Early history , founder of the regiment In 1685, the '''Duke of Norfolk's Regiment of Foot''' was recruited in
Norfolk and
Suffolk by the
Duke of Norfolk. Raised to suppress the
Monmouth Rebellion, it became part of the Royal Army and its Colonel
Lord Lichfield remained loyal to
James II after the 1688
Glorious Revolution. He was replaced by
Henry Wharton and the regiment fought throughout the 1689 to 1691
Williamite War in Ireland, including the
Battle of the Boyne, the
Capture of Waterford and the
Siege of Limerick in 1690. After the October 1691
Treaty of Limerick, it returned to
England before being transferred to
Flanders. When the
Nine Years' War ended with the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick, the regiment was saved from disbandment by becoming part of the
Irish establishment, then spent the
War of the Spanish Succession in
Jamaica. Returning to Flanders in 1742 during the
War of the Austrian Succession, it fought at
Dettingen in June 1743 and
Fontenoy in May 1745, where it suffered 322 casualties, the largest of any British unit involved. As a result of the 1751 army reforms, it was renamed the
12th Regiment of Foot and in 1758, the second battalion was detached to form the
65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot. In 1782, it was given a county association as the
12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot. and took part in the capture of
Martinique,
Saint Lucia and
Guadeloupe in 1794. It returned to England in 1795 and then embarked for
India in 1796 where it took part in operations against
Tipu Sultan including the
Siege of Seringapatam in April 1799 during the
Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. It also took part in the
Invasion of Île Bonaparte in July 1810 and the
Invasion of Isle de France in November 1810 during the
Napoleonic Wars.
The Victorian era While garrisoning the Australian
Colony of Victoria in 1854, detachments from the regiment, the
40th Regiment of Foot and colonial police, suppressed the
Eureka Rebellion, by gold
prospectors at
Ballarat. There was a skirmish involving the 12th regiment and a mob of rebellious miners. Foot police reinforcements had already reached the Ballarat government outpost on 19 October 1854. A further detachment of the
40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot arrived a few days behind. On 28 November, the 12th Regiment arrived to reinforce the local government camp. As they moved near where the rebels ultimately made their last stand, there was a clash, where a drummer boy, John Egan and several other members of the convoy were attacked by a mob looking to loot the wagons. Tradition variously had it that Egan either was killed there and then or was the first casualty of the fighting on the day of the battle. However, his grave in Old Ballarat Cemetery was removed in 2001 after research carried out by Dorothy Wickham showed that Egan had survived and died in Sydney in 1860. While still in Australia, elements of the 1st Battalion served in the
New Zealand Wars between 1860 and 1867. The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the
Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at
Gibraltar Barracks in
Bury St Edmunds 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 and it became simply the
Suffolk Regiment. The depot was the 32nd Brigade Depot from 1873 to 1881, and the 12th Regimental District depot thereafter. Under the reforms the regiment became the
Suffolk Regiment on 1 July 1881. As the county regiment of Suffolk, it also gained the county's militia and
rifle volunteer battalions, which were integrated into the regiment as numbered battalions. After these reforms, the regiment now included:
Volunteer Force • 1st Suffolk Rifle Volunteers based in
Woodbridge, renamed 1st Volunteer Battalion in 1888 • 6th (West Suffolk) Suffolk Rifle Volunteers based in
Sudbury, renamed 2nd Vol Btn in 1881 • 1st (Cambridge, Essex and Huntingdonshire) Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteers based in
Cambridge, renamed 3rd (Cambridgeshire) Vol Btn in 1881 • 3rd (Cambridge University) Cambridgeshire Rifle Volunteer Corps based in
Cambridge, renamed 4th (Cambridge University) Vol Btn in 1881 The 1st Battalion served in the
Second Boer War: it assaulted a hill near
Colesberg in January 1900 and suffered many casualties including the commanding officer. In 1908, the Militia and Volunteers were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the
