1st East Anglian Regiment

The 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) was an infantry regiment of the British Army.

As a result of defence cuts implemented in the late 1950s, the 1st Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment and the 1st Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment amalgamated on 29 August 1959 to form the 1st Battalion, 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk).

On formation the regiment was based in West Berlin (the location of the 1st Royal Norfolks), an exclave of West Germany surrounded by Communist East Germany. In 1961 the Regiment returned to the UK for the first since its creation, being based in Harwich. The following year the 1st East Anglians deployed to the South American colony of British Guiana (now the state of Guyana) after violence erupted between the African and Indian ethnic groups there. The Regiment returned to the UK later that year.

In February 1964 the Regiment arrived in Aden as part of the Aden Brigade, seeing active service in the Radfan on the border with South Yemen as part of Radforce, fighting Egyptian-supported guerillas, losing a number of its soldiers in the process. In September that year, while still based there, the Regiment amalgamated with the three other remaining regiments of the East Anglian Brigade on 1 September to form one of the new 'large' regiments, the Royal Anglian Regiment; the 1st East Anglians became the 1st Battalion (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk).

Other information

• Alliance:
  • 12th Infantry Battalion (The Launceston Regiment) -- Australia (1959-1960)
  • The Royal Tasmania Regiment—Australia (1960–64)
  • The Auckland Regiment (Countess of Ranfurly's) Own—Australia (1960–64)

Associated Cadet Forces

The Army sections of some contingents of the Combined Cadet Force were associated with the Regiment, as follows:

• Gresham's School
• Ipswich School
• Woodbridge School
• Wymondham College

References

See also