This is a list of nicknames of regiments of the British Army. Many nicknames were used by successor regiments (following renaming or amalgamation).
0 The 0.7 Hussars – 14th/20th King's Hussars (humorous simplification of regimental title)
1 1st Invalids – 41st (Welsh) Regiment of Foot later The Welsh Regiment (first raised as the Regiment of Invalids, in 1688)
A Agile and Bolton Wanderers – Argyll and Sutherland HighlandersBeevor, p. 335 (humorous allusion to Bolton Wanderers F.C.) The Aiglers – 87th Foot (captured a French Imperial Eagle (aigle) at the Battle of Barrosa) The Albert Lesters – Prince Albert's Own Leicestershire Yeomanry, also known as "God's Own" in the 3rd Cavalry Division during the Great War (reference to the lack of KIA until 13 May 1915 – having landed in France since early November 1914). Ally Sloper's Cavalry – Army Service Corps (humorous back-acronym; Ally Sloper was a popular pre-WWI cartoon character drawn by W.F. Thomas in a weekly comic strip; in contemporary slang an 'Alley Sloper' was a rent-dodger, who 'sloped off down the alley' when the rent-collector called)Hinckley. Andy Capp's Commandos – Army Catering Corps, named after the famous newspaper cartoon character Andy Capp The Angle-irons – Royal Anglian RegimentBeevor, p. 337 (humorous malapropism) The Armoured Chavalry – Royal Tank Regiment The Armoured Farmers – 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (raised in the West CountryBeevor, p. 354) The Assaye Regiment – 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot (awarded a special Regimental Colour for service at the Battle of Assaye)Barnes, Scottish, pp. 94–5.
B The Back Numbers (also The Back Badgers) – Gloucestershire RegimentField-Marshal His Majesty the King George V of the United Kingdom (allowed to wear a regimental badge on the back of the hat, after the rear rank faced about to drive off French cavalry at the Battle of Alexandria (1801)) The Back Flash – Royal Welch FusiliersBeevor, p. 339 (the last regiment to give up the queue or pigtail, retained the ribbons on the back of the collar) Bakers Light Bobs – 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)Caffrey, pp. 36–8. The Balsall Heath Artillery – 3rd South Midland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (from their headquarters at Stoney Lane, Balsall Heath)Litchfield, p. 237. The Bangalore Gallopers – 13th Hussars The Bangers – 1st Life Guards Barrell's Blues – 4th Foot The Bays – 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)Chant, p. 13 The Beavers – 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment (refers to the regiment's origin in Canada, and its first regimental badge) The Belfast Regiment – 35th Foot The Bendovers – 96th Regiment of Foot later 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment The Bengal Tigers – Leicestershire Regiment (In 1825 the regiment was granted the badge of a "royal tiger" to recall their long service in India) – 24th Foot The Bermuda Exiles – Grenadier Guards The Bill Browns – Grenadier Guards Bingham's Dandies – 17th Lancers (The commanding officer, Lord Bingham (later Earl of Lucan) spent a fortune on fine uniforms and horses for the regiment) The Biscuit Boys – 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment The Bird Catchers – 1st (Royal) Dragoons and Royal Scots Greys (both regiments captured French Imperial Eagle standards at the Battle of Waterloo) – 87th Foot (captured a French Imperial Eagle at the Battle of Barrosa) The Black Cuffs – Northamptonshire Regiment The Black Dragoons – 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons The Black Hand Gang – 12th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (Bermondsey), some of whom had been recruited from a notorious Bermondsey street gang of that nameAston & Duggan, pp. 32, 303. The Black Horse – 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards The Black Knots – North Staffordshire Regiment (the regimental badge was a Stafford knot) The Black Mafia – Royal Green Jackets (from the dark uniforms of the original Rifle regiments and the number of former Greenjacket officers promoted to high rank) Blayney's Bloodhounds – 89th (The Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot (from their 'unerring certainty and untiring perseverance in hunting down the Irish rebels in 1798, when the corps was commanded by Lord Blayney')Brewer's The Bleeders – Somerset Light Infantry The Blind Half Hundred – 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot later Royal West Kent Regiment (suffered badly from ophthalmia during the Egyptian Campaign of 1801.) The Bloodless Lambs – 16th Foot The Bloodsuckers – 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment (Supposedly derived from a regimental emblem worn by officers, the Fleur de Lis, 'which resembled that insect' – (Most commonly said to be a mosquito, associated with the Regiment's frequent service in the Caribbean and America).)Westropp in 'History of the Manchester Regiment' (Wylly 1923) The Bloody Eleventh – 11th (The North Devonshire) Regiment of Foot, later The Devonshire Regiment (from the heavy casualties suffered at the Battle of Salamanca)Barnes, Britain and the Empire, p. 88. The Blue Caps – The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (Originally the 1st Madras Fusiliers, part of the British East India Company's Madras Presidency Army, who wore light blue covers to their forage caps on campaign during the Indian Mutiny and were known as 'Neill's Blue Caps,' after their commanding officer). The Blues – Royal Horse Guards (only British heavy cavalry regiment to wear blue rather than red uniforms) The Blue Horse – 4th Dragoon Guards The Blue Mafia – Queen's Own Highlanders Bobs' Own – Irish Guards (refers to Field Marshal Lord Roberts, 'Bobs', the first Colonel of the regiment) The Bolt Heads - The Gloucester Regiment, for the unique front and back badge on their berets. The Bomb-proofs – 14th Foot The Botherers – King's Own Scottish Borderers (humorous malapropism) The Bounders – 19th Foot The Boxers' Battalion – 20th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Shoreditch)Col Burnand obituary, The Die-Hards, Vol V, No 2, November 1934, p. 128. The Brass Heads – 109th Foot The Brave Boys of Berks – Berkshire Regiment The Brickdusts – 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Shropshire Light Infantry The Brothers – King's Own Scottish Borderers Brown's Corps – 1st Lancashire Artillery Volunteers, raised by Sir William Brown, Baronet, and largely officered by his relatives The Brummagen Guards – 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot (Largely recruited from the Birmingham area) The Bubbly Jocks – Royal Scots Greys Buckmaster's Light Infantry – West India Regiments The Budgies – the Royal Regiment of FusiliersBeevor, p. 336 (from the hackle worn in the beret) The Butchers – 37th Foot The Buttermilks – 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
