Battle Honours and Awards.

[nshighlander]

I think this is right.The Royal Scots have the most Battle Honours or are the oldest

in the British Army?Anyway.What reg doen`t matter nationality has the most Battle Honours and awards?Just interested?

I know the 85 CEF has 14 Battle Honours and 259 awards (DSO,MC,DCM,MM etc)

Cheers

Dave

[Bombadier]

Surely, by default, the answer must be the Royal Artillery with, I believe, the single honour UBIQUE. (EVERYWHERE). I believe that somebody else has the same honour (RE?)

Nigel

[tintin1689]

RE has the same battle honour UBIQUE, RM have one battle honour "Gibraltar" to stand for all the others.

It would be a labour of hercules to work battle honours down to battalion level in the British Army as the honours were awarded by Regiment, each Regiment would presumably have had to submit detailed returns to the war office using orders of battle and war diaries as supporting evidence (unless very special circumstances pertained at least 2 companies and HQ have to participate in the battle) to show participation of which battalions in which battles entitled the Regiment as a collective to claim them. In the case of the Great War the Regiment then had to select 10 to be borne on the Sovereigns colour (or on Regt appointments for those not entitled to colours). The difficulty of this process is shown by the fact that 13 battalions of the Middlesex Regt were engaged at one time in the Battles of the Somme.

In Australia and Canada it is easier as they were on the whole single battalion regiments.

For what its worth I believe KRRC was the infantry regiment with most battle honours altogether, I will look up the totals for the Great War. For fairness you should really divide the honours by the number of battalions to get an average, but that would only show who was busiest....

[tintin1689]

PS The Royal Scots are the oldest, their officers can trace their origins to 832 AD. The body of the Regiment is not as old but served with several European nations before being passed from France to Britain in the reign of King Charles II

[nshighlander]

I guess I should say just WWI HONOURS.There must be a btn that saw the most action?

Cheers

Dave

[Guest Desmond6]

Do the Royal Scots not have a weird nickname like 'Pontius Pilates Bodyguard' or something equally Roman? Just my 2p's worth ....

[Paul Reed]

Brig E.A. James British Regiments 1914-1918 (Samson Books 1978 - but I believe is now reprinted by N&MP?) has a list of regiments with number of battle honours awarded. Using this list, the 'Top 5' are:

1. Hampshire Regiment - 82 Battle Honours

2. Middlesex Regiment - 81 Battle Honours

3. Royal Fusiliers - 80 Battle Honours

4. Royal Welsh Fusiliers - 77 Battle Honours

5. Cheshire Regiment - 75 Battle Honours

He doesn't list the Corps, which may well exceed this.

[Malcolm]

The Royal Scots, 1st of Foot, The Lothian Regiment also known as Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard derive from Hepburns Pikemen raised 1625 becoming Hepburns Regiment in the service of Gustavus Adolphus of 1633 to 1678. In 1678 they came back to Britian to become The First or Royal Regiment of Foot 1678 to 1881.

In 1881 it became The Royal Scots.

In the Companion to the British Army by David Ascoli the battle honours take up several pages. the longest looking list looks like the Manchester Regt.

Aye

Malcolm

[Marc Thompson]

Paul mentions the Hampshire Regiment with 82 battle honours. Of these, 10 specially selected honours were added to the King's Colour:

Retreat from Mons, Ypres 1915 '17 '18, Arras 1917 '18, Doiran 1917 '18. Gaza. Somme 1916 '18. Cambrai 1917 '18. Landing at Helles. Suvla. Kut al Amara 1915 '17