Worcestershire Regiment

Cap badge of the Worcestershire Regiment, c1904. NAM. 1973-03-8-26

Introduction

The unit was formed in 1881 by amalgamating the 29th (Worcestershire) and 36th (Herefordshire) Regiments of Foot, which had already been recruiting from a single depot at Worcester since 1873.

The 29th became the new regiment's 1st Battalion and was immediately deployed to India for 14 years. The 36th became its 2nd Battalion and spent the same period in Ireland, the Channel Islands, Malta, Bermuda and Canada.

Both battalions then deployed to the Boer War in 1900, though by 1904 they were both back on separate garrison duties. In the meantime, the regiment had raised two more regular battalions, which lasted until 1922. One of them, the 4th Battalion, was first posted to the West Indies to guard Boer prisoners of war.

They both fought on the Western Front in the First World War, along with Gallipoli and Macedonia. The regiment contributed four regular and 15 reserve, territorial and service battalions, whose members won nine Victoria Crosses during the conflict. In December 1918 the regiment helped suppress the mutiny of West Indian soldiers at Taranto in Italy. Service during the Irish Civil War of 1919 to 1921 followed and it spent the rest of the inter-war period on garrison duties in Malta, India and China.

An honour guard from the Worcestershire Regiment being inspected by Sir John French on 17 June 1922, at the opening of Gheluvelt Park in Worcester, named after the regiment's 1914 battle honour.
NAM. 1997-12-74-55

Two of its territorial battalions were part of the initial British Expeditionary Force (BEF) rescued from Dunkirk in 1940, while the regiment's two regular battalions served in several different theatres of the Second World War. 1st Battalion was initially deployed to Palestine, Abyssinia, Egypt and Libya, but was captured at Tobruk in June 1942. The regiment's 11th Battalion was renamed 1st Battalion and went on to fight in North West Europe from D-Day onwards as part of 214 Brigade, the first British troops to fight in Germany itself. The 2nd Battalion was in Rawalpindi at the outbreak of war before being deployed to Burma from 1942 to 1945.

The two regular battalions merged in 1948 during garrison duty in Germany, which lasted until 1956 and was only interrupted by three years service during the Malayan Emergency of the early 1950s. It formed part of the United Nations force in Cyprus in 1969 before returning to England, where in 1970 it was amalgamated with the Sherwood Foresters to form the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot).

Key facts

Motto:

• 'Firm' (inherited from the 36th Regiment)

Nicknames:

• The Firms (after its motto)
• The Line Repairers (after the 2nd Battalion's counter attack at Gheluvelt on the Western Front on 31st October 1914)
• The Glorious Worcesters (also after Gheluvelt)
• The Old Firm (after its motto)
• The Incomparables
• The Lilywhites
• The Brummagem Guards (after its heavy recruiting in Birmingham)
• The Pozzy Wallahs (after a supposed predilection to removing other units' jam rations)

Titles to date:

• Worcestershire Regiment
• Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot)
• 2nd Battalion, the Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters)

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