The British Army Line Infantry Training & Administration Brigades 1948 - 1968.

[leigh kitchen]

The collar badges of The 2nd East Anglian Regiment & The 3rd East Anglian Regiment, also worn post-Training Brigade era by The 2nd & The 3rd Battalions of the new Royal Anglian Regiment.Worn in facing pairs, the collar badges combined elements of component units,

The badge of the 2nd East Anglian Regiment combines the Sphinx battle honour of The Lincolnshire Regiment & the "Talavera" battle honour of The Northamptonshire Regiment, the badge of the 3rd East Anglian Regiment the Napoleonic eagle of the Essex Regiment & the garter of The Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment.

Brass shoulder title of the East Anglian Brigade:

Edited November 13, 2009 by leigh kitchen

[Dan M]

This is a great thread. One of my abiding interests is the organization and location of the depots of the infantry of the line during the post-war period. I conduct my research with the aide of a fellow enthusiast from the UK. It's not an easy subject on which to find information, especially in published works. Sometimes the same information, even if it's in error, is repeated again and again.

One of the things that we have discovered is the that the 1947 reorganization of the infantry of the line into 13 administrative brigades with a common depot ultimately failed. The plan was for one battalion in each brigade to act as the depot battalion and train soldiers for all of the regiments in the brigade, regiments of the line having been reduced to one battalion by this time. With 13 depot battalions out of a total of 64 regiments, twenty per-cent of all infantry battalions would now not be available for operational commitments. Two things occurred after these brigades were organized that made their continuation as planned unfeasible. The first was Britain's commitment to NATO and the second was the Korean War. The 13 depot battalions were now required for operations. In fact the Korean War commitment saw some regiments raising a second battalion in order to cover all of the remaining commitments the British infantry had. Without brigade depot battalions to train their soldiers the individual regiments returned to using regimental depots.

By 1958 all 64 regiments of the line were operating their own depots at 61 barrack locations. (Six regiments shared barracks.) This was one of the inefficiencies that the 1957 Defence White Paper meant to address by recreating the brigade depot system, this time organizing 14 depots but this time each with its own staff. The White Paper also reduced the 64 regiments by 15 to 49 between 1958 and 1961. This was accomplished by amalgamating 30 regiments down to 15. Seven of the depots trained soldiers for four battalions while the remaining seven trained for three. Two Guards battalions were also disbanded at the same time reducing their numbers from 10 to eight within five regiments. With three parachute battalions and eight Ghurka battalions the total number of infantry battalions in the British Army after the last amalgamation in 1961 was 68. The number available at the beginning of 1958 was 85.

Some of the individual regimental depots from 1958 are still in use by the British Army today. Some are still extant but have been converted to civilian use. Most however, are now housing estates or shopping centres.

If anyone has any maps or plans of a demolished barracks, I would be very interested to see it.

Cheers,

Dan.

[Mervyn Mitton]

Hi Dan - I see you have been a member since 2013 , but this is your first post - so, Welcome to GMIC.

Perhaps your interest will bring new life to this old thread. We will hope to hear more from you. Mervyn

[Jerry B]

An interesting and informative thread.  Great to see all the badges.

[Farkas]

Speechless.... Joy!

Hi Gents, Leigh

i'm working my way through Leigh's posts.... Fin amazing!

tony

 

[captainofthe7th]

I have just found this as well since it's recent resurrection and wanted to thank those who contributed.  This information is indeed difficult to source and often unreliable, so thank you for clearing many things up.

Rob

[Jerry B]

On 18/09/2009 at 21:08, leigh kitchen said:

The Welsh Brigade

 

 

The Welsh Brigade was an administrative formation of the British Army from 1948 to 1964. The Brigade administered the regular Welsh infantry regiments.

 

Infantry Depot “L” at Brecon was the HQ for the county regiments of Wales and Monmouthshire

 

On 14/7/1948 it became The Welsh Brigade, containing three regiments:

 

The Royal Welch Fusiliers

The South Wales Borderers

The Welch Regiment

 

In 1958 a Brigade cap badge of Prince of Wales plumes & motto was adopted.

 

On 1/7/1968 the Welsh Brigade, along with The Wessex Brigade and The Mercian Brigade formed The Prince of Wales' Division.

 

On 11/6/69 The South Wales Borderers & The Royal Welsh Regiment amalgamated to form The Royal Regiment of Wales (24th/41st Foot), wearing

The Welsh Brigade cap badge until a revised design in silver & gold finish was introduced:

A minor point but it was the Welch Regiment that along with the South Wales Borderers were amalgamated to form the Royal Regiment of Wales, not the Royal Welsh Regiment which is what they became after the RRW was amalgamated in 2005 with Royal Welch Fusiliers.