Monday 8 November 2010

Fictional Army Regiments

I've been checking out the various fictional army regiments that different people have written about over the last... oh, 160 years or so, and of course there's a wikipedia page for them. As I'm not a total masochist I'm not going to type up every single one, but I will start adding a list of regiments, period of earliest (fictional) mention, and (where known) theatres of operations, for regiments up to 1900.

Details of the vast majority of these regiments can be found on the wiki page listed above. Some have an unknown early history, but their earlier existence can be surmised (eg the 'Musketeer' regiments probably pre-date the Napoleonic Wars). Some I'm making up on sketchy evidence I'll admit.

Regiments in existence before 1800:
4th Musketeers (early history unknown, but existed during WWII)
Duke of Buckingham's Light Infantry - Marlburian campaigns, Jacobite Risings
Lord Semphill's Highland Regiment - Jacobite Regiment
Royal Corps of Halberdiers (formerly Earl of Essex's Honourable Company of Free Halberdiers, founded in Elizabethan period, early history unknown, as RCH existed in WWII)
Royal Loyal Musketeers (Irish regiment, early history unknown, served in India in late C19th)

Before 1850:
6th Light Dragoons - Napoleonic Wars
Bombadier Guards
'Jackboot Guards' - regimental nickname, official name unknown
Lifeguard Greens
South Essex Regiment - Napoleonic Wars (Peninsula and Belgium): Under Major Sharpe
South Oxfordshire (Light Infantry?) Regiment - have a battle honour for Waterloo (Endeavour)

Before 1870:
27th Lancers - Crimean War
117th Foot 'The Royal Mallows' - served in India during the Mutiny? See 'Before 1890'
1st Bangalore Pioneers

Before 1880:
114th Queen's Own Royal Strathspeys Afghan Wars, after 1880 remained in the North West Frontier Province until at least 1897 - link here
Princess Hohenzollern's Own Merthyr Tydfil Light Infantry (this name has been considerably shortened from Kipling's original) - served in India
34th Bombay Infantry
77th Bengal Lancers - North West Frontier Province?
South Oxfordshire (Light Infantry?) Regiment - have a battle honour for Kabul, which may relate to this period; they also seem to have fought in Africa in the late 1870s (Endeavour)

Before 1890:
117th Foot 'The Royal Mallows' - served in India until c.1885, potentially from 1850s; afterwards stationed at Aldershot by c.1888; from 'The Crooked Man' by Arthur Conan Doyle
Royal Cumbrian Regiment (though this may be anachronistic, perhaps they should be listed as the Royal Cumberland Regiment) - Sudan (took part in Gordon's expedition?)

Before 1900:
117th Foot 'The Royal Mallows' - information moved to 'Before 1890'
'The Black Boneens' - regimental nickname, official name unknown - served in India
'The Black Tyrone' - regimental nickname, official name unknown - served in India
Lennox Highlanders - Matabele Wars; Richard Hannay's Regiment
Royal Loyal Musketeers (surmised to exist before 1800) - served in India
Royal North Surrey Regiment - Sudan (took part in relief of Khartoum?)
'The White Hussars' - regimental nickname, official name unknown - served in India
19th/45th East African Rifles - served in West Africa (perhaps based in Ghana or Nigeria?)
South Oxfordshire (Light Infantry?) Regiment - apparently fought at Mboto Gorge, 1892 (Endeavour)

Regiments that don't appear on the wiki page:
The 'Fighting' 43rd (Regiment of Horse, also known as 'Prince Rupert's Regiment of Horse') - South Africa if my memory serves (it was Captain Cadman's regiment in the stories of the cowardly Captain in the Victor comic when I was a lad - though see notes below, I may be mis-remembering)
The South Oxfordshire Regiment (from 'Endeavour') - before 1900: fought at M'Boto Gorge, c. 1892, though the painting in the regimental HQ shows soldiers in an older version of tropical uniform, perhaps from c. 1880, so it may be that they spent an extended period in Africa. They have battle honours that include Waterloo, and Kabul (possibly the Second Afghan War, 1878-1880)

I have not been able to place the Duke of Clarence's Own Clanranald Highlanders (the 'Invernesshire Greens') though I suspect that they go back at least to the mid-18th century.

Well, that's a start anyway. Of course there are regiments that are listed post-1900 that may exist beforehand... but they'll live to another day.

I've also noticed they have a list of fictional British Army Officers on wiki...

Later additions and corrections to the list are italicised.

2 comments:

  1. I may be mis-remembering Captain Cadman's exploits it seems. I was sure he was involved in the Boer Wars, but I've found a web-page dedicated to Cadman that claims his earliest explots are in WWI, in both Europe and East Africa. Perhaps it is the East African adventurers which became mixed up in my 7-year-old brain with the Boer Wars.

    Furthermore, the regiment he served with is described as Prince Rupert's Horse Regiment, better known as the 'Fighting 43rd'. I have added a note to this effect to the list above.

    Anyway, the link has been added to the left for others to research should they wish.

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  2. And a long time after the event, I've stumbled across a reference to the Battle of M'Boto Gorge (from Blackadder) that suggests the equally-fictional South Oxfordshire Regiment fought there alongside the 19/45th East Africa Rifles. The mention was in an episode of 'Endeavour', the 'Inspector Morse' prequel...

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