The King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) was an infantry regiment of the British Army. It was raised in 1680 as the 2nd Tangier Regiment, a line infantry regiment of the English Army's Tangier Garrison, before being renamed the Duchess of York and Albany's Regiment of Foot in 1684 and the Queen's Regiment of Foot in 1685. The regiment served in the suppression of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 before suffering large-scale desertions to William of Orange during his 1688 invasion of England. After William became the new English monarch in 1689 the regiment fought for him in the Williamite War in Ireland and Nine Years' War.
During the War of the Spanish Succession the regiment became a marine unit in 1702, being renamed the Queen's Regiment of Marines, before reverting to line infantry and its former name in 1711. Following the ascension of George I to the British throne the regiment was again renamed to the King's Own Regiment of Foot. The regiment spent most of the next three decades in Great Britain and served in the War of the Austrian Succession and the suppression of the Jacobite rising of 1745. In 1751 it was renamed the 4th (The King's Own) Regiment of Foot and subsequently served the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812.
During the Victorian era the regiment was stationed in Australia and India before serving in the Crimean War. It subsequently participated in the British expedition to Abyssinia and Anglo-Zulu War before being renamed the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) in 1881 as a result of the Cardwell Reforms. It served in the First World War before being renamed the "King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster)" in 1921 and serving in the Second World War. In 1959 the regiment was amalgamated with the Border Regiment to form the King's Own Royal Border Regiment.
History Formation
Authorisation to recruit the regiment was given on 13 July 1680 to the Earl of Plymouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II; its nominal strength was 1,000 men, half recruited in London by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Trelawny and half from the West Country. Raised for service in the Tangier Garrison, it was known as the 2nd Tangier Regiment; Plymouth died shortly after arriving in Tangier and Edward Sackville assumed command, with Trelawney formally appointed as colonel in 1682.Cannon, p. 1 Tangier was abandoned in 1684 and on returning to England, the regiment was renamed as the Duchess of York and Albany's Regiment of Foot; after James II became monarch in 1685, this changed to the Queen's Regiment of Foot.
During the Monmouth Rebellion, it fought at Sedgemoor in July 1685; during the 1688 invasion of England by William of Orange Trelawny and half the regiment deserted to William. He was briefly replaced by the loyalist Charles Orby, then reinstated when James went into exile.Cannon, p. 9 From 1690 to 1691, it served in the Williamite War in Ireland, including the Battle of the BoyneCannon, p. 15 and sieges of Cork and Limerick.Cannon, p. 18 When the war ended with the October 1691 Treaty of Limerick, it returned to England.Cannon, p. 19
Transferred to Flanders in March 1692, it took part in the latter stages of the 1689 to 1697 Nine Years' War. The regiment fought at the battles of Steenkerque in August 1692, and Landen in July 1693Cannon, p. 21 and the Siege of Namur in summer 1695.Cannon, p. 23 After the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, it was reduced in strength and used to garrison Plymouth and Penryn.
18th century
When the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1702, it was reformed as a regiment of marines and fought at the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702Cannon, p. 28 and the capture of Gibraltar in August 1704.Cannon, p. 33 In 1711, it was redesignated line infantry and took part in the Quebec Expedition. In what remains one of the worst naval disasters in British history, the fleet ran aground in thick fog and over 890 men lost, including 200 members of the regiment.
Following the accession of George I to the British throne in 1714 the regiment was renamed as the King's Own Regiment of Foot and spent the next 30 years in Scotland and England.Cannon, pp. 43-44 Sent to Flanders in 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession, it garrisoned Ghent and when the Jacobite rising of 1745 broke out in August, it was transferred to Scotland. The regiment took part of the pursuit of the Jacobite forces on their retreat back into Scotland in December 1745, including the ensuring Clifton Moor Skirmish. The regiment then fought at the Battle of Falkirk Muir in January 1746. At the Battle of Culloden in April, it was based in the front line and took the brunt of the Jacobite charge; it suffered the heaviest casualties on the government side, with 18 dead and 108 wounded. The regiment's commander, Sir Robert Rich, was among the wounded, losing his left hand. Lord Robert Kerr, captain of the regiment's grenadier company, was among the dead. The two Regulation Colours (flags) carried by the regiment during the battle both survive and are now part of the collection of the National Museum of Scotland. The Regiment introduced the Loyal and Friendly Society of Orange and Blew to commemorate the victories at the Battle of Culloden and Boyne in 1732 and a full list of members wearing the society medal has been compiled.
