7th (City of London) Battalion London Regiment

3rd City of London Rifle Volunteers 7th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment 32nd Searchlight Regiment, RA 567 (7th City of London) Searchlight Regiment, RA
Cap badge of the 7th London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) after 1920
Active	1860–1961
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Territorial Army
Type	Infantry Battalion Searchlight Regiment Anti-Aircraft Regiment
Role	Infantry Air Defence
Part of	London Regiment
Garrison/HQ	Great Tower Street New Broad Street Sun Street, Finsbury Square (1903–1961)
Nickname(s)	Working Men's Shiny Seventh
March	My Lady Greensleeves
Engagements	WWI: Battle of Festubert Battle of Loos Battle of the Somme Battle of Bullecourt 3rd Battle of Ypres Battle of Cambrai Battle of Villers Bretonneux Battle of Amiens WWII: Battle of Britain The Blitz Operation Diver
Commanders
Notable commanders	Alfred Bate Richards

WWI:

The 7th (City of London) Battalion of the London Regiment was a volunteer unit of the British Army from 1860 until 1961. Recruited from London working men, it sent volunteers to the Second Boer War, saw extensive service on the Western Front during World War I, and defended the United Kingdom as a searchlight regiment during World War II.

An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Movement in Britain. One of the movement's leaders was the journalist, playwright and poet Alfred Bate Richards, who convened a meeting at St Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London, on 16 April 1859 that led the War Office to authorise the recruitment of Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). Richards himself enlisted 1000 men to form the 'Workmen's Volunteer Brigade'. Although the unit began holding parades at the City of London's Guildhall in the autumn of 1860, the first officers' commissions were not issued until 26 April 1861, when the unit was formally adopted as the 3rd City of London RVC. The men were generally less well-off than some other London RVCs recruited from the professions and middle classes, but the unit received some financial support from the City of London and the Livery Companies. It adopted a scarlet uniform with buff facings and brass buttons, at first with a bearskin and red plume, later with a kepi, together with the motto LABOR OMNIA VINCIT (Work conquers everything) derived from Virgil.

Under the Childers Reforms the RVCs became Volunteer Battalions of Regular Army regiments in 1881. The 3rd London RVC was designated as the 11th Volunteer Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) but continued to use its former title and did not adopt the Rifle green uniform and black buttons of the KRRC.