Hertfordshire Regiment

Hertfordshire Regiment
Badge of the Hertfordshire Regiment
Active	1908–1961
Country	United Kingdom
Allegiance	British Army
Branch	Infantry
Type	Territorial
Size	1 battalion (peacetime)
Garrison/HQ	Hertford
Nickname(s)	The Hertfordshire Guards
Colors	White
March	‘The Young May Moon’
Engagements	Second Boer War, First World War, Second World War, Palestine Mandate
Commanders
Notable commanders	Henry Page Croft, 1st Baron Croft,

The Hertfordshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army. Originating in units of Rifle Volunteers formed in 1859, the regiment served in the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First and Second World Wars before losing its separate identity in 1961. Its lineage is continued today by the Royal Anglian Regiment.

The origins of the regiment lay in the Rifle Volunteer Corps of the nineteenth century. These units were raised across Britain during a period of heightened Anglo-French tension resulting from the Second Italian War of Independence on the Continent. In Hertfordshire the newly formed companies of rifle volunteers were grouped into two separate administrative battalions of the Hertfordshire Rifle Volunteers. In 1880 these units were rearranged in two battalion-sized units titled 1st and 2nd Hertfordshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. The following year, as a result of the Childers Reforms, the county lost its regular regiment. Thus, the two Hertfordshire Rifle Corps were nominated to be attached to the neighbouring Bedfordshire Regiment, whose recruiting district included Hertfordshire. In 1887 the two units were re-titled as the 1st and 2nd (Hertfordshire) Volunteer Battalions, The Bedfordshire Regiment.

Although the volunteer battalions saw no active service as units, during the Second Boer War the two battalions raised three volunteer Active Service Companies to serve in South Africa, all of which were attached to 2nd battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment. In total 279 men volunteered to serve in the campaign.