Durham Light Infantry
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The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was formed in 1881 from the 68th Regiment of Foot which had originally been raised in County Durham by General John Lambton in 1758.
The 68th Regiment of Foot was transformed into a light infantry regiment in c. 1808 and was sent to fight in Wellington's army in Portugal and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The regiment later went on to fight in the Crimean War and in New Zealand. During these campaigns, three Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross - John Byrne, Thomas de Courcy Hamilton and John Murray.
In 1881, The Durham Light Infantry was finally formed and soon saw action in Egypt and against the Boers in South Africa.
During the First World War the DLI raised 43 battalions with 22 seeing active service overseas - on the Western Front, in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India.
The DLI fought in every major battle of the Great War - at Ypres, Loos, Arras, Messines, Cambrai, Moreuil Wood on the Somme and in the mud of Passchendale.
Six Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War - Thomas Kenny, Roland Bradford, Michael Heaviside, Frederick Youens, Arthur Lascelles and Thomas Young.
During the Second World War, 9 battalions of the DLI fought with distinction. Dunkirk in 1940, North Africa, Malta, Sicily, Italy, Burma and from D-Day to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
In Belgium in May 1940, Richard Annand, 2nd Battalion DLI, became the first soldier of the Second World War to gain the Victoria Cross. In June 1942 Adam Wakenshaw of Newcastle was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross fighting with the 9th Battalion DLI in North Africa.
After 1945, The Durham Light Infantry was reduced in size until only the 1st Battalion DLI remained.
In 1952-1953, 1 DLI fought as part of the United Nations forces in Korea.
1 DLI later served in Cyprus and was based in Berlin in 1961, the time when the Berlin Wall was built. In 1966, the Durhams fought their last campaign and suffered their last casualties in the jungles and mountains of Borneo.
Finally in 1968, whilst the battalion was serving in Cyprus, it was announced that The Durham Light Infantry would join with three other county light infantry regiments to form one large Regiment - The Light Infantry.
Durham Light Infantry, 11th Battalion, Thomas Bonney marked with a cross
