Farewell the The Old Seven and Sixpennies?
As you will all know, yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. I won’t get all anti French here, but … well you all know who won (and lost)!
What I will do here is bring to light the fact that the old Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, which only a few years ago lost it’s Regimental status, and got subsumed into The Yorkshire Regiment, is now looking squarely down the barrel of something far more scary than a Frenchman’s musket. It would appear that the civil servants who care nothing of these things have decided that this august regiment should be on the cuts list in the next few years.
I have wailed about the loss of old regimental names before, and to no avail. This time I see no reason for there to be a different outcome. Write to your MP if you can, but I suspect that this is a forgone conclusion.
The reasons for losing this regiment are lost on me. As we all know from listening to the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, Geoffery Boycott, Fred Trueman etc etc Yorkshire a fiercely proud county. The arguments of the loss of The Ridings still run deep. The regiment has no problem recruiting. All these things would point to a healthy organisation that should be supported not cut.
Recently I was speaking to a member of a colonial military. He was saying that his organisation has contracted so much and lost so much of it’s uniqueness that most officers are claiming that it’s no different from a commercial organisation, and a lot of people no longer feel this is an organisation worth dying for.
We have been warned. We will probably ignore the warnings!
I hate the way they’ve axed the regiments, not least the Glorious Gloucesters; bad mistake. But who knows, maybe corporate sponsorship will change things… 1st Battalion Barclays Rifles? Sure to inspire unit loyalty…
0 likes