British Army order of precedence

The regular army of the British Army is listed according to an order of precedence for the purposes of parading. This is the order in which the various corps of the army parade, from right to left, with the unit at the extreme right being highest. Under ordinary circumstances, the Household Cavalry parades at the extreme right of the line. Militia and Army Reserve units take precedence after Regular units with the exception of The Honourable Artillery Company and The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers.^[1]

Order of precedence

In the British Army's Order of Precedence, the Household Cavalry is always listed first and always parades at the extreme right of the line. However, an exception is taken when the Royal Horse Artillery is with guns then it always is first to lead a parade.

• Household Cavalry
• Royal Horse Artillery
• Royal Armoured Corps
• Royal Regiment of Artillery
• Corps of Royal Engineers
• Royal Corps of Signals
• Infantry
  • Foot Guards
  • Line Infantry
  • Rifles
• Special Air Service
• Army Air Corps
• Special Reconnaissance Regiment^[2]
• Royal Army Chaplains Department
• Royal Logistic Corps
• Royal Army Medical Corps
• Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
• Adjutant General's Corps
• Royal Army Veterinary Corps
• Small Arms School Corps
• Royal Army Dental Corps
• Intelligence Corps
• Royal Army Physical Training Corps
• General Service Corps
• Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
• Corps of Army Music
• Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) (Army Reserve)
• Honourable Artillery Company (Although Army Reserve Regiments, they are included in the order of arms Regular Army)^[1]
• Remainder of the Army Reserve
• Royal Gibraltar Regiment
• The Royal Bermuda Regiment

RAC and infantry orders of precedence

Cavalry and infantry regiments of the British Army are listed in their own orders of precedence, which dates back to when regiments had numbers rather than names. The order comes from the start of the regiment's service under the Crown, up to 1881 and the "Cardwell Reforms", when the use of numbers was abolished in favour of linking with and using county names. The regiments of the Household Division are always listed first, as they are the most senior, followed by the line regiments. In today's army, which has many regiments formed through amalgamations of other regiments, the rank in the order of precedence is that of the more senior of the amalgamated units. It is for this reason that the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, one of the youngest in the army, is ranked second in the line infantry order – it is the direct descendent of the 2nd Regiment of Foot.

RAC order of precedence

Cavalry – notes

^1 The 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, were originally termed Horse Guards and given precedence over the Cavalry regiments of the Line. The 1st Royal Dragoons was a line regiment.
^2 In the sequence for Cavalry of the Line, Cavalry, consisting of Dragoon Guards, come first in the order of precedence with their own numbering sequence. Light Cavalry, consisting of Dragoons, Hussars and Lancers, have their own (single) sequence, hence 1st Dragoons, 3rd Hussars, 5th Lancers, 6th Dragoons, 8th Hussars, 9th Lancers, etc.
^3 Although one of the antecedent regiments of the Royal Lancers was the 5th Lancers, this regiment was formed in the 1850s, resurrecting the number of an old regiment and thus ranked in precedence after the 17th Lancers.
^4 The RTR (which was formed during the First World War) takes final place in the RAC order.

Infantry order of precedence

The infantry is ranked in the order of Foot Guards, Line infantry⁵, Rifles:

Infantry – notes

^5 The infantry order of precedence has several missing numbers, due to infantry regiments being disbanded:

• The Royal Irish Regiment (disbanded 1922) – 18th Regt of Foot
• The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) (suspended animation 1968; disbanded 1987) – 26th, 90th Regts of Foot
• The York and Lancaster Regiment (suspended animation 1968; disbanded 1987) – 65th, 84th Regts of Foot
• The Connaught Rangers (disbanded 1922) – 88th, 94th Regts of Foot
• The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (disbanded 1922) – 100th, 109th Regts of Foot
• The Royal Munster Fusiliers (disbanded 1922) – 101st, 104th Regts of Foot
• The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (disbanded 1922) – 102nd, 103rd Regts of Foot

