Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)

Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) Cap Badge
Active	1661–1959
Country	Kingdom of England (1661–1707)  Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800)  United Kingdom (1801–1959)
Branch	British Army
Type	Line infantry
Role	Infantry
Size	1–2 Regular battalions 1 Militia battalion (2nd Royal Surrey Regiment of Militia) 4 Volunteer and Territorial battalions
Part of	Home Counties Brigade
Garrison/HQ	Stoughton Barracks, Guildford
Nickname(s)	Kirke's Lambs, The Mutton Lancers
Motto(s)	Pristinae Virtutis Memor (Mindful of Former Valour) Vel Exuviae Triumphans (Even in Defeat Triumphant)
March	Quick: The Braganza Slow: Scipio
Anniversaries	Glorious First of June (1 June) Salerno (9 September)

The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Army line infantry order of precedence.

In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the East Surrey Regiment, to form a single county regiment called the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment which was, on 31 December 1966, amalgamated with the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) to form the Queen's Regiment. Following a further amalgamation in 1992 with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, the lineage of the regiment is continued today by the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires).

The regiment was raised in 1661 by Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough as The Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Foot on Putney Heath (then in Surrey) specifically to garrison the new English acquisition of Tangier, part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry when she married King Charles II. From this service, it was also known as the Tangier Regiment. As was usual at the time, it was also named after its current colonel, from one of whom, Percy Kirke, it acquired its nickname Kirke's Lambs.