The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 when a single battalion was raised as The Princess Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Foot.
The original uniform consisted of a long scarlet coat turned up with yellow. Yellow breeches and waistcoat, white cravat, broad brimmed hat turned up and adorned with yellow ribbon, white stockings and 'serviceable' shoes.
In 1702 when she succeeded the throne as Queen Anne, the sovereign ordered the title to be altered to The Queen's Regiment. In 1751, when all British Army infantry regiments were numbered, the title became; 8th or The King's Regiment after the then monarch King George II, and was from then onward referred to as 8th Foot, 8th Regiment or 8th King's.
In 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms reorganising the British Army, the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot was renamed "King's Regiment (Liverpool)"
Unlike most British Army infantry regiments, which were associated with a county, the King's represented the city of Liverpool, one of only four regiments affiliated to a city in the British Army. After 273 years of continuous existence, the regiment was amalgamated with the Manchester Regiment in 1958 to form the King's Regiment (Liverpool and Manchester), which was later amalgamated with the King's Own Royal Border Regiment and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment to form the present Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border).
The King's notably saw active service in the Second Boer War, the two world wars, and the Korean War. In the First World War, the regiment contributed dozens of battalions to the Western Front, Salonika, and the North West Frontier. More than 13,000 men were killed. In the Second World War, the 5th and 8th (Irish) battalions landed during Operation Overlord, the 1st and 13th fought as Chindits in the Burma campaign, and the 2nd Battalion served in Italy and Greece. The King's later fought in the Korean War, earning the regiment's last battle honour.
Nine Victoria Crosses were awarded to men of the regiment, the first in 1900 and the last in 1918. An additional two were awarded to Royal Army Medical Corps officer Noel Godfrey Chavasse, who was attached to the 10th (Scottish) Battalion during the Great War.
In peacetime, the regiment's battalions were based in the United Kingdom and colonies in the British Empire. Duties varied: riots were suppressed in Belfast, England, and the Middle East; bases were garrisoned in places such as the North-West Frontier Province and West Germany; and reviews and parades conducted throughout the regiment's history.
8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot
Colonial wars (1881–1914)
The Cardwell–Childers reforms from the 1860s to the 1880s substantially reorganised the British Army,Chandler (2003), pp. 188–189 principally by amalgamating single-battalion regiments to form regiments of multiple battalions. The King's, which already had two regular battalions, did not amalgamate, but did adopt a new title on the numbering system's abolition.Mileham (2000), pp. 57–9. Thus, on 1 July 1881, the two battalions of the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions, The King's (Liverpool) Regiment. The 8th Foot had been associated with Liverpool since 1873, when it became allocated to the town's 13th Brigade Depot.Mileham (2000), p.53 Regular regiments gained auxiliary battalions through the integration of the militia and Volunteers, of which nine from Lancashire and the Isle of Man transferred to the King's and ultimately became part of the Special Reserve and Territorial Force.Mileham (2000), p. 231
The battalions after the 1881 reforms included:Frederick, pp. 126–8.Ray Westlake, Tracing the Rifle Volunteers, (Many pages)
Regulars 1st Battalion 2nd Battalion
Militia 3rd (Militia) Battalion, former 1st Battalion, 2nd Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Rifles) 4th (Militia) Battalion, former 2nd Battalion, 2nd Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own Rifles)
Rifle Volunteers [5th] 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps, became 1st Volunteer Battalion in 1888 [6th/7th] 5th Lancashire (The Liverpool Rifle Volunteer Brigade) Rifle Volunteer Corps acting as a double battalion, became 2nd and 3rd Volunteer Battalions in 1888 [8th] 15th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps, became 4th Volunteer Battalion in 1888 [9th] 18th (Liverpool Irish) Rifle Volunteer Corps (also including the Isle of Man RVC), became 5th (Irish) Volunteer Battalion in 1888 [10th] 19th (Liverpool Press Guard) Lancashire Rifle Volunteers, became 6th Volunteer Battalion in 1888
Under the new system, it was envisaged that one regular battalion would be based in the United Kingdom and one overseas. The 1st Battalion had been in North West England since the late 1870s and had been bombed while based at Salford Barracks in 1881. The attack had been the first in a dynamite campaign instigated by the Irish Republican Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa.McConville, Seán (2002), Irish Political Offenders: Theatres of War, p. 342. The barracks sustained only minor structural damage from the explosion, which killed a child and badly wounded its mother. Soon afterwards, rioting during mineworkers' strikes in Chowbent, Wigan, and Warrington required the battalion's intervention to prevent further disorder.Cannon, Richard & Robertson, Alexander Cunningham (1883), Historical Record of the King's Liverpool Regiment of Foot, pp. 204–5. In 1882, the battalion moved to Ireland, based in the Curragh. During the otherwise uneventful posting, the 1st responded to riots in Belfast. The sectarian disorder coincided with the introduction of the 1886 Home Rule Bill in the British Parliament. The battalion returned to England three years later.
