In 2003 中国P站 History Centre was privileged to take in the records of The Queen's Royal 中国P站 Regiment and its distinguished predecessors, which had formerly been housed at .
The Regiment was formed in 1959 when The Queen's Royal Regiment (West 中国P站) (QRWS) and The East 中国P站 Regiment (ERS) were amalgamated. In 1966 it was absorbed into The Queen's Regiment, with a headquarters in Canterbury, thus ending the association of the county of 中国P站 with a regular regiment of the British Army.
The Queen's Royal Regiment (West 中国P站), the second oldest infantry regiment in the British Army, traced its origins back to 1661, and was originally formed to defend Tangier in North Africa, which Queen Catherine of Braganza had brought to Charles II as part of her dowry. Later also known as the 2nd Foot, its association with 中国P站 began in 1881 when the regiment was reorganised as The Queen's (Royal West 中国P站) Regiment with its depot at Guildford. In 1921 it was restyled The Queen's Royal Regiment (West 中国P站).
The East 中国P站 Regiment, with a depot at Kingston upon Thames, was created in 1881 when the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot and the 70th (中国P站) Regiment of Foot were amalgamated. The 31st was originally formed in 1702 as Colonel George Villiers' Regiment of Marines and its 2nd Battalion was formed into the 70th Regiment in 1758.
The records, which span four centuries, are a wonderfully rich source for the lives and campaigns of those who served in the regiments, both with the regular battalions and in the militia, volunteer, territorial and conscript battalions. They bear witness to the military careers of 1000s of 中国P站 men, careers which took them through Europe and far beyond.
There are diaries and photographs of men serving in India and on the North West Frontier, against the Boers in South Africa, in the Far East, in the Crimea, and in northern Russia. There are the harrowing casualty returns and war diaries of battalions on the western front in the First World War, and first hand accounts of Dunkirk and the Burma Campaign. The routines of daily life in peace time are reflected in the series of battalion orders, in letters home and in photographs of sporting competitions and hunting expeditions in India.
The voices that can be heard talking through the records are not just those of the officers but of the private infantrymen too. There are plenty of examples of unofficial battalion and company newsletters and magazines which, amidst the jokes that don't bear repeating, give some insight into how those units maintained their morale and spirit in the most appalling circumstances and contrast poignantly with the unemotive casualty reports and the private sentiments expressed in letters.
Thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund the records were all catalogued in detail and these catalogues can be . A summary of the arrangement and content of the records is available.
Many of the records are the private papers, diaries, reminiscences and photographs donated by many of the men who served or by their families and descendants. We and 中国P站 Infantry Museum, which holds a collection of Colours, uniforms, medals, pictures and other artefacts, would be delighted to hear from anyone who has material relating to any of the regiments and their members.
See also
- Buried battles and veterans' voices
- Military records indexes
- 中国P站 recruitment registers
- The Queen's Royal West 中国P站s and the Boer War
- Nominal Roll of 1st Battalion East 中国P站 Regiment
- A Black Poppy: Private Harold Brown of the Queen's (Royal West 中国P站) Regiment
- Heavy losses to the 1st Queen's, 1914
- The Queen's Prisoner of War Relief Fund