The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment

Origins

In May 1958, The Devonshire Regiment and The Dorsetshire Regiment - both then stationed at Minden in Germany - were merged to form The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment. Six months later, the new unit was sent to face EOKA paramilitaries on Cyprus, where it stayed for the next four years.

Following a year in Plymouth, the regiment was sent on its first postings to the still relatively quiet Northern Ireland between 1963 and 1966. This was interrupted by a spell in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1964 to help control civil unrest there.

Deployments

In February 1966, the unit joined the British Army of the Rhine in West Germany. It stayed there for the rest of the decade, apart from a year in Libya in 1967 during civil unrest triggered by the Arab-Israeli War.

After a short posting on Malta, the regiment returned to Northern Ireland in 1970 as the situation there worsened. It returned to Northern Ireland a further ten times over the next 20 years. This period was interspersed with home service and several spells in Germany, which included garrisoning West Berlin in 1985.

Final years

In 1995, the regiment was sent to join the United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia. Its final German posting ended in 1998 and its final tour of Northern Ireland came in 2004.

A 2003 defence white paper laid out plans to merge it with The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (RGBWR). Two years later, it was re-equipped as light infantry and renamed The Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry.

The regiment's final independent posting was an eight-month tour in Iraq in 2006 during Operation Telic.

Legacy

The amalgamation with the RGBWR eventually took place in February 2007. However, instead of forming a new battalion of The Light Infantry, as previously planned, the merged units became the 1st Battalion of a new enlarged unit called The Rifles. The other battalions of this new regiment were provided by The Royal Green Jackets and The Light Infantry.