Duke of Lancaster's Regiment


The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment is an infantry regiment of the line within the British Army, part of the King's Division. Headquartered in Preston, it recruits throughout the North West of England.

History

The regiment's formation was announced on 16 December 2004 by Geoff Hoon and General Sir Mike Jackson as part of the restructuring of the infantry, when it was initially to be known as the King's Lancashire and Border Regiment. The regiment was given its new name in November 2005. Initially formed of three regular army battalions, it was eventually reduced to two regular battalions, plus an Army Reserve battalion. The regiment was formed through the merger of three single battalion regiments:
The regiment was formed on 1 July 2006. Initially, on formation, the regiment contained three regular battalions, with each battalion simply being renamed:
In March 2007, the 3rd Battalion was disbanded, with its personnel dispersed to the other two, leaving the final roll of two regular battalions and one Reserve battalion.

Recruitment

The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment is the local regiment for Cumbria, Merseyside, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and the Isle of Man, and as such, recruits mainly from these areas.

Structure

The 1st Battalion is a light role infantry battalion based in Cyprus.
The 2nd Battalion moved to Cyprus in August 2008 and as a resident battalion in Cyprus completed over 15 months on operations in Afghanistan as the Theatre Reserve Battalion from August 2009 to November 2010. The 2nd Battalion, which deployed to Afghanistan again between April and October 2013, is now a light role infantry battalion formally forming part of 42nd Infantry Brigade and Headquarters North West and was based at Weeton Barracks. The battalion will convert to a Specialised Infantry battalion, to provide an increased contribution to countering terrorism and building stability overseas.

Regimental museum

The Lancashire Infantry Museum is based at Fulwood Barracks in Preston.

Battle honours

Infantry regiments are permitted to display 43 battle honours from the two world wars on the Queen's Colour and 46 honours from other conflicts on the Regimental Colour. Upon amalgamation, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment had to choose from the total list of honours of its three antecedents which honours would be displayed on its new colours. The chosen honours were:
;Queen's Colour
;Regimental Colour
In addition to the displayed honours, the regimental colour will also display four emblems from the antecedents regiments:
In addition, the Regimental Colour also features a Sphinx to distinguish the battle honour "Egypt" and a Dragon for the honour "China".

Golden threads

The regiment has brought forward a number of Golden Threads from its antecedents, as displays of its history and heritage:
Alongside a few other regiments in the British army that use traditional names other than Private for the lowest rank, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment uses the rank Kingsman instead of Private, a tradition inherited from the King's Regiment. Its use has been officially sanctioned since 1951, but it was informally used before this for over one hundred years.

Regimental Colonels

Regimental Colonels were as follows:

Alliances

The regiment have received the Freedom of several locations throughout its history; these include: