The King's Regiment (Men-at-Arms)

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At that point his war was finally over. In just 214 days in France one in every four of his mates had been killed, and at least 57 had been wounded. Figure 23: 42nd CCS at Douai 1919. Oil on Canvas by John H Lobley. (I.W.M. Collection, Ref ART3765) Every unit on active service in the World War 1 army was required to write a daily "War Diary" from the moment it landed abroad, and these documents contain the most interesting information. Once you know the number of the battalion or the battery that your man belonged to, its diary will tell you, day-to-day, where his unit was, what it was doing, and what was going on around it.

a b Brooke (1990), House of Commons Hansard Debates, 24 October, publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2007.

Further reforms

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database of those who died on active service [viii] is another one-dimensional name-based collection that is designed to reveal details of a single individual, and it does that job well, but it can't be used effectively to research groups, e.g. the losses suffered by a Battalion, a Regiment, or group of Pals etc. - and that seems to be a sad neglect of the power of digitised records. Fortunately, there is a solution.

The 1stKing’s remained in Korea in and out of line until October 1953 earning the Regiment's last battle honour. The Regiment would then travel onto Hong Kong, joined by their families in their new peacetime role before returning home to Britain in 1958. Battle map used in the King’s Regiment command post in Korea, 1953

When my Dad referred to his 'mates' he must have meant the lads he'd trained with - and of the 30 casualties that night eight were 'Liverpool boys'. That solved the mystery of the mismatch of regiments between his photograph and his documentation - but much more than that - by the same logic I could deduce all the other missing numbers - John Thompson's would have been 96010, George Thornborrow's 96011 etc. [v] When the Kings Liverpool boys had signed up, the call-up age was eighteen years with an undertaking that no one would be sent on active service until they reached the age of nineteen. That implied a training period of about 12 months. However, in response to the critical situation on the Western front in March 1918, that undertaking was revised and the authorities decreed that all young men who had reached the age of 18 years 8 months could be sent on active service.

Her Majesty The Queen Consort was made Regimental Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in December last year, and she joined the King for the second Colours presentation ceremony. Once again sorry to disappoint but it is genuinely based on the numbers of people who will probably turn up and the time that can be offered to explain things properly to them.

When the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot became The King's (Liverpool Regiment) in 1881 under the Cardwell- Childers reforms of the British Armed Forces, eight pre-existent militia and volunteer battalions of Lancashire and the Isle of Man were integrated into the structure of the King's Regiment. [1] Volunteer battalions had been created in reaction to a perceived threat of invasion by France in the late 1850s. Organised as "rifle volunteer corps", they were independent of the British Army and composed primarily of the middle class. [2] The only change to the regiment's structure during the period of 1881-1908 occurred during the Second Boer War. During the conflict, the regiment formed two additional regular battalions in Ireland in 1900, which required the militia to be renumbered the 5th and 6th battalions to accommodate them. The new battalions disbanded in 1901 and the militia reverted to their original designations. [1] Battalion Herbert Marshall's were stamped "L' POOL. R." with his Liverpool Regt no. "95990" while Robbie Robinson's were marked "NORF. R." with his Norfolk Regt no. "49085". In September 1952 1st King's, after acclimatising in Hong Kong and Battle Training in Japan, deployed to Korea under command 29th Infantry Brigade Group. The Companies deployed into defensive positions at the beginning of October. The war was in stalemate and much like the Great War, with the men in deep trenches under constant harassing fire. The average age was 19 and many of the men had been brought up during the Blitz so they did not consider the conditions too bad, and the food was better than at home. Offensive activity was limited to patrolling, until May 1953.