Early history Formation , the founder of the regiment The regiment was one of nine
regiments of foot raised by
James II when he expanded the size of the army in response to the
Monmouth Rebellion. On 20 June 1685,
Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon was issued with a warrant authorising him to raise a regiment, and accordingly the '''Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot''' was formed, mainly recruiting in the county of
Buckinghamshire.
Jacobite wars The regiment remained in existence when
William III came to the throne in the
Glorious Revolution of 1688. Ferdinando Hastings took over the colonelcy of the regiment, which accordingly became '''Hastings's Regiment of Foot'''. Hastings's Regiment first saw action at the
Battle of Killiecrankie, where they failed to halt the advance of
Jacobite rebels, although they were later defeated at the
Battle of Dunkeld. The regiment accompanied William to
Ireland in the following year, fighting in the decisive Williamite victories at
the Boyne and
Cork.
Nine Years' War The Jacobite struggles in Scotland and Ireland were part of a wider European conflict that became known as the
Nine Years' War. In 1692, Hastings' Regiment sailed to
Flanders and, in 1694, took part in the disastrous amphibious assault at
Camaret on the French coast. In 1695, Colonel Fernando Hastings was found guilty of extortion, and dismissed.
Sir John Jacob became the colonel, and it was as '''Jacob's Regiment of Foot''' that they returned to England
at the end of the war in 1697.
War of the Spanish Succession After a period of garrison duty in Ireland, Jacob's Regiment returned to Flanders in 1701. In the following year, the colonelcy again changed, with Sir John Jacob choosing to retire. He sold the colonelcy to his brother-in-law, Lieutenant-General
James Barry, 4th Earl of Barrymore, for 1,400
guineas. With the outbreak of the
War of the Spanish Succession, the '''Earl of Barrymore's Regiment of Foot''' saw action at the sieges or battles of
Kaiserwerth,
Venlo,
Roermond,
Huy,
Limburg, and
Liège. The unit fought at the
Battle of Almanza (1707), the
Battle of La Caya (1709), the Battle of Tortosa (1711) and the Battle of St Mateo (1711).
War of the Austrian Succession In 1742, Pulteney's Regiment sailed to Flanders, and in the following year was part of the joint British,
Hanoverian and
Austrian force that secured a victory over the
French at the
Battle of Dettingen in June 1743. In May 1745, the situation was reversed when they were part of the allied army closely defeated at the
Battle of Fontenoy.
13th Regiment of Foot By the late seventeenth century, each regiment of the standing army had been allotted a "rank" in the order of precedence. These numbers came to be increasingly used until a royal warrant of 1751 decreed that regiments should in future be known by their numbers only. Accordingly, Pulteney's Regiment became the
13th Regiment of Foot. The redesignated 13th Foot entered a thirty-year period of garrison service in England, Ireland, Gibraltar and Minorca.
American Revolutionary War In 1775, the
American Revolutionary War broke out, widening into war with France from 1778 and
Spain in 1779. The 13th Foot sailed for the
West Indies, arriving in
Barbados. They saw little active service, returning to England in 1782, moving on to Ireland in 1783.
13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot It was at this time that the regiment's link to Somerset was first formed. On 21 August 1782, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces,
Henry Seymour Conway, issued a regulation giving an English county designation to each regiment of foot other than those with a royal title or
highland regiments. The intention was to improve recruitment during the unpopular war, and the
Secretary at War,
Thomas Townshend issued a circular letter to the
lieutenants of
each county in England in the following terms: My Lord, The very great deficiency of men in the regiments of infantry being so very detrimental to the public service, the king has thought proper to give the names of the different counties to the old corps, in hopes that, by the zeal and activity of the principal nobility and gentry in the several counties, some considerable assistance may be given towards recruiting these regiments". The regiment duly became the
13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot (the
40th Foot becoming the "2nd Somersetshire").
War with the United States In
1812, the war had widened to include the United States of America. In the following year, the 13th Foot left Martinique for
Quebec, from whence they proceeded to protect the frontiers of
Upper Canada. The regiment crossed the
Saint Lawrence River and took part in minor actions around
Plattsburgh and
Lake Champlain. The war concluded in 1815, and the 13th Foot returned to England in July of that year. The regiment spent the next few years on garrison duty in
Jersey,
Guernsey, England, Scotland and Ireland.