^6 The Royal Marines, as the descendent of the old Army marine regiments of the 17th and 18th centuries, were included in the Order of Precedence after the descendent of the 49th Foot (the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment), which was the last line regiment of foot formed prior to the formation of the Royal Marines, when not on parade with the Royal Navy. On the completion of the infantry reorganisation in 2007, the RGBW along with the Devon and Dorest Regiment were absorbed in to what has became part of The Rifles, and moved last in the Order of Precedence. As of April 2008 the Royal Marines are considered to no longer be a separate arm of the Royal Navy, but rather an integral part of it. Therefore, they no longer have a place amongst the (Army) infantry regiments and now take their place as part of the Royal Navy and parade on the right of the line. Even if there is no other Naval contingent present they are the senior formation on ceremonial occasions. If other contingents of the Royal Navy are on parade, the Royal Marines take their place after them, but before all army regiments and corps. ("The Royal Marines are no longer in the Army order of precedence, but now assume precedence within the Royal Navy at all times.")^[1]
^7 Up to 2006, five line infantry regiments had never been amalgamated in their entire history. In 2006 and 2007, these were amalgamated into large regiments under the planned reorganisation of the infantry:

• The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) – 1st Regt of Foot (now part of 1 SCOTS)
• The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment) – 19th Regt of Foot (now The Yorkshire Regiment)
• The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment – 22nd Regt of Foot (now 1 MERCIAN)
• The Royal Welch Fusiliers – 23rd Regt of Foot (now 1 R WELSH)
• The King's Own Scottish Borderers – 25th Regt of Foot (now part of 1 SCOTS)

^8 Although The Rifles is descended from many numbered regiments, it is last in the order of precedence because the unnumbered regiment The Rifle Brigade has served longest as a rifle regiment. The Royal Gurkha Rifles comes before The Rifles because one of its predecessors (the 2nd Gurkha Rifles) entered service before the Rifle Brigade ceased using its old number (95th). As both the Royal Gurkha Rifles and The Rifles are rifle regiments they come last in the order of precedence. This is why the Parachute Regiment, which is classed as a line infantry regiment, comes above both.

Precedence within the Army Reserve

1. The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia)^[3]
2. The Honourable Artillery Company^[4]
3. Royal Armoured Corps
   • The Royal Yeomanry
   • The Royal Wessex Yeomanry
   • The Queen's Own Yeomanry
   • The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry
4. Royal Regiment of Artillery
5. Corps of Royal Engineers
6. Royal Corps of Signals
7. Infantry
   • 52nd Lowland, 6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
   • 51st Highland, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
   • 3rd Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires)
   • The London Regiment
   • 4th Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border)
   • 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
   • 3rd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment
   • 4th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th & 33rd/76th Foot)
   • 4th Battalion, The Mercian Regiment
   • 3rd Battalion, The Royal Welsh
   • 2nd Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment (27th Inniskilling), 83rd, 87th & Ulster Defence Regiment
   • 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
   • 6th Battalion, The Rifles
   • 7th Battalion, The Rifles
8. Special Air Service
   • 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists Rifles)
   • 23rd Special Air Service Regiment
9. Army Air Corps
10. The Royal Logistic Corps
11. Royal Army Medical Corps
12. Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
13. Adjutant General's Corps
14. Intelligence Corps

Precedence within the Colonial Forces

Not all imperial units had been considered part of the British Army and placed on the order of precedence. The Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery had numbered 10th and the Royal Malta Artillery had numbered 11th. Originally, the part-time reserve units in Bermuda, the Channel Islands and Malta had numbered collectively as 28th in order of precedence, but were ordered within that according to the order of their parent corps in the regular army. This meant, by example, that the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA), raised in 1895, as part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, preceded the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), raised in 1894. Today, the Royal Bermuda Regiment, an amalgam of the BMA and BVRC, is ordered 28th.^[5]

1. (27th) The Royal Gibraltar Regiment (As a Colonial Force The Royal Gibraltar Regiment comes after the Army Reserve)
2. (28th) The Royal Bermuda Regiment

References