1958–1980 The King's and Manchester Regiments, consisting of regular and Territorial Army battalions, had been selected for amalgamation by
Duncan Sandys'
1957 Defence White Paper. Conscription (
National Service) was to be abolished and the Armed Forces' size rationalised over a gradual period. Retired soldiers and some serving personnel despaired at the prospect of the demise of their respective regiments. The regular 1st battalions of both regiments formally amalgamated on 1 September 1958, at
Brentwood, to form the 1st Battalion, '''King's Regiment (Manchester and Liverpool)'''. The title reflected the seniority of the King's Regiment (Liverpool), formerly eighth in the infantry's
order of precedence. Regimental subtitles (i.e. Manchester and Liverpool) would be omitted in 1968 without affecting recruitment boundaries in
North West England. The regiment inherited from its predecessors certain traditions, uniform distinctions,
battle honours, and an association with the
Royal Family, principally
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. As Queen of the United Kingdom in 1947, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had assumed the position of
Colonel-in-Chief of the Manchester Regiment, formalising a relationship conceived during the
Second World War. Queen's and Regimental
colours were presented to the 1st Battalion by the 18th Earl of Derby on 28 November. In addition to 1 KINGS, the regiment at that time consisted of three territorial battalions, all of which retained their historical designations, colours, uniforms, and honorary colonels. This practice continued until the Territorial Army's restructuring in the late 1960s: the 5th Battalion, The King's Regiment (Liverpool), was reduced to a company of the Lancastrian Volunteers; the 8th (
Ardwick) Battalion, The Manchester Regiment amalgamated with the 9th Battalion, to form The Manchester Regiment (Ardwick and Ashton) Territorials and a separate company within The Lancastrian Volunteers. Other units were constituted by elements of The King's Regiment and its predecessors, albeit in different services of the Army. Personnel from the
Liverpool Scottish and defunct 5 KINGS became part of "R" (King's) Battery, West Lancashire Regiment, Royal Artillery while the heritage of the
Liverpool Irish and
Liverpool Rifles was claimed by troops of other
Royal Artillery batteries. Within months, the regiment received notification that it would be stationed in
Kenya, which was emerging from the
Mau Mau Uprising and nearing independence. Arriving in 1959, 1 KINGS was accommodated in
Gilgil, situated in the
Rift Valley between
Naivasha and
Nakuru, until relocated to Muthaiga Camp, near
Nairobi. Detached from the regiment at this time were elements of headquarters and two rifle companies ("A" and "D"), which became part of the Army's contribution to the
Persian Gulf garrison in Bahrain for more than a year. Subordinated to
24 Infantry Brigade, which Britain maintained in Kenya as part of the
Strategic Reserve, 1 KINGS became liable for deployment to various locations in Africa and Asia. Perceiving Qassim's rhetoric to constitute a possible military threat to Kuwait's sovereignty, Sheikh
Abdullah III appealed to Britain and
Saudi Arabia for assistance. Britain responded to the emergency by concentrating military forces in the
Persian Gulf, composed initially of naval assets, as a deterrence to aggression. The Strategic Reserve's 24 Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Horsford, was transported to Kuwait in
Bristol Britannias in early July to augment the country's defences. Opportunity for the Kingsmen to acclimatise before relieving
45 Commando was fleeting. Just days after arrival, 1 KINGS occupied a ridge formation approximately 30-miles west of
Kuwait City to prepare a defensive position. When the emergency ended, 1 KINGS returned to Kenya, and in early 1962 proceeded to Britain. By July, the regiment was based in
West Berlin. While there, the regiment patrolled the border with Soviet occupied
East Berlin. On returning to Britain in 1964, 1 KINGS became part of the UK Strategic Reserve. A company from the regiment deployed to
British Honduras later that year. The battalion's first deployment to Northern Ireland under the hostile conditions of the Troubles occurred in 1970, although it did not suffer its first fatal casualties until a second tour in 1972. Violence escalated substantially in 1972, resulting in the deaths of 470 people. The year witnessed the greatest loss of life during the conflict – punctuated by two episodes known as
Bloody Sunday and
Bloody Friday – and imposition of direct rule following the prorogation of the
Stormont Parliament by the
Westminster Government. Operating in
West Belfast, 1 KINGS sustained 49 casualties (seven fatalities and 42 wounded) during the four-month tour. The King's first fatality was Corporal Alan Buckley, who died after being mortally wounded during an engagement with the
PIRA. One-week later, on 23 May, a PIRA sniper shot Kingsman Hanley, who had been guarding a party of
Royal Engineers removing barricades in the Ballymurphy sector. On 30 May, an IRA bomb detonated within the battalion headquarters killed two, including Kingsman Doglay. An initial report by The Times identified six casualties, including four wounded soldiers and two civilian cooks, and suggested officials believed losses would have been higher had the bomb exploded while hundreds of soldiers watched a film in the canteen. The headquarters, located in RUC
Springfield Road, had been the "most heavily guarded" police station in Belfast. On 22 June, the IRA shot and injured a Kingsman in north Springfield. At 8pm on 9 July 1972, C Company logged two casualties. A Lance Corporal was shot in the abdomen at the flashpoint Springfield Road/Mayo St. area. C Company also reported that a Sergeant sustained a gunshot wound to his leg which fractured his femur. Later that day, on 9 July 1972, soldiers of C Company of the King’s Regiment, killed five unarmed people in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast. The victims were a 13-year-old girl, two other teenagers, a father of six and a Catholic priest. The killings of 16-year-old John Dougal, David McCafferty (15), Margaret Gargan (13), Paddy Butler (38) and Fr Noel Fitzpatrick (42) is known as the
Springhill massacre. Inquest findings on 30 April 2026, found soldiers 'overreacted' when they shot five people dead The battalion returned to
Belfast in February 1979.
