This is a list of battalions of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), which existed as an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1961.
When the 3rd (The East Kent) Regiment of Foot became the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) in 1881 under the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Armed Forces, four pre-existent militia and volunteer battalions of Kent were integrated into the structure of the regiment. Volunteer battalions had been created in reaction to a perceived threat of invasion by France in the late 1850s. Organised as "rifle volunteer corps", they were independent of the British Army and composed primarily of the middle class. The only change to the regiment's structure during the period of 1881-1908 occurred in 1888, when the two militia battalions of the regiment amalgamated.[1]
| Battalion | Formed | Formerly | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | ||||
| 1st | 1572 | 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment of Foot | ||
| 2nd | 1857 | 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of Foot | ||
| Militia | ||||
| 3rd (Militia) | 1760 | 1st Battalion, East Kent Militia[2] | ||
| 4th (Militia) | 1876 | 2nd Battalion, East Kent Militia | ||
| Volunteers | ||||
| 1st Volunteer | 1859 | 2nd Kent (East Kent) Rifle Volunteer Corps[3] | ||
| 2nd (The Weald of Kent) Volunteer | 1860 | 5th Kent (The Weald of Kent) Rifle Volunteer Corps | ||
The Territorial Force (later Territorial Army) was formed in 1908, which the volunteer battalions joined, while the militia battalions transferred to the "Special Reserve". All volunteer battalions were renumbered to create a single sequential order.[1]
| Battalion | Formerly | |
|---|---|---|
| 4th | 1st Volunteer Battalion[4] | |
| 5th (The Weald of Kent) | 2nd (The Weald of Kent) Volunteer Battalion[5] |
The Buffs fielded 15 battalions and lost over 6,000 officers and other ranks during the course of the war.[6] The regiment's territorial components formed duplicate second and third line battalions. As an example, the three-line battalions of the 4th Buffs were numbered as the 1/4th, 2/4th, and 3/4th respectively. Many battalions of the regiment were formed as part of Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener's appeal for an initial 100,000 men volunteers in 1914. They were referred to as the New Army or Kitchener's Army.[1] [7] The Volunteer Training Corps were raised with overage or reserved occupation men early in the war, and were initially self-organised into many small corps, with a wide variety of names. Recognition of the corps by the authorities brought regulation and as the war continued the small corps were formed into battalion sized units of the county Volunteer Regiment. In 1918 these were linked to county regiments.[8]
| Battalion | Formed | Served | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular[9] [10] | ||||
| 1st | 1572 | Western Front | ||
| 2nd | 1857 | Western Front, Salonika | ||
| Special Reserve | ||||
| 3rd (Reserve) | 1760 | Britain | ||
| Territorial Force | ||||
| 1/4th | 1859 | India, Aden | See Inter-War | |
| 1/5th (The Weald of Kent) | 1860 | India, Mesopotamian | See Inter-War | |
| 2/4th | Canterbury, September 1914 | Britain | Disbanded in November 1917 | |
| 2/5th (The Weald of Kent) | Ashford, September 1914 | Britain | Disbanded in November 1917 | |
| 3/4th, 4th (Reserve) from 8 April 1916 | Canterbury, July 1915 | Britain | Disbanded in 1919 | |
| 3/5th (The Weald of Kent), 5th (The Weald of Kent) (Reserve) from 8 April 1916 | Ashford, March 1915 | Britain | Absorbed into the 4th (Reserve) Battalion on 1 September 1916 | |
| 10th (Royal East Kent & West Kent Yeomanry) | Sollum, 1 February 1917, from the 1/1st Royal East Kent Yeomanry and 1/1st Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry | Western Front | Disembodied 1919 | |
| New Army | ||||
| 6th (Service) | Canterbury, August 1914 | Western Front | Disbanded in 1919 | |
| 7th (Service) | Canterbury, September 1914 | Western Front | Disbanded in 1919 | |
| 8th (Service) | Canterbury, September 1914 | Western Front | Disbanded on 13 February 1918 | |
| 9th (Reserve) | Dover, October 1914 | Britain | Became the 29th Training Reserve Battalion of the 7th Reserve Brigade on 1 September 1916 | |
| Others | ||||
| 1st (Home Service) Garrison | Dover, 29 April 1916 | Britain | Became 2nd Battalion, Royal Defence Corps | |
| Volunteer Training Corps[11] | ||||
| 1st Battalion (Cinque Ports) Kent Volunteer Regiment later the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment) | Hythe | Disbanded post war | ||
