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The
Western Australian University Regimental has had a alliance with the
Royal Green Jackets for nearly 50 Years.
The original affiliation was made in 1955 with the The
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (43rd & 52nd).
Much like the Australian forces the British reorganised and
amalgamated their Military, the result for WAUR being an affiliation
with The Royal Green Jackets Brigade.
Below
is the recordings of 1960’s unit historian Capt. John LeTessier on the
affiliation:
“One
of the highlights in the Regimental History was the approval granted by
Her Majesty, The Queen, of the affiliation of the Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regiment with the Western Australian
University Regiment. Later, in December 1955, some of the Officers of
the Regiment had the pleasure of meeting the Second in command of the
“Ox and Bucks", Lieutenant Colonel R.A. St G. Martin, MBE, when
he paid a visit to the Officers' Mess whilst in Western Australia in his
capacity as Military Secretary to His Excellency the Governor General,
Field Marshal Sir William Slim, GOB, GCMG, GWO, CBE, DSO, MC.”
The
affiliation was taken quite seriously by the officers of WAUR, Capt.
LeTessier continues:
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“WAUR
received further notice by the general public when, in mid
February 1956, as a contribution to the 1955 Festival of Perth, it
presented a short play to mark its affiliation with the
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. This play depicted
members Western Australian University Regiment learning from the
ghosts of men of the 43rd and 52nd about the battles of
Canada, the Peninsula and the wreck of the Birkenhead. This was
played in period uniform as an interlude between musical offerings
by the Western Command Band in the new Supreme Court Gardens
Orchestral Shell. A large audience, seated on the lawns, witnessed
the presentation of a copy of the Regimental March of the “Ox
and Bucks”, to the Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. W.R.Bray by
Major R.A. Newman, assistant director of The Australian School of
Music. The Regimental March “Nachtlager in Grenada”, was
thence adopted as the march of the young unit. Unlike British
Light infantry, which marches at 140 paces to the minute, the
University Regiment marches at a tempo of 120 paces to the minute.
This new march replaced “Sons of the Brave” which had been in
use for two years.” |
Interestedly
enough the WAUR Association has recovered a copy of the play
in question.
| The
March “Nacht Lager en Grenada” was first played before the
Regiment when it paraded at Northam Camp during February 1956, the
occasion was the presentation of the Returned Servicemen’s
League Trophy (see photo right). |
 |
This
trophy was awarded at the time for the most proficient Army Unit in
Australia this was the second year in a row that WAUR had won the award.
The next recorded use of Nachtlager en Grenada was during the May 25th
1958 Colours presentation Ceremony, an event recorded in detail by
LeTessier and a silent movie, the Western Command Band preformed the
slow and quick march past playing Nacht Lager en Grenada. Some time
after the use of Nachtlager en Grenada was canned by Western Command and
Sons of the Brave was reinstated as the regimental March.
The
next entry by Capt. Le Tessier tells of a mess presentation, the books
whereabouts are unknown by the Association.
“A
further link with the 43rd and 52nd was fashioned in October 1956 when
Major General Sir John Winterton, KCB, KCMG, CBE, Colonel of the
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry presented to the officers
Historical Records of the two older Infantry Regiments, the volumes
respectively 88 and 96 years old, at the time.”
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As
well as exchange of Christmas Cards (See
left) and other pleasantries between the two “sister”
regiments a regular contribution was sent for the Chronicle an
annual report in book form published by the Green Jackets since
1966 the association has copies of WAUR’s contributions which
give a fascinating insight into years past.
Contact
with the Green Jackets waned in the Eighties and Nineties with
only sporadic communication being
made, this evidenced by the lack of submissions to the chronicle
and indeed little knowledge of the
affiliation by serving members of WAUR. |
| The
formation of the WAUR Association in February 2001 remedied this
situation with the aid of the internet
and a visit to Winchester by Association Secretary Mike
Jenkin (see photo on right) contact has been firmly reestablished,
both with the RGJ and the RGJ Association.