The 2nd King's had been on the Indian subcontinent since 1877 and had fought in the Second Afghan War. The Third Burmese War punctuated the battalion's overseas service in the 1880s. Intent on deposing Upper Burma's King Thibaw and imposing imperial rule, Britain issued an ultimatum consisting of demands that were rejected as anticipated.Raugh, Harold E. (2004),The Victorian's at War, 1815–1914, pp. 70–71. The invasion began in November 1885 in the form of the Burma Field Force, which progressed up the Irrawaddy River via transports, enabling the rapid capture of frontier forts and the capital Mandalay. After the capital's seizure, the battalion provided an escort that oversaw the exile of Thibaw. A guerrilla campaign against the British followed the completion of Upper Burma's annexation on 1 January 1886, lasting for at least five years. For more than a year, the King's operated in small groups pursuing guerrillas in the Burmese jungle. Casualties numbered 12 officers and 256 men by the time the battalion had returned to India. In early 1900 the 2nd Battalion Liverpool Regiment was stationed at Gibraltar.
Overseas service for the 1st King's included a two-year residence in Nova Scotia, beginning in 1893.Two Famous Regiments, Daily Mail and Empire, 23 November 1895, p.12 In January 1895, the battalion provided a 100-man guard of honour when the body of Canadian Prime Minister John Thompson was returned from Britain.A Sad Return, The Toronto Daily Mail, 2 January 1895, p.1 The battalion subsequently became stationed in the West Indies, then Cape Colony in 1897. The Second Boer War began two years later.Mileham (2000), p.65 Prior to the outbreak of the war, as the discord between the British and Boer republics escalated, the 1st King's formed a company of mounted infantry and underwent intensive training at Ladysmith, Natal Colony. War was declared on 11 October and Natal invaded by a Boer force under General Piet Joubert. General George White held authority over 13,000 British personnel dispersed throughout Natal.Fremont-Barnes (2003), The Boer War 1899–1902, p. 35. Heavy losses were incurred by the British in the first major engagements of the war, at Talana Hill and Elandslaagte. Retreat to Ladysmith, where the British concentrated its largest contingent, ensued.Fremont-Barnes (2003), The Boer War 1899–1902, p.36. Having besieged Kimberley and Mafikeng, Boers converged upon Ladysmith and positioned artillery pieces on surrounding hills overlooking the town.Pakenham, p.106-107
On 30 October, General White ordered an attack on northern Boer positions. White's plans were described as vague, ambitious, and complicated, and the battle proved a disaster that became known to the British as "Mournful Monday".Fremont-Barnes (2003), The Boer War 1899–1902, p. 73.Mileham (2000), p. 68.Cassar, George H. (1985), The Tragedy of Sir John French, p. 40. The 1st King's were allocated to Colonel Grimwood's column, which intended to advance on and secure Long Hill, believed to constitute the Boer's left flank. Unbeknownst to Grimwood, almost half of the brigade separated from the column during the night march while following a rightward deviation by the artillery batteries,A Handbook of the Boer War, pp.53–54. including the oblivious 1st King's and Royal Dublin Fusiliers.Griffith, Kenneth (1974), Thank God We Kept the Flag Flying: The Siege and Relief of Ladysmith, 1899–1900, p.77. In the morning light, the brigade discovered that its right flank was exposed by the distance of John French's cavalry and that Long Hill was unoccupied. Grimwood and French's men became pinned down by heavy rifle and artillery fire. Amidst rumours of an attack against the town being imminent and failure evident, White ordered the column to retreat at noon. The artillery provided cover during the chaos that followed and prevented greater loss of life. At Nicholson's Nek, to the north-west of Long Hill, the Boers took more than 1,000 prisoner.Mileham (2000), p.69.
The Boers enclosed Ladysmith on 2 November, beginning a 118-day siege. The King's, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Llewelyn Mellor, became assigned to the north-eastern defensive sector under Colonel Knox, a disciplinarian who instituted a programme of fortification development in his area.Chisholm (1979), Ladysmith, p. 95.Mileham (2000), pp. 69–70. Construction of the defences occurred mostly at night, although rain, oppressive heat, and cold limited the opportunity to rest. On 6 January, the King's mounted infantry helped repulse a Boer attempt to penetrate the southern perimeter. By late January, the scarcity of supplies had become particularly acute. Disease pervaded while the town resorted to consuming the garrison's horses and mules.(1902), The Rifle Brigade Chronicle, p. 107.
Reinforcements began to arrive in South Africa in November under General Redvers Buller. The relief of the three besieged garrisons became the general's priority. He divided his corps and assumed personal command of the Ladysmith expedition.Fremont-Barnes (2003), The Boer War 1899–1902, p. 40. The relief effort was hindered by three successive defeats in December, termed by the British as "Black Week", and further reverses in January and early February. The siege of Ladysmith ended on 28 February. The King's then gained a volunteer company and had its mounted infantry absorbed by an MI battalion.Mileham (2000), p. 73.
Britain eventually extended its prosecution of the war into the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic. On 21 August, at Van Wyk's Vlei, Sergeant Hampton and Corporal Knight held their positions and evacuated wounded mounted Kingsmen under heavy fire, for which they received the Victoria Cross. Two days later, Boer forces attacked the 1st Battalion while it was at the forefront of an advance south of Dalmanutha. The protracted engagement ended when the King's were ordered to withdraw, having almost expended their ammunition.Mileham (2000), p. 74. Casualties exceeded 70, while Private Heaton earned the Victoria Cross.Doyle (1900), The Great Boer War, p. 492.