Quote:
Originally Posted by Toby Purcell
I feel very sorry for the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who it seems have not only lost their 2nd Battalion recently, but have seemingly now lost their ‘golden thread’ link with London inherited from the old 7th Regiment of Foot, Royal Fusiliers (RF) and with it their place in the London Regiment, which in its original guise (1908-1916) counted its first three battalions (of 27) as badged to the RF.
Territorial Foot Guards??? The world’s gone mad. Queen Victoria and her Duke of Kent must be turning in their graves.
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I heard that the Geordies who would've been recruits for 1 RRF are "diverted" to The Yorkshire Regiment nowadays, I don't know if that's true.
It all seems a very strange situation for RRF or rather "The Fusiliers" as the regiment's now officially abbreviated itself to, to have been run down to one regular battalion with one reserve battalion oop north when they were, I thought such a well recruited regiment (the Lancashire Fusiliers had their recruiting problems back around the 60's but I suppose they were resolved when 4 RRF were disbanded).
The regiment's RHQ at the Tower of London's now shared with the Princess of Wales's Regiment or have the Fus. been booted out altogether now?
The Scottish referendum was alleged to have been largely responsible for the demise of 2 RRF, but who knows, and in a world where big(ger) is beautiful again when it comes to individual regiments being viable what future is there for a regiment with a single regular battalion?
What will they call a Princess of Wales's / R Anglian / RRF amalgam?
"Light Infantry" has been killed "Fusiliers" is liable to follow, but hey, we've got "The Rifles" still as a healthy amoebic brand name.
The Fusiliers have really dwindled, NF with its "Battle Honour" for having raised the most battalions and suffered the most casualties during WWI, RF with its four regular battalions and it's TF, four battalions of the London Regiment each expanding to four battalions themselves, the Service Battalions.......
The Royal Fusiliers, inelegantly extracted from London.