First Anglo-Burmese War The 13th Light Infantry arrived in
Kolkata in May and June 1823. Soon after arrival,
Burmese forces attacked
Cachar, a territory under British protection. War was formally declared on 5 March 1824, and the 13th took part in the campaign that lasted until February 1826, when a treaty was signed, with the
King of Ava agreeing to cede territory and pay compensation to the
British East India Company. The 13th Light Infantry returned to garrison duty in India. From 1826 to 1838, they were stationed in
Baharampur,
Danapur,
Agra and
Karnal.
First Anglo-Afghan War In 1837,
Persian troops, allied to the
Russians, occupied the
Herat region of
Afghanistan. The British, who feared Russian intervention in the area, decided to remove the emir of Afghanistan –
Dost Muhammad – and to replace him with a pro-British monarch,
Shuja Shah Durrani. Accordingly, an expeditionary force, known as the "Army of the Indus", was formed. The 13th Light Infantry formed part of the invasion force, joining the other units in November 1838. The army passed into Afghanistan in March 1839, taking
Kandahar in April without resistance. The 13th took part in the decisive
victory at Ghazni in July 1839. The British initially achieved their objective of enthroning Shuja in August 1839. The 13th formed part of the occupation force that attempted to enforce the rule of the new monarch; but, in October 1841, a popular uprising against Shuja broke out. At the same time, the regimental facings were changed from yellow to (royal) blue, and the badge of a
mural crown with a scroll inscribed "Jellalabad" was granted for display on the colours and uniform of the regiment. The 13th Light Infantry returned to England in 1845 after 23 years of foreign service. Presented with new colours at
Portsmouth in 1846, the regiment moved to Ireland in the following year, remaining there until 1850, before spending a year in Scotland. From 1851–1854, they were stationed in Gibraltar.
Crimean War In 1854, the regiment was brought up to full strength and, in June of the following year, landed in the
Crimea as part of the Anglo-French forces conducting a campaign against the Russians. They took part in the
Siege of Sevastopol, and remained in the area after the ending of hostilities in February 1856, subsequently sailing to
South Africa.
Return to India In May 1857, the
Indian Mutiny broke out. Reinforcements were requested, and the 13th arrived at Kolkata in October 1857. They took part in some minor actions. The 2nd Battalion of the 13th Light Infantry was raised at
Winchester in January 1858. The two battalions, while sharing a depot, operated as separate units. The 1st Battalion saw active service in South Africa after 1875, fighting in the Bapedi campaign against Sekukuni in 1878 and
Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.
Prince Albert's (Somerset Light Infantry) Childers reforms The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at
Jellalabad Barracks in
Taunton 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 became the '''Prince Albert's Light Infantry (Somersetshire Regiment) ''' on 1 July 1881. As the county regiment of Somersetshire, it also gained the county's militia and
rifle volunteer battalions, which were integrated into the regiment as numbered battalions. Within months the regiment had been retitled to '''Prince Albert's (Somersetshire Light Infantry)'''. On formation, the regiment had the following battalions: During its period in India, the 1st Battalion was mainly stationed in the
North West Frontier Province, and took part in
First Mohmand Campaign of 1897.
Second Boer War In October 1899, war broke out between
British Empire and the
Boer Republics of
South Africa. The 2nd Battalion landed in the Cape in December 1899, and was part of the British forces defeated at the
Battle of Spion Kop in January 1900. In February of the same year, the battalion helped to relieve the siege of
Ladysmith. They spent the remainder of the conflict taking part in a number of minor actions. The
4th (2nd Somerset Militia) Battalion was embodied in December 1899, and 415 officers and men embarked in the in early March 1900 for service in
South Africa. A large contingent of the men returned home in May 1902 on the SS
Sicilia.
Haldane reforms The Boer War had severely stretched the resources of the British Army and had exposed the weakness of the militia and volunteers as an effective reserve force. In 1907–1908,
Richard Haldane, Secretary of State for War reorganised these second-line units of the army as part of a larger series of reforms. The existing militia was reduced in size and redesignated as the "Special Reserve", while the
Volunteer Force was merged with the
Yeomanry to form a new
Territorial Force, organised into 14 infantry divisions, liable for service in wartime. In 1908, the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former merging with the
Yeomanry to become the
Territorial Force and the latter the
Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and two Territorial battalions. The Regiment saw active service in the
First World War, with battalions involved on the
Western Front,
Mesopotamia (now
Iraq) and
Palestine. Altogether, 18 battalions existed during the war. One of the new battalions was formed by the conversion of the West Somerset Yeomanry, a Territorial Force Cavalry Regiment; the rest were formed by the duplication of the existing Territorial Force units or by the formation of new "service" battalions.
Inter-war period Following the armistice ending the First World War, the war-raised battalions were rapidly disbanded. Returning to India in 1920, the battalion moved to the Sudan in 1926 and England in 1927.
Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) Second World War in Kent, 14 October 1940. Altogether, the Somerset Light Infantry raised 11 battalions for service during the
Second World War, six of which saw service overseas. In addition to the
Regular Army 1st and 2nd battalions, the existing 4th and 5th
Territorial Army battalions both formed 2nd Line duplicate units in 1939 prior to war being declared: the 6th and 7th battalions, both part of
45th (Wessex) Division on the outbreak of war. The 8th (
Home Defence) Battalion, which was also formed in 1939, was renumbered as the 30th Battalion in 1941. The 9th, 10th, 11th (Holding) and 50th (Holding) Battalions were all formed in 1940, although the latter two had ceased to exist by the end of the year.
Regular Army The 1st Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel John Harding, was stationed in
British India at the outbreak of war and would remain in the
Far East throughout the conflict. The battalion fought in the
Burma Campaign with the
114th Indian Infantry Brigade which was part of the
7th Indian Infantry Division, itself part of the
British Fourteenth Army, led by
Bill Slim.
John Waddy served with the battalion in the early stages of the war. The 2nd Battalion was serving with the
2nd Gibraltar Brigade as part of the garrison there, upon the outbreak of war in 1939. On 1 December 1943, the brigade was redesignated the
28th Infantry Brigade, which also included the 2nd
King's Regiment (Liverpool) and 1st
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (later 2/4th
Royal Hampshire Regiment). On 24 December, the brigade became attached to the
British 4th Infantry Division.
Territorial Army The regiment also had four Territorial battalions, although only two would serve overseas. Throughout the war, the 4th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry served with the
129th Brigade, alongside the 4th and 5th
Wiltshire Regiment, part of the
43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, and spent most of its existence in the United Kingdom in
Kent under
XII Corps of
Southern Command. The 7th Battalion, which had been created on 24 August 1939 as a 2nd Line duplicate of the 5th, was originally serving alongside both the 5th and 6th battalions in
135th Brigade, of the
45th Division. On 11 September 1942, the battalion was transferred to the
214th Infantry Brigade, which included the 5th
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and the 9th Somersets (later replaced by the 1st
Worcestershire Regiment). Both the 4th and 7th battalions served in the
North West Europe Campaign after the
Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, D-Day. The division fought very well in the
Battle of Normandy, particularly so during the
Battle for Caen in
Operation Epsom in late June, at the
Battle for Hill 112 (Operation Jupiter). During the battle, "
the 4th Somersets suffered 556 casualties out of a strength of 845. Between 26 June and 14 July, 4th SLI received 19 reinforcement officers and 479 ORs as replacements." The battalion became involved in
trench warfare similar to that of the
Great War. They later played a large part in the disastrous
Operation Market Garden, a small role in the
Battle of the Bulge and finally took part in
Operation Plunder, the crossing of the
River Rhine by the
Allies. The SLI also had responsibility for defending local airfields, including
RNAS Charlton Horethorne, where they prepared trenches, hardpoints and machine gun positions. The 30th Battalion, of
43rd Infantry Brigade, formed part of the
British First Army, and served in
Tunisia and
Italy.
Post war to amalgamation . Colonel of the Somerset Light Infantry 1953–1959. .The 1st Battalion was the last British infantry battalion to leave
India after its independence, departing on 28 February 1948. During the final ceremony, the battalion marched through
Bombay (now
Mumbai) and received a guard of honour from the newly formed
Indian Army at the
Gateway of India. The 2nd Battalion ended the war in Greece, subsequently forming
part of the Allied occupation force of Austria. In its final years, the battalion was involved in a number of conflicts: the anti-tank platoon formed part of the Anglo-French force that intervened in the
Suez Crisis of 1956. The majority of the battalion was in
Cyprus, where a
nationalist uprising against British rule had broken out. In 1957, they returned to Germany.
Amalgamation The regiment amalgamated with the
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1959 to form the
Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. This, in turn, amalgamated with the three other regiments of the
Light Infantry Brigade to form
The Light Infantry in 1968. ==Regimental museum==