Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)

Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)
Cap badge of the Rifle Brigade
Active	1802–1816 as 95th Rifle Regiment, 1816–1966 as Rifle Brigade
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Light infantry
Size	4 Battalions in Peacetime (28 during the Great War)
Garrison/HQ	Peninsula Barracks, Winchester
Nickname(s)	The Rifles The Grasshoppers The Sweeps
March	I'm Ninety-Five

The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army. Formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts and skirmishers, they were soon renamed the "Rifle Corps". In January 1803 they became an established regular regiment and were titled the 95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles). In 1816, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, they were again renamed, this time as the "Rifle Brigade".

The unit was distinguished by its use of green uniforms as standard in place of the traditional redcoat, as well as being armed with the first British-made rifle accepted by the British Army, in place of smooth-bore muskets — the first regular infantry corps in the British Army to be so.

After distinguished service in both the First and the Second World Wars, the regiment was amalgamated with the 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) and the King's Royal Rifle Corps to form the Royal Green Jackets on 1 January 1966.

In 1800, an "Experimental Corps of Riflemen", was raised by Colonel Coote Manningham and Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. William Stewart, drawn from officers and other ranks from drafts of a variety of British regiments. The Corps differed in several regards from the Line infantry of the British Army and most significantly were armed with the formidable Baker rifle. The rifle was remarkably accurate in an era when it was generally considered impractical for individual soldiers to aim at specific targets. Riflemen wore dark green jackets rather than the bright red coats of the British line infantry regiments of that time, close-fitting pantaloons rather than breeches, black facings and black belts rather than white and a green plume on their "stovepipe shakoes".