Lines
of communication between the Perth based Australasian branch of
the RGJA have also been opened
with both associations marching in the Perth city Anzac Day
parades. |
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OXFORDSHIRE
AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
(43rd
& 52nd) |
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|
–
a brief History (courtesy
of the RGJ) |
| Though
the 43rd and 52nd Regiments were independent of each other for
some 140 years from their formation, their subsequent union into a
single regiment and the way in which their fortunes were so often
linked in the early years make it possible for their stories to be
told as one. |
Foundation
The
eighteenth century saw Great Britain and France intermittently at war,
both on the continent of Europe and throughout their colonial
territories, and the British Army was continually expanded and reduced
to suit the needs of the moment. One such expansion, in 1741, included
the raising of the 54th Regiment of infantry with its headquarters at
Winchester. Disbandments at the end of the war in 1748 spared the
regiment, by then in garrison at Minorca, but reductions amongst older
regiments caused its renumbering as the 43rd. In 1755 another 54th
Regiment was raised and based at Coventry, to be renumbered the 52nd a
year later.
The Seven Years' War (1756-63)
Shortly
after the start of the Seven Years' War with France, in 1757, the 43rd
moved to North America. It was part of Wolfe's force which captured
Quebec in 1759 and then defended the city against a French siege through
the following winter, operations which led to the annexation of Canada
by the British. Once North America was secured, the action moved to the
West Indies, where the Regiment took part in the storming and capture of
Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent and St. Lucia from the French, and
Havannah, Cuba, from the Spanish.
The American War of Independence (1774-82)
The
43rd returned to England after the peace of 1763 but crossed the
Atlantic again eleven years later and was engaged throughout the
American War of Independence. The 52nd, which had waited twenty years
for its first taste of active service, joined them at Boston and the two
regiments fought side‑by‑side at Lexington and Bunker Hill,
both battles won at the cost of heavy casualties. There followed a
series of successful actions around New York in which the Americans were
regularly defeated and the 52nd returned home in 1778. But the
intervention of France in support of the rebellion started the turn of
the tide; the 43rd was sent to Virginia to reinforce Lord Cornwall’s
and was therefore present at the siege and final surrender at Yorktown
in 1781 which brought the war to an end.
Southern
India (1783-96)
The
52nd landed at Madras in 1783 and for nine years was involved in
intermittent campaigning against Tippoo Sahib of Mysore. A succession of
battles against a well‑organised enemy culminated in the capture
of Tippoo's capital at Seringapatam. European rivalries and alliances
were the cause of two other shorter expeditions in the same theatre
which seized Pondicherry from the French and the coastal towns of Ceylon
from the Dutch.
The West Indies - Second Round (1794-1800)
In
1794 the 43rd, now with the extra title the Monmouthshire Regiment, was
again engaged against French possessions in the West Indies, its first
tasks, in which it played a distinguished part, being to capture, for
the second time, Martinique and St. Lucia, which had been returned to
France by the peace treaty of 1763. The 43rd also assisted at the
capture of Guadeloupe, but were then left there as a garrison with too
little strength to hold off the French counter‑attack and, much
reduced by disease, were overpowered after a resistance lasting some
three months.
The
Light Brigade
For
some fifty years before 1800 it had been the practice for infantry
battalions to include a light company of picked men for tasks needing
rapid reactions when, in 1803, the 43rd and 52nd were chosen to form the
first Corps of Light Infantry and joined with the 95th Rifles (later The
Rifle Brigade) to constitute the Light Brigade at Shorncliffe in Kent
under the command of Sir John Moore. Moore has been described as 'the
very best trainer of troops that England has ever possessed'. His
insistence on absolute professionalism and mutual respect between
officers and men (new concepts at the time) was to create a formation
whose contribution was crucial to Wellington's victories in the
Peninsula and whose traditions survive in The Royal Green Jackets of
today.
