The Inns of Court Regiment

Inns of Court Regiment
Inns of Court OTC cap badge
Active	May 1932 - May 1961
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry / Cavalry

The Inns of Court Regiment (ICR) was a British Army regiment that existed under that name between May 1932 and May 1961. However, the unit traces its lineage back much further, to at least 1584, and its name lives on within 68 (Inns of Court & City and Yeomanry) Signal Squadron part of 71 (City of London) Yeomanry Signal Regiment.

In the 14th to 16th centuries, judges were called upon to perform functions that, in modern times, would be hardly considered to come within the judicial office, and accordingly, members of the Inns found themselves fighting in the wars of King John or against Robert the Bruce. One such defence was organised in 1381 against Wat Tyler, during the Peasants' Revolt (when the Chief Justice was killed). In 1467, the Chief Justice of the Exchequer, then Recorder of the city of London, was instrumental in defeating a Lancastrian attack on the city of London. Further accounts, such as Henry Machyn's diary (1554), tell of more localised defences when "On the xij day of Juin was a gret fray be-twyn the Lord Warden's servants of Kent and the Ines of Greys Inn and Lynkolne(s) Inn, and some sleyn and hurt."

The first organised body formed by the Inns of Court appears to have been in Holborn, London, in 1584. At that time, associations known as trained bands were formed to assist in the defence of the country from the Spanish Armada. The deed itself, associating the members of Lincoln's Inn, is still in existence, having been preserved by its first signatory, Thomas Egerton, then Solicitor-General, and afterwards Lord Chancellor.

The history is ambiguous thereafter, although many lawyers were known to join the Royalists, and their clerks the Parliamentarians, during the English Civil War. Certainly, members of The Inns were called out against the Jacobite rising of 1745 and the Gordon riots of 1780. Indeed, future prime minister William Pitt the Younger served in the Lincoln's Inn Company.