Special Reserve (SR) and the latter the
Territorial Force (TF). The regiment now had the 3rd (Reserve) of the SR at Gibraltar Barracks and the 4th (at Portman Road in
Ipswich) and 5th (at Gibraltar Barracks) TF battalions. In 1910 the regiment gained another Territorial unit, the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion (at Woodbridge Road in
Ipswich), after the breakup of the Essex and Suffolk Cyclist Battalion. It suffered some 400 casualties at the
Second Battle of Ypres in May 1915. Almost totally decimated as a fighting unit after over eight hours of incessant fighting, the 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was gradually outflanked but would still not surrender. This was despite the fact that the
German Army, knowing the 2nd Battalion had no hope of survival, entreated them to surrender, even ordering the German buglers to sound the British Cease Fire and gesticulating for the men of the 2nd to lay down their arms. At length an overwhelming force rushed the 2nd Battalion from the rear, bringing down all resistance and the 2nd's defence of Le Cateau was at an end. Those remaining alive were taken captive by the Germans, spending the next four years as prisoners of war and not returning home until Christmas Day 1918. As an example of their valour and the level of training they had been subject to as a peacetime unit, it is noted that 720 men of 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment total roll call of some 1,000, many of whom had been with the battalion since the 1899 posting to Quetta, were killed, wounded or captured. This fight-to-the-last-man defence at Le Cateau was later recognised as a key factor in preventing the German occupation of Paris. The battalion, due to the casualties sustained, was transferred to GHQ Troops before, on 25 October, transferring to the
8th Brigade of the
3rd Division and, almost a year later, transferred to
76th Brigade of the same division, where they were to remain for the rest of the year.
Special Reserve The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion went to its war station in the
Harwich Garrison, where it spent the war carrying out is twin roles of home defence and preparing reinforcement drafts for the Regular battalions serving overseas. It also spun off the 10th (Reserve) Battalion, which carried out the same task for the 7th, 8th and 9th (Service) Battalions until it became 26th Training Reserve Battalion in 1916.
Territorial Force The 1/4th Battalion landed at Le Havre and joined the
Jullundur Brigade of the
3rd (Lahore) Division in November 1914 for service on the Western Front. It ended the war as the pioneer battalion of the
58th (2/1st London) Division. The 1/5th Battalion landed at
Suvla Bay as part of the
163rd (1/1st Norfolk and Suffolk) Brigade in the
54th (East Anglian) Division in August 1915; it was evacuated from
Gallipoli in December 1915 and moved to Egypt and saw action again at
First Battle of Gaza in March 1917 and through the
Sinai and Palestine campaign. The 1/6th (Cyclist) Battalion served in home defence throughout the war. Soon after the outbreak of war the TF formed 2nd Line battalions, initially to supply reinforcements to the 1st Line serving overseas, then as service battalions in their own right. The 2/4th, 2/5th and 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalions served in home defence throughout the war. The 3rd Line battalions were formed in 1915 to supply reinforcements. The 3/6th (Cyclist) Battalion was disbanded in 1916, the 3/4th and 3/5th amalgamated as 4th Reserve Battalion, and then absorbed the reserve battalion of the
Cambridgeshire Regiment to form the Cambridge and Suffolk (Reserve) Battalion. (1888–1989), in uniform, presented to him on 15 January 1916 by the artist John Morley Members of the TF who had not volunteered for overseas service were formed into Provisional Battalions, 4th and 5th Suffolks forming 64th Provisional Battalion. The
Military Service Act 1916 swept away the home/foreign service distinction, and all TF soldiers became liable for overseas service, if medically fit. On 1 January 1917 the provisional units became numbered battalions of their parent regiments, with 64th Provisional Bn, becoming 14th Suffolks, serving in bhome defence. 15th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Battalion was formed in
Egypt in 1917 from the dismounted
Suffolk Yeomanry. It served as infantry in Palestine until the end of the war.