C Calvert's Entire – West Yorkshire Regiment The Cameronians – 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) The Carbs – Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards) Lord Cardigan's Bloodhounds – 11th Hussars The Cast Iron Sixth – 6th Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles)Godfrey Castor Oil Dragoons – Royal Army Medical CorpsLieut.-Col. F.E. Whitton, History of the 40th Division, Aldershot; Gale & Polden, 1926/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2004, , p. 19. The Cat and Cabbage – The Royal Hampshire Regiment (from the regimental badge, which was a royal lion atop a stylised Tudor Rose) The Cattle Reivers – Border Regiment The Cauliflowers 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (from the regimental badge, which was a stylised Red Rose of Lancaster) The Celestials – 97th (The Earl of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot later 2nd Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment The Centipedes – 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment The Chainy 10th – 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) Chavasse's Light Horse – 56th Reconnaissance Regiment (from a commanding officer's surname) Cheeses – 1st Life Guards and 2nd Life Guards The Cheesemongers – Household Cavalry The Cherry Pickers – 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) (from an incident during the Peninsular War, in which the 11th Light Dragoons (as the regiment was then named) were attacked while raiding an orchard at San Martin de Trebejo in Spain) The Cherubims – 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) (originally the "Cherrybums", from the crimson overall trousers adopted when Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became the Honorary Colonel in Chief) Cia ma Tha's – 79th Highlanders (Scottish Gaelic for 'What's Wrong?') The Cloudpunchers – Air Defence regiments of the Royal Artillery The Coal Heavers – Grenadier Guards The Cockney Jocks – London Scottish The Coldstreamers – Coldstream Guards The Colonials – 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment The Comical Chemical Corporals – Special Brigade, Royal Engineers (responsible for poison gas and flame attacks; men with knowledge of chemistry were immediately promoted to corporal)Richter. The Commos – Royal Army Service Corps (possibly from their origins in the Commissariat and Transport Staff) The Crossbelts – 8th Hussars The Crusaders – 100th (Prince of Wales's Royal Canadian) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment The Corned Beef Highlanders – The Cameron Highlanders, used as a reference to the Regimental tartan
D The Daily Advertisers – 5th Lancers The Dandies – 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards The Dandy Ninth – 9th (Highlanders) Battalion Royal ScotsGilhooley. The Death or Glory Boys – 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) later 17th/21st Lancers, then Queen's Royal Lancers (from the regimental badge, which was a death's head (skull), with a scroll bearing the motto "or Glory") The Delhi Spearman – 9th Lancers The Desert Rats – 7th Armoured Division (United Kingdom) then 7th Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom), now 7th Infantry Brigade The Devil's Own – 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) later 1st Battalion The Connaught Rangers The Devil's Own – Inns of Court Regiment (so named by King George III ) The Devils Royals – 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment The Diehards – 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment (from the Battle of Albuera during the Peninsular War, when Colonel William Inglis is said to have urged the decimated regiment to "die hard") The Dirty Eighth – 8th Hussars The Dirty Half Hundred – 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot later 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment The Dirty Shirts – 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Bengal Fusiliers) later 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers (During the Indian Mutiny the regiment wore shirts stained an early form of khaki as campaign dress) The Ditchers – 10th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (Stockbrokers) (raised in 1914 by the City of London; the original recruits were sworn in at the Ditch (dry moat) of the Tower of London)Carter, p. 22. The Doc's – Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry – (from their initials DOCLI) The Dogs – 17th Lancers Dog Squadron – 1 Armoured Engineers Squadron The Donkey Whallopers – Cavalry The Don't-Dance Tenth – 10th Hussars The Double X – Lancashire FusiliersChant, p. 116 (from the regimental badge which, as the 20th Regiment of Foot, carried "XX", twenty in Roman numerals) Douglas's Ecossais – Royal Scots (originally the Régiment de Douglas in French service) The Drogheda Light Horse – 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own)Chant, p. 43 The Drop-short Rifles – Royal Regiment of Artillery The Dubsters – a composite of 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 1st Royal Munster FusiliersJames, p. 109. (formed between 30 April and 19 May 1915 after both battalions suffered heavy casualties) The Duke's (or The Duke's Own) – 1st Royal Lancashire Militia (The Duke of Lancaster's Own) (especially after they were linked to the King's Own)Williamson & Whalley, pp. 349–50.