1980–2000 Events were organised in 1985 to observe the tercentenary of the regiment's raising in 1685 as the Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot. After returning to England, to be based at
Saighton Camp just outside
Chester, then later to
Dale Barracks Chester when Saighton Camp closed in 1985, 1 KINGS deployed to the
Falkland Islands for four months and then again to Northern Ireland in May 1986. The attack on 1 KINGS was the first in a series of vehicle-delivered "
proxy bomb" attacks against multiple targets in 1990, three of which occurred on 24 October. Three men accused by the PIRA of collaborating with the security forces were abducted and their families held hostage. Employed by the British Army as a civilian cook, Patrick Gillespie was instructed to drive his vehicle, laden with explosives, to a designated checkpoint on the border with
County Donegal,
Republic of Ireland. Approximately 1,000 pounds of explosives contained within Gillespie's vehicle was detonated remotely when it reached the permanent checkpoint on Buncrana Road, near
Derry, wounding many and killing Lance-Corporal Burrows and Kingsmen Beecham, Scott, Sweeney and Worrall. Structural damage to buildings in a nearby housing estate and to military infrastructure was extensive. Unless conditions dictated the wearing of helmets and deployment of Warriors, 1 KINGS disembarked from Land Rovers to conduct foot patrols in "soft hats" (
berets). During its tour, 1 King's organised vehicle checkpoints, seized munitions, trained local forces, mediated tribal disputes, and engaged in a "
hearts and minds" campaign. Civil disorder also occupied the battalion, particularly when rioting occurred in August and October. The British attributed the violent demonstrations in August to Iraqi grievances over the scarcity of fuel and power shortages, compounded by oppressive temperatures exceeding 50 °C (122 °F). The Kingsmen returned to Catterick in November 2003. No fatal casualties had been incurred by the regiment and two officers and a Territorial Army soldier were decorated with operational gallantry awards in recognition of their contributions. Allegations of abuse were documented seven months later in a report published by
Amnesty International on 11 May 2004. Coinciding with a controversy centred on the publication of
unrelated photographs by the Daily Mirror newspaper, the report detailed the deaths of 37 civilians, including four Iraqis that were claimed to have been killed by members of 1 KINGS Battlegroup without apparent provocation. The circumstances of their deaths were disputed and senior British officers judged the actions of the soldiers responsible to have been in compliance with the Army's
rules of engagement. Iraqi families brought their cases to the
High Court of Justice in an attempt to secure independent inquiries and compensation. The court, presided over by Lord Justice
Rix and Justice Forbes, concluded in December that British jurisdiction did not extend to "the total territory of another state which is not itself a party to the
Convention", prompting the families to challenge the judgement in the
Court of Appeal. Their appeals were dismissed in December 2005. In December 2004, it was announced that The King's Regiment, the
King's Own Royal Border Regiment and the
Queen's Lancashire Regiment, would be amalgamated to form
The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border) as part of the restructuring of the infantry. On formation of the new regiment on 1 July 2006, 1 KINGS became the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, abbreviated as 2 LANCS, but very quickly the manpower of all three merging regiments was deliberately mixed to give the new regiment its own character. ==Territorials==