Iain Gordon - Bloodline: The Origins & Development of the Regular Formations of the British Army

The Author is deeply grateful to the following for their assistance in the preparation of this book:

Colonel S. C. H. Ashworth, RHQ The Mercian Regiment.

Major M. L. Badham-Thornhill, Royal Artillery.

John Baker, Curator Airborne Assault, Museum of The Parachute Regiment.

Colonel M. J. Ball, RHQ The Princess of Waless Royal Regiment.

Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. Binks, HHQ The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

David Blake, Museum of Army Chaplaincy.

Carolyn Bleach, HQ Intelligence Corps.

Colonel T. C. S. Bonas, RHQ Welsh Guards.

Lieutenant-Colonel W. R. Brace MBE, HHQ 1st The Queens Dragoon Guards.

C. A. Campbell, Regimental Secretary, Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Major D. N. Chappell, HHQ 9th/12th Royal Lancers.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. P. Conlon, RHQ Royal Corps of Signals.

Captain J. C. Cornish, HHQ The Kings Royal Hussars.

Corps Archivist, The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Corps Secretary, HQ Army Physical Training Corps.

Major E. M. Crofton, RHQ Coldstream Guards.

G. Edgerley-Harris, The Gurkha Museum.

Major J. M. Evans, HQ Queen Alexandras Royal Army Nursing Corps.

Major M. Everett, Curator, Royal Welsh Museum.

Major R. C. Gould, RHQ The Royal Anglian Regiment.

Colin Gray, RHQ The Royal Irish Regiment.

Captain W. A. Henshall, HHQ The Royal Dragoon Guards.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. N. Holman MBA, HQ Corps of Royal Engineers.

Captain J. M. Holtby, HHQ The Queens Royal Lancers.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. J. Ions, HQ Army Air Corps.

J. E. Lloyd, Household Cavalry Regiment Museum and Archive.

Captain G. E. Locker, HHQ The Light Dragoons.

Lieutenant-Colonel D. J. Owen, HQ The Royal Logistic Corps.

RHQ Scots Guards.

RHQ The Yorkshire Regiment.

Regimental Secretary, The Queens Royal Hussars (Queens Own and Royal Irish).

Regimental Secretary, City of London HQ, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

Regimental Secretary, Royal Tank Regiment.

Captain J. J. J. L. Roberts, RHQ Irish Guards.

Lieutenant-Colonel C. J. E. Seymour LVO, RHQ Grenadier Guards.

Major J. Sharp, HQ Royal Army Dental Corps.

Major W. J. Spiers, RHQ The Rifles.

Captain P. Starling, Army Medical Services Museum.

Colonel K. M. Tutt OBE, HQ Adjutant Generals Corps.

and the Directors and Staff of The Templar Study Centre, National Army Museum, Chelsea.

RESEARCHERS

Readers who are researching the service careers of relatives or others are advised, in the first instance, to contact the relevant Regimental Museum, as shown in the following pages, who will advise them on their best course of action. A small charge is usually made where specific research into an individual or event is requested.

Enquiries should not be directed to Regimental or Home Headquarters who do not hold archive material and cannot assist in such matters.

A volume of this size can only scratch the surface of a subject so vast as theformations of the British Army. It therefore confines itself to the Regular Army and makes no attempt to include the legions of Yeomanry, Volunteers and Militia, and the splendid formations of the modern Territorial Army, part-time soldiers who spring to the support of their Regular colleagues in troubled times and without whom Britain would, today, be wholly unable to fulfil her worldwide commitments.

It also confines itself to the more significant changes in each Regiments development and does not attempt to record every one of the frequent changes in regimental titles due simply to a change in colonels in the days when regiments were known by the names of their colonels.

Readers who are interested in pursuing this fascinating subject in greater detail must turn to the eight volumes of Anthony Bakers definitive work: The Genealogy of the Regiments of the British Army which includes the Territorial Army formations and the hundreds of ephemeral regiments raised in times of crisis, often for local defence, and disbanded and forgotten as soon as the crisis had passed. But they should be aware that in formations as long-established and with histories as proudly-preserved as the Regiments of the British Army, some disagreement on dates and titles is inevitable and no two books on the subject are exactly the same. I have tried, by comparison with several published sources and consultation with each individual Regiment and Corps, to get it as right as possible but I realise there are those who will dispute some detail and I apologise if I have outraged anyones strongly-held opinion.

IAIN GORDON

Barnstaple, Devon

September 2009