| 2nd Battalion (St. Augustine's) Kent Volunteer Regiment later the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment) | Canterbury | Disbanded post war | ||
| 4th Battalion (Thanet) Kent Volunteer Regiment later the 3rd Volunteer Battalion, Buffs (East Kent Regiment) | Thanet | Disbanded post war | ||
By 1920, all of the regiment's war-raised battalions had disbanded. The Special Reserve reverted to its militia designation in 1921, then to the Supplementary Reserve in 1924; however, its battalions were effectively placed in 'suspended animation'. As World War II approached, the Territorial Army was reorganised in the mid-1930s, many of its infantry battalions were converted to other roles, especially anti-aircraft.[1]
| Battalion | Fate | |
|---|---|---|
| 4th | Absorbed 5th (The Weald of Kent) Battalion, without a change in title on 26 August 1921[12] | |
| 5th (The Weald of Kent) | Absorbed by 4th Battalion on 26 August 1921[13] |
The Buff's expansion during the Second World War was modest compared to 1914–1918. National Defence Companies were combined to create a new "Home Defence" battalion, In addition to this, 12 of the 39 Kent battalions of the Home Guard were affiliated to the regiment, wearing its cap badge.[1]
| Battalion | Formed | Served | Fate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | ||||
| 1st | 1572 | North Africa, Italy[14] | See Post-World War II | |
| 2nd | 1857 | France, North Africa, Burma[15] | See Post-World War II | |
| Supplementary Reserve | ||||
| 3rd | 1760 | See Post-World War II | ||
| Territorial Army | ||||
| 4th, (redesignation of 4th/5th Battalion) | 1859 | France, Malta, Greece[16] | See Post-World War II | |
| 5th (The Weald of Kent) | 31 March 1939, as a duplicate of 4th Battalion | France, North Africa, Sicily, Italy[17] | Disbanded on 1 January 1947 | |
| 6th (Home Defence) | November 1939 | Britain | Redesignated as 30th Battalion in December 1941[18] | |
| 7th | July 1940 | Britain | Converted to 141st Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, in November 1941[19] | |
| 8th | July 1940, from a cadre of The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry | Britain | Converted to 9th Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery in November 1942[20] | |
| 9th | July 1940, from a cadre of the Northamptonshire Regiment | Britain | Disbanded 1946 | |
| 10th | July 1940 | Britain | Disbanded in October 1943 | |
| 11th | October 1940, as a redesignation of the 50th (Holding) Battalion | Britain | Converted to 89th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery in November 1940 | |
| 30th | December 1941, as a redesignation of the 6th (Home Defence) Battalion | Britain | Disbanded in March 1943 | |
| Others | ||||
| 70th (Young Soldiers) | September 1940 | Britain | Disbanded January 1943 | |
| Home Guard[21] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battalion | Headquarters | Formation Sign (dark blue on khaki) | Battalion | Headquarters | Formation Sign (dark blue on khaki) |
| 1st | Ashford | KT 1 | 2nd | Charing | KT 2 |
| 3rd | Canterbury | KT 3 | 4th (St. Augustine's) | Canterbury | KT 4 |
| 5th | Wingham | KT 5 | 6th (Thanet) | Margate | KT 6 |
| 7th | Lyminge | KT 7 | 8th (Cinque Ports) | Folkestone | KT 8 |
| 9th | Faversham | KT 9 | 10th | Sittingbourne | KT10 |
| 23rd | Hawkhurst | KT 23 | 30th (Sheppey) | Sheerness | KT 30 |
In the immediate post-war period, the army was significantly reduced: nearly all infantry regiments had their first and second battalions amalgamated and the Supplementary Reserve disbanded.[1]
| Battalion | Fate | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Amalgamated with 2nd Battalion on the 23 September 1949, without a change in title[22] | |
| 2nd | Amalgamated with 1st Battalion on the 23 September 1949[23] | |
| 4th | Redesignated the 4th/5th Battalion on 1 January 1947 | |
| 5th | Redesignated the 4th/5th Battalion on 1 January 1947 |
In 1956, the 5th Battalion was reformed, leading to the 4th/5th Battalion being redesignated as the 4th Battalion. The 1957 Defence White Paper stated that the Buffs was due to amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment on the 1 March 1961.[1]
| Battalion | Fate | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Amalgamated with 1st Battalion, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, to form 1st Battalion, The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment | |
| 4th | Transferred to the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment without a change in title | |
| 5th | Transferred to the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment without a change in title |