South Staffordshire Regiment - 1945 - 1959

1959

Following the granting of independence of India in 1947, all infantry regiments in the British Army were reduced to a single regular battalion. Accordingly the 1st and 2nd Battalions amalgamated in Lichfield in 1948. The new 1st Battalion (38th/80th) travelled to Hong Kong in the following year, and thence to Northern Ireland two years later. New colours were presented to the battalion at Lisburn on May 22, 1952. Later that year they were stationed in Germany. In 1954 the battalion was posted to the Suez Canal zone, before being speedily dispatched to Cyprus where hostilities had broken out between the two communities on the island.

In 1955 a ceremony was held in Lichfield to commemorate the regiment's 250th anniversary. The 1st Battalion moved to its final posting in Germany two years later.

In July, 1957, a defence review was announced. The South Staffords were to amalgamate with the North Staffordshire Regiment, and to become part of the new administrative Mercian Brigade.

The amalgamation of the 1st Battalions of the two regiments took place on January 31, 1959 at Minden, Germany, to form the 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Own).

In 1947 the Territorial Army was reformed, and the 5th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment (TA) was duly raised. Following the 1959 amalgamation of the North and South Staffords, the battalion continued as a territorial unit of the new regiment without change of title. The battalion was disbanded in 1967 on the creation of the Territorial Army and Volunteer Reserve in 1967, with its lineage continued by HQ Company of the Mercian Volunteers.