Rank and numbering Establishment of precedence The rank of regiments of the
English Army was first fixed during the
Nine Years' War. Doubts as to the respective rank of regiments fighting in the
Spanish Netherlands led
William III to command a Board of General Officers meeting on 10 June 1694 to establish the order of precedence of the various units. With the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form the
Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 the
British Army came into existence (see
Creation of British Army). The order of seniority for the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. Scottish and Irish regiments were only allowed to take a rank in the English army from the date of their arrival in England or the date when they were first placed on the English establishment. The rank or precedence of regiments was fixed by the following criteria: • English regiments, raised in England, should rank from their date of raising • English, Scots and Irish regiments, raised for service of a foreign power, should rank from the date that they came onto the English establishment Similarly, the
Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular
regiment in the
British Army. However, this regiment was placed as the second senior regiment as it entered the service of the Crown after the
1st Regiment of Foot Guards. (The Coldstream answered by adopting the motto
Nulli Secundus—
Second to None.)
Numbering While regiments were known by the name of their colonel, or by their royal title, the number of their rank was increasingly used. Thus, in the
Cloathing Book of 1742, which illustrated the patterns of uniforms worn by the King's forces, the regiments of foot are designated simply by numbers. The substitution of numbers for names was completed by a clothing regulation of 1747 and a
royal warrant of 1751. The 1747 document, which used numbers for the regiments throughout, decreed that no colonel was "to put his Arms, Crest, Device or Livery on any part of the Appointments of the Regiment under his command." Furthermore, in the centre of the regiment's colours was to be "painted or embroidered in gold Roman characters the number of the Rank of the Regiment". The warrant, dated 1 July 1751, repeated the instructions of the 1747 regulation and provided that regiments should in future be known by their numbers only. As the size of the army expanded and contracted during the various conflicts of the 18th and 19th centuries, junior regiments were raised and disbanded. Accordingly, there were often a number of different regiments that bore the same number at different periods. Additionally, there were occasional partial renumberings. For instance, in 1816 the 95th (Rifle) Regiment of Foot was renamed the "
Rifle Brigade", without a number. The existing 96th–103rd regiments were redesignated as the 95th–102nd.
Childers reforms With modifications the numbers existed until 1881, when the
Childers Reforms introduced "territorialisation". From 1 July 1881 the United Kingdom was divided into regimental districts, each allocated a two-battalion regiment, usually bearing a "county" title. Regimental numbers were abandoned: the 1st to 25th foot, which already had two battalions adopted new titles. The remaining regiments were paired to become the 1st or 2nd battalions of the new regiments. Two rifle regiments: the
King's Royal Rifle Corps (ex 60th Foot) and the Rifle Brigade, who had four battalions each, recruited nationally. Although the numbers were officially abolished in 1881, in some cases they continued to be used informally within the regiments. The regimental system introduced in 1881 was to last for more than seventy years. When new regiments were formed by amalgamation
from 1958 onwards, the old regimental numbers were sometimes reintroduced into their titles. Examples are the
3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot),
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot).
Royal and subsidiary titles The 1751 warrant confirmed the royal titles or other special designations of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 27th and 41st regiments. The names of the counties were added to the regimental titles in parentheses, ranging from the
3rd (Buffs – East Kent) Regiment of Foot to the
70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot. In some cases more than one regiment was allocated to a county, for example, the
38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot and
64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot. The attempt to link regimental areas to specific counties was found to be impractical, with regiments preferring to recruit from major centres of population. By June 1783 each regiment was again recruiting throughout the country, although the county names were to remain. In a few cases, affiliations were altered: for example the 14th and 16th Foot "exchanged" counties in 1809. The 60th Foot, which had some rifle battalions, was converted to rifles in 1824. ==List of regiments of foot==