Origins of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment.
The Regiment is the county regiment of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire and those parts of West Midlands which were formerly Worcestershire. From its beginnings in 1694 when Colonel Farrington formed a regiment of foot, the Regiment has evolved over three centuries to become an amalgamation of four original regiments. The first was in 1881 when The 29th Foot (Worcestershire) was amalgamated with The 36th Foot (Herefordshire) to become The Worcestershire Regiment and similarly The 45th (Nottinghamshire) with The 95th (Derbyshire) to form the Sherwood Foresters all part of the Cardwell Reforms. More recently in 1970 The Worcestershire Regiment was amalgamated with The Sherwood Foresters.
The Regiment has one Regular (full-time) battalion and two Territorial (part-time) companies together with a number of affiliated Army Cadet Force detachments and school Combined Cadet Force contingents throughout the Regimental area. Regimental Headquarters in Worcester, with a subsidiary office in Nottingham, co-ordinates the non-operational activities of the Regiment including the two Regimental Museums. Last but not least, the Regimental Association consisting of some 18 ‘old comrades’ branches completes the Regimental family.
The standing army in Great Britain dates from the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660. At first regiments were named after the colonels who raised them and so changed their names with every change of colonel. To overcome the resulting confusion a system of numbering regiments of foot (as the infantry was then known) was introduced in 1751. The present Regiment has evolved from four previously numbered regiments - 29th, 36th, 45th and 95th Foot - the earliest of which was raised in 1694. The county affiliations date from 1782 and further reforms took place in 1881, when the 29th and 36th Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment, and the 45th and 95th comprised the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Sherwood Foresters. At this point the 36th's connection with
Herefordshire was severed.
However, hundreds of years before the formation of the Regular Army there existed in each county a part-time Militia, which could be "embodied" in times of national emergency and formed into regiments for home defence. In addition, starting with the Napoleonic Wars, corps of "Volunteers" were raised, but were not maintained on a permanent basis until 1859. Both these forces supplied a steady stream of voluntary recruits to the regular line regiments, even before the county affiliations were in place. Under the Cardwell reforms of 1881 regular and militia
battalions were incorporated into a single territorially-based regiment, the militia battalions of both former regiments being numbered 3rd and 4th.
br> The Volunteers were later added, but retained their own numbering system as 1st Volunteer Battalion etc. For the Boer War the Worcestershire Regiment raised two more regular battalions, the 3rd and 4th, causing the militia battalions to be renumbered 5th and 6th. In 1908, as part of the Haldane reforms, the volunteer battalions were designated the Territorial Force, the forerunner of the Territorial Army, and were numbered 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in the Sherwood Foresters and 7th and 8th in the Worcestershire Regiment. The militia continued as special reserve battalions until the end of World War I, after which they became non-effective, but were not formally disbanded until 1953. The 3rd and 4th (Regular) Battalions, Worcestershire Regiment, had been disbanded by 1923. The two former Regiments were amalgamated in 1970 to form the present Regiment, Since then the 1st (Regular) Battalion has served in Germany, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Belize as well as the UK. The 3rd (TA) Battalion was formed in 1971 and recruited in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire until disbanded in the Strategic Defence Review in 1999. It is succeeded by D (WFR) Company the newly formed East of England Regiment. The 4th (TA) Battalion was formed in 1991 and recruited in Worcestershire but was disbanded in 1994 as part of the reductions following the demise of the USSR. From 1994 to 1999 A (WFR) Company 5th Light Infantry was the Worcestershire TA Company. It was succeeded by B (WFR) Company of the new West Midland Regiment based in Kidderminster, the home of The Worcestershire Regiment TA.
The C.O. of 1st Batallion Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment leads soldiers to a Service of Remembrance in Gomji Vakuf, Bosnia.
A Warrior of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment in Bosnia.
Mascot of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment Darby. The mascots are provided by the Duke of Devonshire and upon retirement the mascot lives out his days at the Duke of Devonshire's ancestral home Chatsworth House.
Visit Stephen Mee's Sherwood Forester Page.
