Early wars The regiment was raised on 20 June 1685 as the '''Earl of Bath's Regiment''' for its first Colonel,
John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. Prior to the
Glorious Revolution, it formed the garrison of
Plymouth and defected to
William III shortly after his landing at
Torbay on 5 November 1688. After the outbreak of the
Nine Years War in 1689, the regiment remained in Plymouth until the end of 1691, when it embarked for
Ostend and saw action at the
Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692, suffering 50 dead or wounded. During the 1693 campaign, it was detached from the main Allied force prior to the
Battle of Landen in July, then served at the
Siege of Namur in July 1695 before returning to England in 1696. It escaped disbandment in 1698 by being posted to
Ireland. During the 1701 to 1714
War of the Spanish Succession, the regiment fought at
Blenheim in August 1704,
Ramillies in May 1706, and
Malplaquet in September 1709. Following the 1751 reforms, when all British regiments were identified by numbers rather than their Colonel's name, it became the
10th Regiment of Foot. It then took part in the 1759–60 action to repel
Thurot at Carrickfergus during the
Seven Years' War. The regiment would next see action in the
American Revolutionary War, fighting at the
Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the
Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, the
New York Campaign in winter 1776, the
Battle of Germantown in October 1777, the
Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 and the
Battle of Rhode Island in August 1778. In 1778, the 10th returned home to England after 19 years of service overseas. In 1782, the regiment was linked to the county of
Lincolnshire for recruiting.
The Victorian era In 1842, the 10th Foot was sent to India and was involved in the bloody
Battle of Sobraon in February 1846 during the
First Anglo-Sikh War. The 1st Battalion, 10th Foot served in
Japan from 1868 through 1871. The battalion was charged with protecting the small foreign community in
Yokohama. The leader of the battalion's military band,
John William Fenton, is honoured in Japan as "the first bandmaster in Japan" and as "the father of band music in Japan". He is also credited for initiating the slow process in which
Kimi ga Yo came to be accepted as the
national anthem of Japan. The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at the "
old barracks" in
Lincoln from 1873. The regiment moved to the "
new barracks" further north on Burton Road in 1880. Nor was the regiment affected by the
Childers reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. Under the reforms, the regiment became
The Lincolnshire Regiment on 1 July 1881. , Lincoln in 1913 The Royal North Lincolnshire and Royal South Lincolnshire Militia regiments became the 3rd and 4th Battalions, and the 1st and 2nd Lincolnshire Rifle Volunteer Corps became the 1st and 2nd Volunteer Battalions (a
3rd Volunteer Battalion was added in 1900). The 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment was posted at Malta from 1895, and took part in the
Battle of Omdurman in September 1898 during the
Mahdist War. It was then stationed in
British India, where it was in
Bangalore until late 1902 when it transferred to
Secunderabad. The 2nd Battalion embarked for South Africa in January 1900 and saw action during the
Second Boer War. The 3rd (
Militia) battalion, formed from the Royal North Lincoln Militia in 1881, was a reserve battalion. It was embodied in May 1900, disembodied in July the following year, and later re-embodied for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War. 17 officers and 519 men returned aboard , arriving in Southampton on 5 October 1902. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised under the
Haldane Reforms, with the former becoming the
Territorial Force (TF) and the latter the
Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and two Territorial battalions. These were the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve) at Lincoln, with the 4th Battalion (TF) at
Broadgate in Lincoln and the
5th Battalion (TF) at Doughty Road in
Grimsby (since demolished).
First World War The regiment started the
First World War with two regular battalions, one militia battalion and two territorial battalions. The 1st Lincolns were stationed in Portsmouth, the 2nd Lincolns on
Garrison in
Bermuda, and the 3rd in Lincoln. The 4th and 5th Battalions were the
Territorial battalions, based throughout Lincolnshire.
