Border Regiment | |
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Cap badge of the Border Regiment.
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Active | 1881–1959 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Type | Infantry |
Role | Line infantry |
Size | 1–2 Regular battalions 1 Militia Battalion 2 Territorial battalions Up to 12 Hostilities-only battalions |
Garrison/HQ | Carlisle Castle |
March | John Peel |
Anniversaries | 28 October Arroyo Day Commemorates an action in Spain when the 34th Foot captured the Drums of their French opposite numbers. |
Engagements |
Second Boer War World War I World War II |
The Border Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot and the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot.
After service in the Second Boer War, followed by both World War I and World War II, the regiment was amalgamated with the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) into the King's Own Royal Border Regiment in 1959, which was later merged with the King's Regiment (Liverpool and Manchester) and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment to form the present Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border), which continues the lineage of the Border Regiment.
The regiment was formed on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot and the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot. Under the reforms, each line infantry regiment was to have a defined regimental district, with two regular battalions sharing a single permanent depot. At any one time, one battalion was to be on foreign service and one on "home" service.
In the case of the Border Regiment, the regimental district comprised the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, with the depot established at Carlisle Castle. The outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899 found the British Army overstretched, and the 1st Battalion was one of many "home service" units dispatched to fight in the conflict. The Battalion saw action at Colenso and Spion Kop as part of the campaign to relieve Ladysmith.