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in: Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Infantry administrative brigades of the British Army, Military units and formations established in 1948, Military units and formations disestablished in 1968

Home Counties Brigade

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The Home Counties Brigade was an administrative formation of the British Army from 1948 to 1968. The Brigade administered the regular infantry battalions of the Home Counties of south east England.

After the Second World War the British Army had fourteen infantry depots, each bearing a letter. The depots were territorially organised, and Infantry Depot C at Canterbury was the headquarters for the seven county regiments of the City and County of London, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. In 1948, the depots adopted names and this depot became the Home Counties Brigade, with all regiments being reduced to a single battalion at the same time.

The Home Counties Brigade was formally formed on July 14, 1948, combining the depots of the following regiments:

Under the Defence Review announced in July, 1957, the infantry of the line was reorganised: On April 1, 1958 the Royal Fusiliers were transferred to a newly created Fusilier Brigade, and over the next three years the remaining six regiments were reduced to four by amalgamation.

From 1958 all regiments in the Brigade adopted a common cap badge and brigade buttons, depicting an upright sword within a Saxon crown. The individual battalions were henceforth being distinguished by their collar badges.[1][2][3] By 1961 the four regiments in the brigade were:

On December 31, 1966 the four regiments of the Home Counties Brigade were merged to become a new "large regiment": The Queen's Regiment, with the four regular battalions redesignated as the 1st to 4th Battalions of the new regiment.

On July 1, 1968 the Home Counties Brigade was united with the Fusilier and East Anglian Brigades, to form the Queen's Division.

Units[]

The following unit are shown by battalion, regiment - (time part of the briagde) (Additional comments).[4][5]

The following units are those based in the brigade after the amalgamations in 1966:[4][5]

  • The Queen's Regiment
    • 1st Battalion — (1966-1968)
    • 2nd Battalion — (1966-1968)
    • 3rd Battalion — (1966-1968)
    • 4th Battalion — (1966-1968)
    • 5th Battalion (Reserve) — (1967-1968)
    • 6th (Queen's Surreys) Battalion (Territorial) — (1967-1968)
    • 7th (East Kent) Battalion (Territorial) — (1967-1968)
    • 8th (West Kent) Battalion (Territorial) — (1967-1968)
    • 9th (Royal Sussex) Battalion (Territorial) — (1967-1968)
    • 10th (Middlesex) Battalion (Territorial) — (1967-1968)

The brigade's colonels included:[5]

  • Major General Dennis Edmund Blaquiere Talbot CB CBE DSO MC DL (1959-1963)
  • Major General Sir John Edward Francis Willoughby KBE CB (1963-1968)

References[]

  1. ↑ A L Kipling and H L King, Head-dress badges of the British Army, Vol. 2, London, 1979
  2. ↑ Howard Ripley, Buttons of the British Army 1855 - 1970, London 1979
  3. ↑ Colin Churchill, History of the British Army infantry collar badge, Uckfield, 2002
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1957/jul/18/british-army-amalgamation-of-units
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 https://web.archive.org/web/20071226161806/http://www.regiments.org/regiments/uk/depot/948home.htm
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