Regular Army Boys'' The First Contingent of the BVRC to the Lincolns, training in Bermuda for the Western Front, Winter 1914–15 The 1st Battalion landed at
Le Havre as part of the
9th Brigade in the
3rd Division for service on the
Western Front in August 1914. Notable engagements included the
First Battle of Ypres in autumn 1914 and the
Battle of Bellewaarde in May 1915, during which the commanding officer of the battalion, Major H. E. R. Boxer, was killed. The Commanding Officer of 2nd Lincolns, Lieutenant-Colonel George Bunbury McAndrew, found himself acting
Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the
Imperial fortress of Bermuda in the absence of the Governor and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General
Sir George Bullock, and oversaw that colony's placement onto a war footing. The battalion left Bermuda on 14 September aboard
HMCS Canada, escorted by
HMCS Niobe, which had arrived in Bermuda the day before bearing the
Royal Canadian Regiment, for
Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they arrived on 18 September. Departing from there again to cross the Atlantic, the battalion returned to England on 3 October 1914, and was sent to the Western Front as part of the
25th Brigade in the
8th Division soon after, arriving in France on 5 November 1914. Major engagements included the
Battle of Aubers Ridge in May 1915 where the battalion incurred heavy losses and the
Battle of the Somme in Autumn 1916 where the second-in-command of the battalion, Major F. W. Greatwood, was injured. Although commanders at the Regimental Depot had wanted to break the contingent apart, re-enlist its members as Lincolns, and distribute them throughout the Regiment as replacements, a letter from the War Office ensured that the BVRC contingent remained together as a unit, under its own badge. The contingent arrived in France with 1 Lincolns on 23 June 1915, the first colonial volunteer unit to reach the Western Front. The Contingent was withered away by casualties over the following year. 50% of its remaining strength was lost at
Gueudecourt on 25 September 1916. The dozen survivors were merged with a newly arrived Second BVRC Contingent, of one officer and 36 other ranks, who had trained in Bermuda as
Vickers machine gunners. Stripped of their Vickers machine guns (which had been collected, for the new
Machine Gun Corps), the merged contingents were retrained as
Lewis light machinegunners, and provided 12 gun teams to 1 Lincolns headquarters. By the end of the war, the two contingents had lost over 75% of their combined strength. Forty had died on active service, one received the
O.B.E, and six the
Military Medal. Sixteen enlisted men from the two contingents were commissioned, including the Sergeant Major of the First Contingent, Colour-Sergeant R.C. Earl, who would become Commanding Officer of the BVRC after the War (some of those commissioned moved to other units in the process, including
flying ace Arthur Rowe Spurling and Henry J. Watlington, who both went to the
Royal Flying Corps). Those surviving contingent members who had not already been sent home as invalids or transferred to other units were returned to Bermuda in several parties over the summer of 1919. At the end of the war in 1918, the 1st Lincolns, under
Frederick Spring, and the 3rd Lincolns were sent to
Ireland to deal with the troubles in the
unrecognised Irish Republic.
Second World War and General Officer Commanding the
Bermuda Command, Lieutenant-General Sir
Denis Bernard, inspects the First Contingent of the BVRC to the Lincolnshire Regiment at
Prospect Camp, Bermuda on 22 June 1940 The
Second World War was declared on Sunday, 3 September 1939 and the two
Territorial Army battalions, the 4th and the 6th (a duplicate of the 4th), were called-up immediately. The 2nd Battalion embarked for France with the
9th Infantry Brigade attached to the
3rd Infantry Division commanded by
Major-General Bernard Montgomery in October 1939. They were followed by the 6th Battalion, part of
138th Brigade with the
46th Infantry Division, in April 1940; both served with the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and managed to return from
Dunkirk after the battles of
France and
Belgium. After returning to England, both battalions spent years in the United Kingdom on home defence anticipating a possible
German invasion of the United Kingdom. The 2nd Battalion, remaining with the same brigade and division throughout the war, then spent the next four years training in various parts of the United Kingdom before taking part in the
D-Day landings in June 1944. The battalion, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Welby-Everard was then engaged throughout the
Normandy Campaign, taking part in
Operation Charnwood,
Operation Goodwood, and throughout the rest of the
Northwest Europe Campaign until
Victory in Europe Day in May 1945. The 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment was stationed in
British India and saw no active service until 1942. They remained in India and the
Far East throughout the war and were assigned to the
71st Indian Infantry Brigade, part of
26th Indian Infantry Division, in 1942. fighting the
Imperial Japanese Army in the
Burma Campaign and during the
Battle of the Admin Box, the first major victory against the Japanese in the campaign, in early 1944 where
Major Charles Ferguson Hoey was posthumously awarded the
Victoria Cross, the only one to be awarded to the Lincolnshire Regiment during the Second World War. , Norway after marching 56 miles across the mountains to escape being cut off, April 1940; a Norwegian soldier is seen examining one of their rifles The Territorials of the 4th Battalion, part of
146th Brigade attached to
49th (West Riding) Infantry Division, were sent to
