Duke of Lancaster's Regiment

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
(King's, Lancashire and Border)

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment Cap Badge
Active 1 July 2006 –
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Branch  British Army
Type Line Infantry
Role 1st Battalion – Light Infantry
2nd Battalion – Light Infantry
4th Battalion – Army Reserve
Size Three battalions
Part of King's Division
Garrison/HQ RHQ – Preston
1st Battalion – Episkopi, Cyprus
2nd Battalion – Weeton Barracks, Lancashire
4th Battalion – Preston
Nickname(s) Lions of England
Motto(s) "Nec Aspera Terrent" (Latin) "Difficulties be Damned"[1]
March Quick -John Peel
Slow – The Red Rose
Anniversaries Ladysmith (28 February),
St George's Day (23 April),
Waterloo (18 June)
Commanders
Colonel in Chief HM The Queen, Duke of Lancaster
Colonel of
the Regiment		 Brigadier Peter Rafferty[2]
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Arm Badge Glider
From King's Own Royal Border Regiment
Abbreviation LANCS

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border) (LANCS) is an infantry regiment of the line within the British Army. It recruits throughout the North West of England.

History

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, when it was initially to be known as the King's, Lancashire and Border Regiment. The regiment was given its new name in November 2005. Initially formed of three regular army battalions, it was eventually reduced to two regular battalions, plus an Army Reserve battalion. The regiment was formed through the merger of three single battalion regiments:[3]

The regiment was formed on 1 July 2006. Initially, on formation, the regiment contained three regular battalions, with each battalion simply being renamed:

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was formed to serve as the county regiment for the following counties:

In March 2007, the 3rd Battalion was disbanded, with its personnel dispersed to the other two, leaving the final roll of two regular battalions and one Reserve battalion.[4]

The regiment's history is on display at the Lancashire Infantry Museum in Preston, Lancashire.[5]

Structure

The 1st Battalion is a light role infantry battalion based in Cyprus.[6]

The 2nd Battalion moved to Cyprus in August 2008 and as a resident battalion in Cyprus completed over 15 months on operations in Afghanistan as the Theatre Reserve Battalion from August 2009 to November 2010.[7] The 2nd Battalion, which deployed to Afghanistan again between April and October 2013, is now a light role infantry battalion forming part of 42nd Infantry Brigade and Headquarters North West and is based at Weeton Barracks.[8] The battalion will convert to a Specialised Infantry battalion, to provide an increased contribution to countering terrorism and building stability overseas.[9]

Battle honours

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment patrolling in Afghanistan during 2008

Infantry regiments are permitted to display 43 battle honours from the two world wars on the Queen's Colour and 46 honours from other conflicts on the Regimental Colour. Upon amalgamation, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment had to choose from the total list of honours of its three antecedents which honours would be displayed on its new colours. The chosen honours were:[10]

Queen's Colour
Regimental Colour

In addition to the displayed honours, the regimental colour will also display four emblems from the antecedents regiments:

In addition, the Regimental Colour also features a Sphinx to distinguish the battle honour "Egypt" and a Dragon for the honour "China".

Golden threads

The regiment has brought forward a number of Golden Threads from its antecedents, as displays of its history and heritage:[10]

Kingsman

Alongside a few other regiments in the British army that use traditional names other than Private for the lowest rank, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment uses the rank Kingsman (Kgn) instead of Private, a tradition inherited from the King's Regiment (itself having inherited the tradition from the King's Regiment (Liverpool)). Its use has been officially sanctioned since 1951, but it was informally used before this for over one hundred years.[10]

Lineage

1880[12] 1881 Childers Reforms[12] 1921 Name changes 1957 Defence White Paper 1966 Defence White Paper 1990 Options for Change 2003 Delivering Security in a Changing World
4th (King's Own Royal) Regiment of Foot The King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) The King's Own Royal Border Regiment The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border)
34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot The Border Regiment
55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot
8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot The King's (Liverpool Regiment) King's Regiment (Liverpool and Manchester)
63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot The Manchester Regiment
96th Regiment of Foot
30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot The East Lancashire Regiment The Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) The Queen's Lancashire Regiment
59th (2nd Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot
40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot The Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment)
renamed in 1938:
The South Lancashire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Volunteers)
82nd (Prince of Wales's Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)
81st (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers) Regiment of Foot

Alliances

Order of precedence

Preceded by
Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment		 Infantry Order of Precedence Succeeded by
Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

References

  1. ↑ "Duke of Lancaster's Regiment". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "New Brigadier for Duke of Lancasters Regiment". Burnley Express. 18 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "In detail: army restructuring plans". BBC. 16 December 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "Actions, movements and quarters". King's Own Royal Regiment Museum. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Lancashire Infantry Museum". Lancashire Infantry Museum. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "1 Lancs". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Duke of Lancaster's Regiment". British Army units 1945 on. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "2 Lancs". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  9. ↑ "Strategic Defence and Security Review - Army:Written statement - HCWS367 - UK Parliament". Parliament.uk. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
  10. 1 2 3 "Regimental Handbook" (PDF). Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  11. ↑ "Regimental characteristics" (PDF). Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. 1 April 2014. p. 4. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  12. 1 2 The London Gazette, Page 3300-3301 (1 July 1881). "Childers Reform" (24992). Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
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