British Army

The British Army has been a standing army since 1660, made up of cavalry and infantry regiments and corps of specialized troops such as artillery, engineers etc. The Captain-General or Commander-in-chief as he became was the most senior officer but the post was only filled as required (it was abolished in 1904). The two most senior permanent officers were the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General, responsible for discipline and administration. Secretary of State for War, Haldane´s reforms of 1907-08 saw the creation of the Imperial General Staff under a senior officer who was Chief of the Imperial General Staff. The Ministry of Defence was created in 1964, with a Defence Staff made up of the three service chiefs, which included the Chief of the General Staff.

The regiments and corps are made up of officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks. Originally regiments were known by the name of their colonel and this changed when the commanding officer changed. In 1751 regiments of foot (infantry) were allocated regimental numbers in order of precedence. Some also had distinctive names often linking them to a county. Most regiments consisted of two battalions, one serving at home and one serving overseas. The battalion serving at home might be posted anywhere in Great Britain or Ireland and even if it had a link by name to a county it was not permanently based there and its depot moved around with it.

Cavalry regiments were also originally known by their colonel´s name. Regiments consisted of dragoon guards and dragoons. There were seven regiments of dragoon guards in addition to the regiments of dragoons. Do not confuse the 3rd Dragoon Guards with the 3rd Dragoons, they are two different regiments. From the second half of the eighteenth century some dragoon regiments were equipped as light dragoons and from these were created regiments of hussars and lancers.

As a result of Edward Cardwell´s army reforms in 1881 many infantry regiments were merged and linked to counties. From then on each regiment had a permanent headquarters and depot, often in or near the county town. The county militia(s) became the third or fourth battalion of each county regiment, and volunteer units an additional battalion.

Some series of records list regiments by their line number, while others list them by their later county designations. Lists of regiments can be found using a number of published sources. Go to bibliography. This is a useful website, http://www.regiments.org/.