Copenhagen
(1807)
In
1807, Denmark having allied itself with France, the 43rd, 52nd and 95th,
led by Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, were part of
a force which bombarded and captured Copenhagen and‑with it the
entire Danish fleet. Disaster almost struck on the voyage home, when a
ship carrying the 43rd ran aground in a storm. Sure that their last hour
had come, an officer produced a flute and played the 'Death March in
Saul', but ship and regiment in the end survived.
When
Napoleon's armies invaded Spain and threatened Lisbon in 1808 the 43rd
and 52nd were in Wellesley's force sent to oppose them and played a
central role in the sharp engagement at Vimiera (where all four future
Green jacket regiments took part) which forced the French to evacuate
Portugal. When Sir John Moore succeeded to the command and advanced into
Spain, two battalions of each regiment were in his army and, with the
95th, played a distinguished part in forming the rearguard when the army
was forced to retreat in mid‑winter to Vigo and Corunna. Moore was
killed in the final battle but his army was able to embark in good order
and return to England. The following year the reconstituted Light
Brigade returned to the Peninsula under Robert Craufurd, landing at
Lisbon. Hearing that their support was urgently needed in Spain, they
set out at once on a forced march of 250 miles, the last fifty‑two
in twenty‑six hours, to join Wellington's army at Talavera, but
arrived on the battlefield only to find that the battle was already won.
Meanwhile the 2nd Battalions of each regiment were despatched on a
disastrous expedition to Walcheren in the Low Countries where they were
decimated by fever without achieving anything of value. With the
addition of two battalions of Portuguese light infantry the Brigade grew
into the Light Division and for the next four years was continuously the
cutting edge of Wellington's force until the French were driven out of
Spain. By that time it had fought another dozen great battles and sieges
and as many lesser actions. At the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo Lieutenant
Gurwood of the 52nd commanded the 'forlorn hope' and received the French
Governor's sword in surrender.
North
America (1814-15)
Napoleon's
abdication in 1814 led to a temporary peace and the disbandment of the
Light Division. An expeditionary force, including the 43rd, was
despatched against the United States, which was allied to France and
threatening British possessions in Canada. A series of sharp engagements
'culminated in the capture and burning of Washington, but the British
force was later repulsed before New Orleans and the 43rd returned to
Europe just too late to fight at Waterloo.
Waterloo
(1815)
When
Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of Elba to lead his army to
the decisive battle of the war at Waterloo the 52nd found itself
brigaded with the 95th and 71st and started the day in reserve. They
were moved forward to resist successive attacks by French cavalry and
their position was crucial when Napoleon launched his Imperial Guard in
a final stroke against the centre of the British line. The French were
halted by the fire of Maitland's Brigade of Guards and, as they
faltered, Sir John Colborne led the 52nd in a charge against their flank
which turned their advance into disorderly retreat and swept the rest of
the French army away with it.
The
Kaffir Wars and the Birkenhead (1851-53)
The
defeat of Napoleon was followed by thirty years of peace, but the
remainder of the century was punctuated by campaigns to secure the
Empire. In the 1850s the 43rd fought in the Kaffir War in South Africa;
their discipline and self‑sacrifice in the ship‑wreck of the
Birkenhead off Natal, when the troops paraded on deck as the women and
children took to the boats, stirred the imagination of Victorian England
and caused Frederick of Prussia to have the story read out at the head
of every regiment of his army as an example of devotion to duty.
The
Indian Mutiny (1857-59)
During
the Mutiny campaign the 43rd marched some 1300 miles in seven months,
fighting innumerable small actions on the way, developing the concept of
mounted infantry by the use of camels and winning its first VC. The 52nd
set out from Bengal to, join the British force besieging Delhi, where
they led the assault on the Kashmir Gate. Bugler Hawthorne won one of
the regiment's two VCs for coolly sounding the advance under intense
fire from the walls as the explosive charges to blow in the gate were
detonated and then rescuing a wounded Engineer officer of the firing
party.
