Robin Hood Battalion

7th (Robin Hood) Battalion
Cap Badge of the Sherwood Foresters
Active	1908-Present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Territorial Army
Role	Infantry Air Defence
Part of	139th (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) Brigade

The Robin Hood Battalion was a unit of the Volunteer Force of the British Army and Territorial Force, later the Territorial Army. The battalion served as infantry on the Western Front during World War I. In World War II it re-roled as an anti-aircraft unit and served North-western Europe from June 1944 to May 1945.

It was formed as the 1st Nottinghamshire (Robin Hood) Rifle Volunteer Corps by Adjutant Jonathan White on 15 November 1859. It was one of many such 'corps' to be formed at a time of increased fear of war with France, which created a flurry of interest in establishing such volunteer corps by the more affluent classes of British society. The unit was, also, simply known as the Robin Hood Rifles; the title's name being in honour of the legendary Robin Hood.

After the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers Reforms on 1 July 1881, the Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment) was formed (later the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) and the Robin Hood Rifles became its 3rd Volunteer Battalion.

In 1900, due to the Second Boer War, the Rifles experienced a substantial increase in size. Men of the battalion volunteered for service in the war—which had been raging since 1899—and returned home when it ended in 1902, gaining the Robin Hood Rifles its first Battle Honour "South Africa 1900-02". In 1908, reserve forces of the British Army were reorganised, and the battalion was transferred to the Territorial Force, as the 7th Battalion (TF). In the following year, they were redesignated as the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion. The battalion was assigned to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Brigade, part of the North Midland Division, alongside the 5th, 6th and 8th battalions of the Sherwood Foresters.