Mercian Regiment

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The Mercian Regiment

Cap Badge of the Mercian Regiment
Active 1 September 2007-
Country United Kingdom
Branch Army
Type Line Infantry
Role 1st Battalion - Light Role
2nd Battalion - Light Role
3rd Battalion - Armoured Infantry
4th Battalion - TA Reserve
Size Four battalions
Part of Prince of Wales' Division
Garrison/HQ RHQ - Lichfield
1st Battalion - Catterick
2nd Battalion - Holywood
3rd Battalion - Tidworth
4th Battalion - Wolverhampton
Nickname The Heart of England's Infantry
Motto Stand Firm and Strike Hard
Mascot Ram (Private Derby)
Commanders
Colonel in Chief HRH The Prince of Wales
Colonel of
the Regiment		 Brigadier C.B.S. Hughes, OBE
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Arm Badge Stafford Knot and Glider
From Staffordshire Regiment
Abbreviation MERCIAN

The Mercian Regiment (MERCIAN) is an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed by the amalgamation of four existing regiments in 2007.

The Mercian Regiment serves as the county regiment of the following counties:

The regiment was formed on September 1, 2007 at Tamworth Castle[1]. It is called the Mercian Regiment as it is generally located within the ancient English kingdom of Mercia.

Contents

[edit] Formation

The regiment's formation was announced on 16 December 2004 by Geoff Hoon and General Sir Mike Jackson as part of the restructuring of the infantry - it consists of three regular battalions, plus a TA battalion, and was created through the merger of three single battalion regiments:

The regiment formed on September 1, 2007; at this point, 1 CHESHIRE (by this time the only remaining line infantry regiment never to have been amalgamated in its history) moved to Catterick as part of 4 Mechanised Brigade, becoming 1 MERCIAN. At the same time, 1 WFR became 2 MERCIAN while part of London District (although the battalion was in Afghanistan at the time of re-badging), and 1 STAFFORDS became 3 MERCIAN at Tidworth. The 4th Battalion retained a multi-badge structure, with E Company (Light Infantry) West Midlands Regiment being badged as Rifles and A Company badged as Fusilliers.

The new structure sees the regiment having a single battalion of armoured infantry and three battalions of light role infantry:

  • 1st Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Cheshires) - Light role Infantry based at Catterick
  • 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters) - Light role Infantry based at Holywood, Northern Ireland
  • 3rd Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Staffords) - Armoured Infantry role based at Fallingbostel (although it will move there in 2009 from Tidworth).
  • 4th Battalion (V), Mercian Regiment - A Territorial Army Light Role Infantry battalion created from the West Midlands Regiment and the King's and Cheshire Regiment and a company from the East of England Regiment

Private Derby, the mascot of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, became the new regiment's mascot. He is described as "a pedigree Swaledale ram".[2]

[edit] Regimental dress distinctions

The regiment's cap badge is a double headed Mercian Eagle with Saxon crown. This has been chosen because it forms a link to the regiment's recruiting area, which encompass a number of divergent counties that do not have traditional links, except under the ancient Kingdom of Mercia (unlike the other new regiments from Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire). It was originally intended to use the old Mercian Brigade badge worn by the Cheshire Regiment, Staffordshire Regiment, Worcestershire Regiment and Sherwood Foresters from 1958 to 1968, rather than create an amalgamated badge that would require elements from all of the antecedents. In 2005 this badge was rejected by the Army Dress Committee on the grounds that it had been the badge of a territorial unit, The Mercian Volunteers, junior to the amalgamating regiments.[3] Accordingly a slightly modified design was adopted.

Various "Golden Threads", representing the traditions of predecessor units, are incorporated in the Mercian Regiment's uniform:

  • Arm badge: a gold wire Stafford knot and glider badge with a backing of "Brown Holland" material on a black felt patch from the Staffordshire Regiment[4]
  • Collar badge: Oak leaves and acorn from the Cheshire Regiment combined with the motto Firm from the Worcestershire Regiment[4]
  • Facing colour: buff, from the Cheshire Regiment. To be worn on full dress uniform, mess dress and as piping on No.1 dress shoulder straps.[4]
  • Sword frog on the Sam Browne Belt comes from the Worcestershire Regiment
  • Officer's rank badges will be coloured bronze /gun metal, from the North Staffordshire Regiment[4]
  • Warrant officers' and NCO's rank badges: Black backing from Staffordshire Regiment..[4]
  • Cap badge backing: A square Lincoln green cloth backing worn behind the cap badge on the beret, from the Sherwood Foresters[4]
  • Lanyards: Each battalion is to retain a distinctively coloured lanyard on No.2 dress: red cerise for the 1st battalion, Lincoln green for the 2nd, black for the 3rd and Mercian blue for the 4th. A regimental pattern with twists of cerise, buff and green also exists.[2][4]
  • Tactical Recognition Flashes: The Regiment's TRF is a 3 vertical striped diamond with Cerise on the left, Buff in the middle and Lincoln Green on the right. Each Battalion also has their own, the 1st and 2nd Battalions use their anticendant Regiments flashes, Buff and Cerise for the 1st and Cerise and Lincoln Green for the 2nd. The 3rd battalion has a black diamond with the Staffordshire knot and the 4th Battalion has a blue diamond with the Mercian Eagle on it.[4]
  • Regimental Side Hat: black with buff inner crease and green piping and peak. The cap badge is in silver and gold wire embroidery.[4]
  • Pullover: Buff, worn by officers and WOs, from the Cheshire Regiment.[4]
  • Stable Belt: Buff, from the Cheshire Regiment, with a bronze locket bearing the cap badge in brass.[4]

[edit] Roll of Honour

Since the formation of the regiment, nine of its members have been killed, eight (three of those from 1 WFR) from the 2nd Battalion and one from the 4th Battalion on its tour of Afghanistan:

  • Colour Sergeant Phillip Newman - 20/09/07
  • Private Brian Tunnicliffe - 20/09/07
  • Sergeant Craig Brelsford - 08/09/07
  • Private Johan Botha - 08/09/07
  • Private Damian Wright - 05/09/07
  • Private Ben Ford - 05/09/07
  • Drummer Thomas Wright - 24/6/07
  • Capt Sean Dolan - 30/06/07
  • Lance Corpral Paul Sandford - 06/06/07

[edit] Alliances

Although no list of regimental alliances has been announced as yet, due to the Mercian Regiment not forming until August 2007, using the large regiments that have formed already as examples, it can be assumed that all of the current alliances of the three individual regiments will be carried into the Mercian Regiment.

[edit] Order of Precedence

Preceded by:
Yorkshire Regiment
(14th/15th, 19th and 33rd/76th Foot)		 Infantry Order of Precedence Succeeded by:
Royal Welsh

[edit] Lineage

Lineage
The Mercian Regiment
The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment
The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot) The Worcestershire Regiment The 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment
The 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment
The Sherwood Foresters
(Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment)		 The 45th (Nottinghamshire) Regiment
The 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment
The Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales') The North Staffordshire Regiment
The South Staffordshire Regiment

[edit] References

  1. ^ Three infantry regiments to merge, (bbc.co.uk), accessed September 1, 2007
  2. ^ a b Mercian Regiment Formation Update, March 7, 2007 (Ministry of Defence)
  3. ^ Regiment's 'strangled chicken' badge rejected, (telegraph.co.uk), accessed August 22, 2007
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dress Regulations for the Mercian Regiment (Ministry of Defence), accessed March 11, 2008

[edit] External links