Campaigns
from 1863-1902
In
1863 the 43rd was called on to fight a tragic and bloody but ultimately
successful War against the Maoris in New Zealand, in which their
opponents were not only courageous but showed exceptional humanity to
the wounded. In the next thirty years the 43rd and 52nd were involved in
sporadic operations in India, Burma and the Sudan. The 43rd fought
throughout the Boer War in South Africa (1899‑1902), notably at
the relief of Kimberley and the decisive battle of Paardeburg, which
resulted in the surrender of the Boer General Cronje. Their mounted
infantry company was active throughout the war.
Amalgamation
The
Cardwell reorganisation of the Army in 1881 recognised the historical
links between the 43rd and 52nd and decreed that they should become the
Ist and 2nd Battalions of The Oxfordshire Light Infantry, though the old
regimental numbers continued in unofficial use. The combined regiment
was based at a new Depot at Cowley, Oxford. In 1908 'Buckinghamshire'
was added to the title.
World War 1 (I914-19)
The
Ist Battalion (43rd) fought the Turks in Mesopotamia, where they
suffered very heavy casualties, were besieged at Kut and eventually
starved into surrender. Of 300 men who were taken prisoner only ninety
survived the war. In 1919 the reconstituted battalion took part in the
inconclusive campaign against the Bolsheviks in North Russia.
The
52nd and most of the affiliated Territorial Force battalions fought on
the Western Front. In 1914 they achieved fame at Nonne Boschen by
routing the Prussian Potsdam Guards, almost 100 years after they had
defeated the French Imperial Guard at Waterloo. From then on, however
their experiences of appalling casualties for little apparent gain
mirrored those of the rest of the Army. Other battalions fought in Italy
and Salonika.
World
War II (1939-45)
The
43rd and Ist Bucks Battalion (TA) were in the British Expeditionary
Force in France in 1940 and escaped through Dunkirk after suffering
heavy casualties. Another TA battalion (4th Oxf Bucks) was encircled by
the Germans and overrun. The regiment was represented by the 7th
Battalion in Tunisia and Italy (at the Anzio and Salerno landings), the
43rd in North‑West Europe (in the advance from Normandy to
Hamburg) and by the 6th in Burma (from Arakan down the west coast to
Tamandu).
The
52nd was chosen to pioneer the new role of airlanding by glider. At
midnight before the D‑Day landings in Normandy coup de main
parties from the battalion seized and held the bridges over the Caen
Canal (Pegasus Bridge) and River Orne (Horsa Bridge). In March 1945 the
battalion carried out a costly assault landing as part of the operation
to cross the Rhine before fighting its way across Germany to meet up
with the Russians on the Baltic.
The Post-War Years (1945-1958)
After
the war the 43rd were engaged in peace‑keeping in Trieste and
Yugoslavia while the 52nd faced the Jewish uprising against the British
mandate in Palestine. In 1948 the two Battalions amalgamated to form the
1st Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 43rd
and 52nd, which was in Greece during the Civil War, in Egypt and in
Cyprus confronting the Enosis insurgents demanding union with Greece.
There in 1958 it once more changed its title to the Ist Green Jackets
(43rd and 52nd) and in 1962 was the first battalion to take part in the
Borneo Campaign.
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THE
GREEN JACKETS BRIGADE |
In
1958, in the most fundamental peacetime reorganisation of the Army since
1881, which involved the forced and sometimes unhappy amalgamation of
many regiments, The Green jackets Brigade was formed to comprise Ist
Green jackets (43rd and 52nd), 2nd Green Jackets (The King's Royal Rifle
Corps) and 3rd Green jackets (The Rifle Brigade). Thus for the first
time these three regiments, sharing so much common history and
tradition, became formally linked and based themselves on the Green
jacket Depot at Winchester.
In
the next eight years each of the three battalions was engaged in the
confrontation with Indonesia in Borneo, the Ist being part of the force
rushed to Brunei from Malaya on the outbreak of armed rebellion in 1962.
By the time peace returned in 1966 the whole Brigade had perfected the
techniques of jungle warfare. Meanwhile, Green jackets had also been
performing peace‑keeping operations in British Guiana and Cyprus
as well as taking their turn in the British Army of the Rhine and in
Berlin.
