Formation to end 18th century The regiment was formed during the 1688
Glorious Revolution from independent companies raised in
Somerset by
Colonel Francis Luttrell, to support
William III. In 1690, it supplied detachments for
Ireland and
Jamaica, incurring heavy losses from disease, including Luttrell who was replaced by
Thomas Erle. Transferred to
Flanders in early 1692 during the
Nine Years' War, it was present at the battles of
Steenkerque and
Landen, as well as the
Siege of Namur. after the 1697
Peace of Ryswick, it escaped disbandment by being made part of the Irish garrison, where it remained until the
War of the Spanish Succession began in 1702. In 1703, it was part of an expeditionary force in the
West Indies and
Newfoundland, losing many men to disease before returning to Ireland in 1704. Back in Flanders in 1710, it took part in the sieges of
Douai and
Bouchain and
when the war ended in 1713, it resumed garrison duties in Ireland. With the exception of the
1719 Vigo expedition, it did not see action again until 1744. The unit was then commanded by
Charles Howard and thus known as 'Howard's Regiment'; when it joined the army in Flanders, this clashed with another regiment also commanded by a Howard. To avoid confusion, they were referred to by the colour of their
facings, one becoming 'Green Howards' and the other, '
Buff Howards'. The Green Howards fought at the
Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745, with a short period in England during the
1745 Jacobite Rising. It took part in the
Battle of Rocoux and the
Battle of Lauffeld before the 1748
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war, after which it became part of the garrison of
Gibraltar. While there, the 1751 army reforms retitled it the
19th Regiment of Foot. It returned to Britain in 1752 and spent most of the next decade on garrison duty in Scotland and Northern England. During the 1756 to 1763
Seven Years' War, it took part in the
capture of Belle Île in April 1761, where it suffered over 200 casualties. Officer recruitment was challenging as the cost of purchasing a commission in the 19th Foot was very high. This led to severe shortages in middling and senior ranks, with a total of 15 officer positions vacant during the assault on Belle Île including five captains and the regimental major. When peace was declared the regiment was reassigned to garrison duty in Gibraltar and Scotland. Its next active service was not until 1781 when it took part in a disastrous southern campaign in the closing stages of the
American Revolutionary War. In 1782, all foot regiments without a special designation were given a county title "to cultivate a connection with the County which might at all times be useful towards recruiting" and so the regiment was redesignated the
19th (1st North Riding of Yorkshire) Regiment. It remained there until 1791, when it returned to Britain; in 1796, it was posted to India, the also saw action at the
Siege of Seringapatam in April 1799 during the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.
The Two Howards The regiment was known as the Green Howards from 1744. At that time, regiments were known by the name of their colonel. The 19th regiment's colonel was Hon.
Sir Charles Howard. However, at the same time, the 3rd Regiment of Foot had been commanded by its colonel
Thomas Howard, since 1737. To tell them apart (since they both would have been known as 'Howard's Regiment of Foot'), the colours of their uniform facings were used to distinguish them. In this way, one became 'Howard's Buffs' (eventually simply
The Buffs), while the other became the Green Howards. Although the Green Howards were referred to unofficially as such from then on, it was not until 1921 that the regiment was officially retitled as the Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment). Under the
Childers Reforms, all non-royal English infantry regiments were to wear white facings from 1881. In 1899, the regiment was able to reverse this decision with the restoration of the grass green facings formerly worn by the 19th Foot.
Kandyan Wars In April 1801 the regiment was deployed to
Ceylon for service in the
Kandyan Wars. The regiment did not return to England until May 1820.
The Victorian era of the
Imperial fortress of
Bermuda, circa 1879-1880 The regiment saw action at the
Battle of Alma in September 1854 and at the
Siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854 during the
Crimean War and then saw action again during the
Indian Rebellion. In 1875,
Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales presented new colours to the 1st Battalion at
Sheffield, and consented to the regiment bearing her name, thus becoming the 19th (1st Yorkshire North Riding – Princess of Wales's Own) Regiment of Foot. The regiment adopted a
cap badge consisting of the Princess's cypher "A" combined with the
Dannebrog or Danish cross and topped by her coronet. The Princess became Queen Alexandra in 1901, and was the regiment's Colonel-in-Chief from 1914 until her death in 1925.