Norway and were among the first British soldiers to come into contact against an advancing enemy in the field in the Second World War. Ill-equipped and without air support, they soon had to be evacuated. Within a few weeks, they were sent to garrison
neutral Iceland. They trained as
Alpine troops during the two years they were there. After returning to the United Kingdom in 1942, when the division gained the
70th Brigade, they were earmarked to form part of the
21st Army Group for the coming
invasion of France and started training in preparation. After two years spent on home defence, the 6th Battalion left the United Kingdom, still as part of the 138th (Lincoln and Leicester) Brigade in the 46th Infantry Division, in January 1943 to participate in the final stages of the
Tunisia Campaign. In September 1943, the battalion, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel David Yates, took part in the
landings at Salerno in Italy as part of
Mark Clark's
U.S. Fifth Army, suffering heavy losses and later captured
Naples, crossed the
Volturno Line and fought on the
Winter Line and in the
Battle of Monte Cassino in January 1944. The battalion returned to
Egypt to refit in March 1944, by which time it had suffered heavy casualties and lost 518 killed, wounded or missing. It returned to the
Italian Front in July 1944 and, after more hard fighting throughout the summer during the
Battles for the Gothic Line, it sailed for Greece in December to help the civil authorities to keep order during the
Greek Civil War. In April 1945, the 6th Lincolns returned to Italy for the
final offensive but did not participate in any fighting and then moved into Austria for occupation duties. on 1 December 1941 and the 8th becoming the 101st Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery. The
Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps again provided two drafts; one in June 1940, and a full company in 1944. Four Bermudians who served with the Lincolns during the war (three from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps) reached the rank of Major with the regiment: Major General
Glyn Gilbert (later of the
Parachute Regiment), Lieutenant Colonel John Brownlow Tucker (the first Commanding Officer of the
Bermuda Regiment, amalgamated from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and the
Bermuda Militia Artillery in 1965), Major Anthony Smith (killed-in-action at Venraij, in 1944, and subject of an award-winning film,
In The Hour of Victory), and Major Patrick Purcell, responsible for administering German newspapers in the British area of occupation.
Post-war years After the war, the 4th and 6th battalions were placed in 'suspended animation' in 1946 but were both reformed on 1 January 1947. However, on 1 July 1950, the 6th was merged with the 4th to create the 4th/6th Battalion. On 28 October 1948, the 2nd Battalion was amalgamated with the 1st Battalion. Between 1955–1957 the regiment fought in the
Malayan Emergency. The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and its successors maintained its relationship with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (renamed the
Bermuda Rifles in 1949) after the Second World War. When the Bermuda Militia Artillery (a reserve sub-unit of the
Royal Artillery) had been re-tasked as a company of infantry on the closure of
St. David's Battery in 1953, it had been grouped with the Bermuda Rifles under a battalion-level headquarters company titled
Headquarters Bermuda Local Forces (not to be confused with the
Command Headquarters of the
Bermuda Garrison, to which it was subsidiary, with
Governor of Bermuda Lieutenant-General Sir Alexander Hood serving as Commander-in-Chief and Brigadier J.C. Smith, Royal Artillery, as Officer Commanding Troops) with a lieutenant-colonel in command. From this point, the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment had also provided an officer as Adjutant to the Bermuda Local Forces and Secretary to the Local Forces Board, beginning with Captain (later Major) Darby Robert Follett Houlton-Hart (according to the 13 January 1954, issue of
The Bermuda Recorder newspaper, the reorganisation of the two units under a new common headquarters had begun ''operating unofficially since the arrival in the colony on 17 November, of the command's new Adjutant, Captain D. R. F. Houlton-Hart, M.C., of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment. The make-up of the new command is as follows:- Col. Astwood, Commanding Officer; Captain D. R. F. Houlton-Hart, Adjutant, one Regimental Sergeant-Major, one Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant, a Sergeant instructor for each unit and two medical officers
. The same article also recorded that the new system
had been tried during the
Big Three Conference last month when all troops were under the command of Lt.-Col. J. R. Johnson of the Royal Welch Fusiliers'') posted to Bermuda from 1953 to 1957. In 1960, the regiment amalgamated with the
Northamptonshire Regiment to form the
2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire) which was later amalgamated with the
1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk),
3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot) and the
Royal Leicestershire Regiment in September 1964 to form the
Royal Anglian Regiment. The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment's paternal relationship to the Bermuda Rifles and the Bermuda Local Forces was continued by the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire) and the Royal Anglian Regiment until the three Bermudian company-sized units amalgamated in 1965 to form the Bermuda Regiment (from 2015 the
Royal Bermuda Regiment), with the relationship maintained since then between the Royal Anglian Regiment and the Royal Bermuda Regiment. Currently, 674 Squadron Army Air Corps uses the sphinx as an emblem within its crest in honour of its local connections with the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment. ==Regimental museum==