On
the first of January 1966 The Royal Green Jackets was formed as a single
large Regiment. Its creation followed logically from the composition of
The Green Jackets Brigade in 1958, which grouped together three former
single‑battalion infantry regiments: The Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (43rd & 52nd), The King's Royal Rifle
Corps and The Rifle Brigade.
It
was no accident that these particular regiments, each having had such a
distinguished record in the past, should have progressively, voluntarily
and successfully come together, avoiding the stresses which often
accompany amalgamations, because they shared a large measure of their
history and their traditions. They, and The Royal Green Jackets as their
heir, lay claim to being the innovators who developed much of the new
thinking in the British infantry in the fields of tactics, training,
equipment and man‑management from the mid‑eighteenth century
onwards.
The
leadership of such distinguished officers Henri Bouquet, Francis de
Rottenburg, Coote Manningharn and Sir John Moore generated a succession
of advanced ideas later to be adopted
ideals by the rest of the Army: open‑order tactics and
mobility in place of rigid drills and ponderous movement, camouflage and
concealment in place of serried ranks of red coats, individual
marksmanship in place of massed musket fire, and intelligence and
self‑reliance in place of blind obedience instilled by the fear of
brutal punishment. The following page will trace these themes as they
record the stories o four regiments whose fortunes were often close
linked to the point where they fuse together in The Royal Green Jackets
of today.
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Territorial
(Army Reserve) Battalions |
The
history of the Territorial Battalions which now form an integral part of
The Royal Green Jackets is almost as long as that of their Regular
colleagues and far more complex. Only a very simplified account can be
outlined in this book.
For
most of the nineteenth century they were completely independent of the
Regular Army and confined to the role of home defence. Armed bodies such
as The Duke of Cumberland's ‑Sharpshooters and the Rangers
(Gentlemen Members of Gray's Inn) were formed in London in response to
the threat of invasion by Napoleon but disbanded in 1815, though some
kept a continuous existence as rifle clubs.
In
1859 Rifle Volunteer Corps were again raised to face a threat from
France and modern Territorial Battalions can trace direct descent from
these units. Amongst them were The Victoria Rifles, The Queen's
Westminster Rifles and The City of London Rifle Volunteer Brigade, whose
names were to survive practically unchanged for the next 100 years.
The
Cardwell reorganisation of the Army in 1881, which ‑ brought the
43rd and 52nd together as battalions of a single regiment, also
established the first formal links between Volunteers and Regular
regiments. In London no fewer than twelve Volunteer units were
affiliated to The King's Royal Rifle Corps and nine to The Rifle
Brigade, while The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry gained
a Volunteer Battalion in each of its home counties. Twenty years later
these affiliations took on a new aspect when the Volunteers in their
hundreds went to fill the ranks of the Regular regiments in the Boer
War.
The
title was changed to the Territorial Force in 1908 and on the outbreak
of World War I battalions became even more closely integrated with their
Regular counterparts and for the first time fought overseas as complete
units. Though they were to return to the home‑defence role between
the wars, the same principle was followed in World War II. Thus it was
that at Calais in 1940 a Green jacket brigade was composed of a Regular
battalion each of The King's Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade and
a Territorial Battalion of Queen Victoria's Rifles (7th Battalion KRRC).
Green
Jacket Territorial Battalions fought with distinction in France in 1940,
throughout the Desert actions in North , h Africa, in Greece and Crete,
in Italy and North‑West Europe, and in Burma. Without their
trained reinforcements of officers, NCO’s and specialists the Regular
Battalions could not have survived.
Through
the 1950s and 60s the Territorial Army endured a succession of
reductions until in 1967 The Queen's Royal Rifles (descendant of Queen
Victoria's Rifles and Queen's Westminsters), The London Rifle
Brigade/Rangers and the 4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
Light Infantry were merged into the 4th Battalion The Royal Green
Jackets. In 1987 the process was reversed and a 5th Battalion was
created. These battalions can thus claim descent from both their
forebears of the independent Volunteers and from The Royal Green jacket
family. |