New Army A number of battalions were raised in 1914–15 as part of the New Armies ('
Kitchener's Army'). The 7th, 8th and 9th (Service) Battalions were formed at Bury St Edmunds and all served on the Western Front. The 8th (Service) Battalion landed in France as part of the
53rd Brigade in
18th (Eastern) Division in July 1915 and served until it was disbanded in February 1918. The 9th (Service) Battalion landed at Boulogne as part of
71st Brigade in
24th Division in August 1915. It was also disbanded in February 1918.
Sergeant Arthur Frederick Saunders of the 9th Battalion was awarded the
Victoria Cross while serving with the battalion during the
Battle of Loos, the largest British Army offensive of 1915. The Cambridge Service Battalion was a Kitchener's Army unit formed by the Cambridge TF Association and later assigned to the Suffolk Regiment as the
11th (Service) Battalion (Cambridgeshire). It landed at Boulogne as part of the
101st Brigade in
34th Division in January 1916 also for action on the Western Front. Corporal
Sidney James Day won the VC for his actions at Hargicourt on 26 August 1917. The battalion ended the war as part of
61st (2nd South Midland) Division. The
12th (Service) Battalion (East Anglia) was a
Bantam battalion formed at Bury St Edmunds in 1915. It landed at Le Havre as part of the
121st Brigade in
40th Division in June 1916. In 1918 it was reduced to a
cadre and returned to England to be reformed by absorbing the newly-formed 16th Battalion. It went back to the Western Front and ended the war as part of
43rd Brigade in
14th (Light) Division.
13th (Reserve) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment (Cambridgeshire) was formed in 1915 from the reserve companies of the 11th Battalion; in 1916 it became 108th Training Reserve Battalion. 1st (Reserve) Garrison and 2nd (Home Service) Garrison Battalions were also formed in 1916 and served in England.
Interwar period The 1st battalion saw action in the campaign against the
Moplahs in
Malabar in 1922 while the 2nd battalion was deployed to
Shanghai in 1927 before moving to
India in 1929. The 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was serving in India at the outbreak of the Second World War, spending the early years of the war mainly deployed on internal security duties. In 1943 the battalion transferred to the
123rd Indian Infantry Brigade, part of the
5th Indian Infantry Division and served with them in the
Burma Campaign. In 1944 the battalion was flown to
Imphal to clear Japanese positions. Equipped with
Churchill tanks the regiment landed at
Algiers in 1943, fighting at the
Battle of Medjez-el Bab in the
Tunisia Campaign in April 1943. After the end of the
fighting in North Africa the regiment remained there until April 1944 when, with the rest of the brigade, it landed at
Naples,
Italy, destined for service in the
Italian campaign, where they fought in
Operation Diadem, where the
Allies finally broke out of the
Gustav Line. 142 RAC was present when the Allies overcame the
Hitler Line and the
Gothic Line in late 1944. However, due to a shortage of manpower, the regiment was disbanded in January 1945 while in northern Italy. The 50th (Holding) Battalion was created in late May 1940, around the time of the
Dunkirk evacuation, and was originally intended temporarily to 'hold' men who were medically unfit, awaiting orders, or, as this was at the time of Dunkirk, returning from overseas service. However, in October, the battalion was re-designated as the 8th Battalion. In addition, the 6th, 9th, 30th, 31st and 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalions were also formed, although none of these saw service overseas.
Malayan Emergency In 1949 the Suffolk Regiment was deployed to the
Malayan Emergency. During the Malayan Emergency in April 1952, soldiers of the Suffolk Regiment killed and decapitated a socialist revolutionary and an important guerrilla of the
Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) called Hen Yan. After the war, a former member of the Suffolk Regiment wrote a book titled
The Suffolks in Malaya which described the killing but omitted any reference to the decapitation and falsely claimed Hen Yan was accompanied by five fellow guerrillas. The Suffolk Regiment killed another leading MNLA guerrilla called
Liew Kon Kim. ==Regimental museum==