afghanistan with various front-line brigades as composite companies: most recently, Somme, Vimy and Gaza Companies.