Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) |
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Cap Badge of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment
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Active | 9 September 1992 – present |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Type | Line Infantry |
Role | 1st Battalion — Armoured Infantry 2nd Battalion — Light Infantry 3rd Battalion — Army Reserve 4th Battalion — Army Reserve |
Size | Four battalions |
Part of | Queen's Division |
Garrison/HQ | RHQ - HM Tower of London 1st Battalion - Barker Barracks, Westfalen Garrison, Germany 2nd Battalion - Dhekelia, Cyprus 3rd Battalion - Canterbury |
Motto(s) | "Honi soit qui mal y pense" "Shame on him who thinks ill of it" or "May he be shamed who thinks badly of it". |
March | Quick - The Farmer's Boy/Soldiers of the Queen Slow - The Minden Rose |
Commanders | |
Colonel in Chief | HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark |
Colonel of the Regiment |
Brigadier Richard William Dennis OBE |
Insignia | |
Tactical recognition flash | |
Arm badge | Tiger From the Royal Hampshire Regiment (which served in India) |
Abbreviation | PWRR |
The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (or PWRR, also known as 'the Tigers') is the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Queen's Division, and second only in line infantry order of precedence to the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment was formed on 9 September 1992 by the amalgamation of the Queen's Regiment and the Royal Hampshire Regiment and holds the earliest battle honour in the British Army (Tangier 1662–80). Through its ancestry via the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) (2nd Regiment of Foot), the PWRR is the most senior English line infantry regiment. The current regiment was named in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The regiment was formed to act as the county regiment for the following areas:
Upon its creation, the Princess of Wales and the Queen of Denmark were Allied Colonels-in-Chief of the PWRR. When the Princess divorced the Prince of Wales, she resigned as Colonel-in-chief and the Queen of Denmark has remained its Colonel-in-Chief since.
The 1st Battalion served a seven-month tour of Iraq in 2004 with a second tour following in 2006, and finally a tour in 2009 where the battalion was split between Afghanistan and Iraq (last combat operation in Iraq). Many of the operations carried out by the battalion during the first tour were named after stations on the London Underground. Elements of 1 PWRR helped train the Iraqi National Army and oversaw the withdrawal of UK Forces from Basra. 1st Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan again in August 2011 to form the nucleus of the Police Mentoring Advisory Group (PMAG) with individual companies detached to other battlegroups around Helmand province. The 1st Battalion under Army 2020 will move from Paderborn, Germany to be stationed at Bulford Camp.