Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment

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The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires)
Cap Badge of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment
Active	9 September 1992-Present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Line Infantry
Role	1st Battalion - Armoured 2nd Battalion - Light Role 3rd Battalion - TA Reserve
Size	Three battalions
Part of	Queen's Division
Garrison/HQ	1st Battalion - Paderborn, Germany 2nd Battalion - Ballykelly
Nickname	The Tigers
March	Quick - The Farmer's Boy/The Soldiers of the Queen
Commanders
Colonel in Chief	HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
Colonel of the Regiment	Brigadier E. Richard Holmes CBE, TD, ADC, JP
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Arm Badge	Tiger From Royal Hampshire Regiment

The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires) is the senior English infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Queen's Division. It was formed in 1992 by the amalgamation of two other regiments and holds the oldest battle honour in the British Army (Tangier, 1662):

Through its ancestry via the Queen's Regiment to the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), the PWRR is the most senior English line infantry regiment. The current regiment was named in honour of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2004, it was announced that, as part of the re-structuring of the infantry, the PWRR would merge with the Berkshire and Wiltshire elements (former Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment) of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. It was further announced in 2005 that this would not take place, and the PWRR would remain unaffected.

Upon its creation, HRH The Princess of Wales and HM The Queen of Denmark were Allied Colonels-in-chief of the PWRR. When the Princess divorced HRH The Prince of Wales, she resigned as Colonel-in-chief and the Queen of Denmark has remained its Colonel-in-chief since.

The Regiment is primarily based in Kent and is comprised of three battalions, 1st Battalion Armoured Infantry (Serving in Iraq and based in Paderborn, Germany), 2nd Battalion (Serving in Northern Ireland) and 3rd Battalion Territorial Army Infantry (Members of which also serving with 1st Battalion in Iraq). There is also a single Territorial Army company, B (Queen's) Company of the London Regiment.

From the end of the arms plot in 2009, the regiment's two regular battalions will be based in Germany (1st Bn) and Cyprus (2nd Bn). The 2nd Bn will rotate this posting with public duties in London, following a deployment to Afghanistan in 2008.

1 Victoria Cross
2 Danish Connection
3 Battle honours
4 Order of Precedence
5 Alliances

[edit] Victoria Cross

In 2005, Pte Johnson Beharry of the 1st Battalion, PWRR was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during his unit's deployment to Al-Amarah, near Basrah. This was the first award of the VC since 1982.

[edit] Danish Connection

The PWRR is one of only two regiments in the British Army that has a foreign monarch as its Colonel-in-Chief (the other is The Light Dragoons). Queen Margarete II was previously the Colonel-in-Chief of the Queen's Regiment, continuing a tradition in her family dating back to the appointment of King Frederick VIII as the Colonel-in-Chief of The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), one of the ancestor regiments of the PWRR, in 1906.

[edit] Battle honours

(combined battle honours of The Queen's Regiment, and The Royal Hampshire Regiment, with the following emblazoned:)
- The Regimental Colours¹: Tangier 1662-80, Namur 1695, Gibraltar 1704-5, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Minden, Louisburg, Guadeloupe 1759, Quebec 1759, Belleisle, Tournay, Barrosa, Martinique 1762, Seringapatam, Maida, Corunna, Talavera, Albuhera, Almaraz, Vittoria, Peninsula, Punniar, Moodkee, Sobraon, Inkerman, Sevastopol, Lucknow, Taku Forts, Pekin 1860, New Zealand, Afghanistan 1879-80, Nile 1884-85, Burma 1885-87, Relief of Ladysmith, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902, Korea 1950-51
- The Queen's Colours: Mons, Retreat from Mons, Aisne 1914, Ypres 1914 '15 '17 '18, Hill 60, Festubert 1915, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Arras 1917 '18, Cambrai 1917 '18, Hindenburg Line, Italy 1917-18, Doiran 1917-18, Landing at Helles, Gaza, Jerusalem, Palestine 1917-18, Kut al Amara 1915 '17, Mesopotamia 1915-18, North West Frontier India 1915 1916-17, Dunkirk 19140, Normandy Landing, Caen, Rhine, North-West Europe 190 '44-45, Abyssinia 1941, El Alamein, Tebourba Gap, Hunt's Gap, Longstop Hill 1943, North Africa 1940-43, Sicily 1943, Salerno, Anzio, Cassino, Gothic Line, Italy 1943-45, Malta 1940-42, Malaya 1941-42, Hong Kong, Defence of Kohima, Burma 1943-45

1. also emblazoned:
- The Naval Crown superscribed "1st June 1794" - from the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
- The Sphinx superscribed "Egypt" - from the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) & Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
- The Royal Tiger superscribed "India" - from the Royal Hampshire Regiment