Formation and antecedents The Berkshire Regiment was formed as part of the reforms carried out by
Edward Cardwell and
Hugh Childers,
Secretaries of State for War in the late nineteenth century. The first stage, under Cardwell in 1873, introduced a "localisation scheme". This saw the United Kingdom divided into "Brigade Districts" consisting of a
county or counties. Each district was assigned two regular infantry battalions, one of which would be on foreign service while the other was on home service. The home-based battalion was to provide drafts to the battalion on foreign duty as required. County
militia regiments were also to be linked with the regular battalions, with all sharing a single depot in the brigade district. It was announced that a depot was to be built at
Reading, Berkshire, which would serve a district comprising the County of
Berkshire. The two line battalions which were to be linked were the 49th and 66th Regiments of Foot, along with the
Royal Berkshire Militia. On 1 July 1881, the reforms were completed under Childers, with the formation of '''The Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Berkshire Regiment)''', consisting of the following battalions: • 1st Battalion (formerly the
49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot). The regiment had been raised in 1743, and had been granted the title "Princess Charlotte of Wales's" in 1816. • 2nd Battalion (formerly the
66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot). The regiment had been raised in 1758. • 1st Volunteer Battalion (formerly the 1st Berkshire
Rifle Volunteer Corps, formed in 1859). The 1st Battalion formed part of the
garrison of the
Imperial fortress colony of
Bermuda from 1893 through 1895. On 19 March 1896 the regiment, under Major Massard, was called in by the
Penzance Borough Police and
Cornwall County Constabulary to help quell disorder during the
Newlyn riots. They arrived by train in
Penzance at around 4pm and took temporary barracks in the town. Two hours later their assistance was requested by the Superintendent in charge and they assisted police in occupying the pier at
Newlyn long enough to see in the arrival of
HMS Ferret. The 1st Battalion was posted at
Gibraltar from February 1900 to November 1902, when they joined the 2nd battalion in Egypt. The 2nd Battalion was posted to
South Africa in February 1898 and stayed there throughout the
Second Boer War (1899–1902), leaving for
Egypt in November 1902. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the
Territorial Force and the latter the
Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and one Territorial battalion. They fought in the
Battle of Mons, the
Marne and the
First Battle of Ypres, where the old regular British army was virtually wiped out and could have been said to have found its grave there. In 1915 during the
Battle of Loos,
2nd Lieutenant Alexander Buller Turner of the 3rd Battalion, attached to the 1st, was posthumously awarded the
Victoria Cross. In 1916
Lance corporal James Welch, also of the 1st Battalion, was awarded the Victoria Cross as well. The 2nd Battalion was also a Regular Army unit and was serving in
India on the outbreak of war and was recalled to Britain, where, with other Regular units also stationed abroad, it helped form the
25th Brigade and was attached to the
8th Division. They came to the Western Front in late 1914 and served there for the rest of the war.
Regular Army The 1st Battalion, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Miles Dempsey, was still assigned to the
6th Infantry Brigade in the
2nd Infantry Division, part of the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that was sent to France in 1939 after war was declared. They took part in the
Battle of France in 1940 and were
evacuated during the
Battle of Dunkirk.
Sir Montagu Stopford,
General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the
British 12th Army, inspects a guard of honour mounted by men of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment, during the formal ceremony in
Rangoon where General
Heitarō Kimura and his staff handed over their swords to staff officers of the 12th Army. As in the First World War, the 2nd Battalion was stationed in
India at the outbreak of war and remained there for the duration. From the outbreak of war until August 1940, the battalion served with the
6th Indian Infantry Brigade. In January 1943 the battalion was assigned to
98th Indian Infantry Brigade, part of
19th Indian Infantry Division and, like the 1st Battalion, also served in the Burma Campaign under the command of Fourteenth Army. A memorial plaque stands at the entrance to a pagoda near the top of
Mandalay Hill. It was erected in honour of the men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment who fought and died there and reads; The battalion continued to fight the Japanese until the war against Japan ended on
Victory over Japan Day.
Amalgamation After the Second World War, all hostilities-only battalions were disbanded, and the 4th and 6th battalions were amalgamated. In 1959 the regiment was amalgamated with
The Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's) into
The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire). ==Regimental museum==