5th Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment
| 5th Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment (PWV) 61st Searchlight Regiment, RA |
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| Active | 29 February 1860–1992 |
| Country |
 United Kingdom
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| Branch |
 Territorial Army
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| Type | Infantry Battalion Searchlight Regiment Air Defence Regiment |
| Part of | South Lancashire Regiment |
| Garrison/HQ | St Helens, Merseyside |
| Engagements |
2nd Boer War 2nd Battle of Ypres Battle of Guillemont Battle of Pilckem Ridge Battle of the Menin Road Ridge Battle of Cambrai Defence of Givenchy The Blitz Operation Diver |
The 5th Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment, was a unit of the British Army's Reserve Forces first established in St Helens, Merseyside, in 1860. It served as infantry in some of the bitterest fighting on the Western Front in World War I and as a searchlight regiment in Anti-Aircraft Command during World War II.
The unit had its origins in two of the many Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) formed in the wake of an invasion scare in 1859. The 47th Lancashire RVC formed at St Helens on 29 February 1860, consisting of five companies. It was under the command of Major David Gamble, a local chemical manufacturer, and members of the Pilkington glassmaking family of St Helens and Brunner chemical manufacturing family of Widnes were prominent among the unit's officers. Its drill hall, built in 1861, was at the corner of Volunteer street and Mill Street, St Helens. The 48th Lancashire RVC was a single company unit formed at Prescot under Captain Walter Wren Driffield on 15 March 1860. The two units were combined under the 1880 Childers Reforms as the 21st Lancashire RVC (the original 21st (Wigan) Lancashire RVC having merged into another unit). The new unit had an establishment of eight companies and a uniform of Rifle green with scarlet facings.
In 1886 it was designated the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment). Under the mobilisation scheme introduced by the Stanhope Memorandum of 1888, it formed part of the Mersey Volunteer Infantry Brigade, later the Cheshire and Lancashire Brigade, and then the Lancashire Brigade from 1900.
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