Childers Reforms , July 1904. Seated in the centre of the second row is Lieutenant Colonel
Granville Egerton, the battalion's CO. The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at
Richmond Barracks in
North Yorkshire from 1873, or 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 amalgamated with the
militia battalions and
rifle volunteers in its designated regimental district and became '''The Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment)''' on 1 July 1881. The 1st battalion was stationed at
Nova Scotia from 1884, moved to the Mediterranean in 1888 where it was stationed at
Malta but also saw action in Egypt, then moved to
Jersey in 1895 followed by Ireland in 1898. After a brief spell in
Gibraltar in 1899, the battalion was posted to South Africa as reinforcement for the
Second Boer War, where it was involved in the
Relief of Kimberley and the battles of
Diamond Hill (June 1900) and
Belfast (August 1900). The battalion returned to the United Kingdom in September 1902. The 2nd battalion was in Ireland from 1881 to 1886, when it returned to garrison back home in England. From early 1890 the battalion was stationed in
British India, where it took part in military campaigns on the
North-West Frontier. A 3rd (
Militia) Battalion, formed from the 5th West York Militia in 1881 was a reserve battalion. It was embodied in December 1899, and 700 men embarked on the SS
Assaye in February 1900 for service in
South Africa during the
Second Boer War. Many of the officers and men returned home in May 1902 on the SS
Sicilia. The 4th (Militia) Battalion, formed from the
North York Rifles in 1881 was also a reserve battalion. It was embodied for service on 5 May 1900, disembodied on 2 July 1901, and re-embodied again for service during Second Boer War in South Africa. 555 officers and men returned to Southampton by the SS
Tagus in October 1902, following the end of the war, and was disbanded at the Richmond barracks. In July 1902, the regiment was redesignated as '''Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment)'''. 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 two Territorial battalions. The 2nd Battalion landed at
Zeebrugge as part of the
21st Brigade in the
7th Division in October 1914 for service on the
Western Front.
Territorial Force The 1/4th and 1/5th Battalions landed at
Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the
York and Durham Brigade in the
Northumbrian Division in April 1915 for service on the Western Front.
Second World War , Italy, 22 May 1944. During the
Second World War, the regiment was again increased in size, although not to as large an extent as in the 1914–1918 conflict. In all, twelve battalions saw service: • 1st Battalion, with
15th Infantry Brigade of the
5th Infantry Division, seeing action in Sicily and Italy. • 2nd Battalion, initially stationed in India, it fought in Burma as part of the
26th Indian Infantry Division and the
82nd (West Africa) Division. • 4th and 5th
Territorial Army Battalions, both serving with the
150th Infantry Brigade of the
50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division, saw service in France and North Africa where they were captured during the
Battle of Gazala. • 6th and 7th Battalions (both formed as 2nd Line duplicates of the 4th and 5th, when the Territorial Army was doubled in size in 1939), served with
69th Brigade, originally with the
23rd (Northumbrian) Division but later the 50th Division, saw service in France, North Africa, Sicily and North West Europe. • 8th Battalion was formed for
home defence. Originally raised in August–September 1939, in the Middlesbrough area, from the Home Guard and those unfit to serve overseas. The 8th and 13th were amalgamated in June 1941, in September 1943 it was classed as a Garrison Battalion, renamed as the 30th Battalion and went to Italy, and French North Africa (Algiers and Tunisia). It was disbanded after six years service. • 9th Battalion was formed for garrison duty (and later converted into the
108th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, serving with the
52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division from March 1942) • 10th Battalion was formed by the conversion of the
2nd East Riding Yeomanry (a war-time duplicate of this yeomanry unit) in 1940 and subsequently becoming the
12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion attached to the
5th Parachute Brigade and part of the
6th Airborne Division. • The 11th, 12th and 13th Battalions were all formed in 1940. In 1942, the 12th Battalion was converted to armour as the
161st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, but retained its Green Howards cap badge on the black beret of the Royal Armoured Corps as did all other infantry units converted in the same way. In October 1943 it was then converted again, this time to the reconnaissance role, as 161st (Green Howards) Regiment in the Reconnaissance Corps. It never went into action as a regiment, but provided a replacement squadron to the
43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment, which had suffered heavy losses when its transport was sunk on the way to France to fight in the
Battle of Normandy.
Post War From 1949 to 1952, the regiment took part in the
Malayan Emergency. Over the next 30 years it served in
Afghanistan,
Suez,
Cyprus,
Hong Kong,
Libya,
Belize,
Berlin and
Northern Ireland. It also saw action during the
First Gulf War in 1991 and during the
Bosnian War from 1996 to 1997. Until the regiment's rebadging, the Green Howards was one of five remaining line infantry regiments that had not been amalgamated in their entire history, a claim shared with
The Royal Scots,
The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment,
The Royal Welch Fusiliers and
The King's Own Scottish Borderers. However, on 6 June 2006 the regiment amalgamated with the
Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and the
Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding), all Yorkshire-based regiments in the
King's Division, to form the
Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th and 33rd/76th Foot). Following further mergers, in 2012, the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards) was removed from the
order of battle. ==Traditions==