Following the army reforms of 1751, the regiment was retitled 4th (The King's Own) Regiment of Foot. At the start of the Seven Years' War in 1756, it was part of the Menorca garrison; forced to surrender in June it was transported to Gibraltar. It spent the rest of the war in the West Indies, taking part in the capture of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint Lucia before returning home in July 1764.Cannon, pp. 60 When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, it was sent to North America; over the next three years, it took part in numerous actions, including Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, Long Island and the Battle of White Marsh in December 1777.Cannon, pp. 64-71 The first British soldiers to die in the American Revolution were arguably three members of the light company of the 4th Foot, who died at Concord Bridge in 1775. In early 1778, it returned to Saint Lucia where it was part of the garrison during the December 1778 naval battle of St. Lucia, part of the Anglo-French War.Cannon, p. 73
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
The regiment was sent to Nova Scotia in May 1787 and took part in the capture of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in May 1793.Cannon, p. 75 After returning to England, it embarked for the Netherlands in September 1799 and fought at the Battle of Alkmaar in October 1799 during the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland.Cannon, p. 78
The regiment was sent to Portugal in August 1808Cannon, p. 92 for service in the Napoleonic Wars and fought under General Sir John Moore at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809, before being evacuated to England later that month.Cannon, p. 93 It returned to the Peninsula in October 1810Cannon, p. 96 where it fought at the Siege of Badajoz in March 1812,Cannon, p. 99 the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812Cannon, p. 105 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813Cannon, p. 108 as well as the Siege of San Sebastián in September 1813.Cannon, p. 109 It then pursued the French Army into France and saw action at the Battle of the Nivelle in November 1813 and at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813.Cannon, p. 113 It embarked for North America in June 1814Cannon, p. 116 for service in the War of 1812 and saw action at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814, the Burning of Washington later in August 1814Cannon, p. 118 the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814,Cannon, p. 121 and the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815, as well as the capture of Fort Bowyer in February 1815.Cannon, p. 128 It briefly returned to England in May 1815, before embarking for Flanders a few weeks later to fight at the Battle of Waterloo in June.Cannon, p. 129
Victorian era
Detachments of the regiment were used as guards upon convict ships travelling to Australia, with the detachments arriving from 1832. Detachments were stationed in Sydney, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Swan River.Cannon, p. 140 The regiment was relieved in 1837 and headed to India. During the Crimean War, the regiment fought at the Battle of Alma in September 1854 and Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and took part in the Siege of Sevastopol in winter 1854. It also served in the 1868 British expedition to Abyssinia and 1879 Anglo-Zulu War.
The regiment was not fundamentally affected by the Cardwell Reforms of the 1870s, which gave it a depot at Bowerham Barracks in Lancaster from 1873, or by the Childers Reforms of 1881 – as it already possessed two battalions, there was no need for it to amalgamate with another regiment. The depot was the 11th Brigade Depot from 1873 to 1881, and the 4th Regimental District depot thereafter Under the reforms the regiment became the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) on 1 July 1881. After the Childers reforms took effect, the regiment contained the following battalions:Frederick, pp. 119–20.
1st Battalion (Regular) 2nd Battalion (Regular) 3rd (1st Royal Lancashire Militia) Battalion based in Lancaster, from the 1st Bn of the former 1st Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own) based in Lancaster 4th (1st Royal Lancashire Militia) Battalion, from the 2nd Bn of the former Militia 1st Volunteer Battalion based in Ulverston, former 10th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps
The 2nd Battalion embarked for South Africa in December 1899, to serve in the Second Boer War, and saw action at the Battle of Spion Kop in January 1900. The 3rd and 4th Militia battalions were embodied and embarked for South Africa in February and January 1900 respectively.Hay, pp. 242–8. In 1908 the Volunteers and Militia were reorganised nationally, with the former becoming the Territorial Force and the latter the Special Reserve; the regiment now had one Reserve and two Territorial battalions.
First World War
The regiment raised 14 Territorial and New Army battalions during the First World War.
Regular Army battalions
The 1st Battalion landed at Boulogne in August 1914 as part of the 12th Brigade in the 4th Division of the British Expeditionary Force. It was nearly destroyed as a fighting unit at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, when it suffered some 400 casualties in a single two minute burst of machine gun fire. It served on the Western Front for the rest of the war.
The 2nd Battalion returned from India in December 1914 and landed at Le Havre in January 1915 as part of the 83rd Brigade in the 28th Division. It took heavy casualties at the Battle of Frezenberg in May 1915Beckett, p. 61 before moving to Egypt in October 1915 and then to Salonika.
Special Reserve (formerly Militia) battalion The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion remained in the United Kingdom throughout the war and supplied drafts of trained infantrymen as replacements to the regular battalions that were serving overseas.
Territorial battalions
The 1/4th Battalion was mobilised in the 164th (North Lancashire) Brigade of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division; it was temporarily attached to 154th (3rd Highland) Brigade in 51st (Highland) Division and landed in France in May 1915; it returned to 164 Brigade in January 1916. The 1/5th Battalion was mobilised in the 164th (North Lancashire) Brigade of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division; it landed in France in February 1915 and was temporarily attached to 28th Division and 1st Division; it returned to 166th (South Lancashire) Brigade in the 55th Division in January 1916.