The King's Regiment (Men-at-Arms)

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This is a list of battalions of the King's Regiment (Liverpool), which existed as an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1958. Music for the ceremony in the Palace Gardens was provided by His Majesty’s Band of the Royal Marines, the Band of the Grenadier Guards, and the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment, playing in harmony in tribute to a splendid joint force occasion. My Dad once said that they were sometimes greeted with a bleating "Baa,aa,aa..." sound from seasoned troops, meaning "Here come more lambs to the slaughter", as they passed by with their fresh faces, unsoiled uniforms, and obviously new equipment. Such sights and sounds were to become commonplace as the days went by however - it has been estimated that half the British Army in the latter half of 1918 was made up of young lads of 19 years or less. To focus my search, I concentrated on the Norfolk squad of 100, because my father was number 85 in that group, and I began the search with the fourteen names above him - it yielded two service records. Then I started investigating names from 84 downwards - and by the time I'd done seven searches there were another two records. After that however, there was a long barren period when no new records came to light. I became a little disheartened and decided to analyse the four records I'd already uncovered before completing the remaining searches.

Amalgamated with 1st Manchesters to form the 1st Battalion, The King's Regiment (Manchester and Liverpool), September 1958 [1] The battles and sieges of the Marlborough Wars attended by the King’s Regiment (Queen’s as it was then) were numerous. The four major battles are well known but some of the sieges are less well known and did not earn battle honours. An article ‘Marlborough’s Sieges’ by C T Atkinson in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol XIII no. 52, Winter 1934, lists all the sieges that involved the British army and the units that attended. It is generally accepted that the 8th Regiment was at the siege of Lille but they are not one of the five listed battalions (16th 18th 21st 23rd and 24th). The sieges attended by the 8th are in the list below together with the four big battles. Prior to the firefighters' strikes of 2003, the regiment received basic firefighting training to provide emergency cover. The battalion operated in the Greater Manchester area during the strikes as part of Operation Fresco. In two days they drove forward two miles, and the war diary records that the advance continued throughout the month with strong enemy positions being overcome at Meault and Mametz. The end of August saw the battalion at Maurepas having covered a distance of about 10 miles in 23 days. I think, though I can't prove it, that the incident he described to me that evening is the one recorded in the battalion diary for April 28th 1918 four days after he stepped into the front line for the first time. If I'm correct, it's likely that my Dad was in "C" Company. The diary entry (Figure 16) reads:The Grenadier Guards are the most senior infantry regiment in the British Army, specialising in Light Role Infantry operations, and kept ready to deploy anywhere in the world at short notice, while also carrying out ceremonial duties in London and Windsor. In their operational role they have fought with distinction and honour in every major conflict, and the regiment has been awarded 78 Honorary Distinctions (commonly known as Battle Honours), forty-five of which appear on the Regimental Colours. I have pics of that area as well, but not as good. An aerial picture from 1914/15 showing Becelaere looking towards Polygon Wood is shown in my book "Defending the Ypres Front 1914-1918". Unfortunately the area of Reutel is not very clear. In September 1952 1st King's, after acclimatising in Hong Kong and Battle Training in Japan, deployed to Korea under command 29th Infantry Brigade Group. The Companies deployed into defensive positions at the beginning of October. The war was in stalemate and much like the Great War, with the men in deep trenches under constant harassing fire. The average age was 19 and many of the men had been brought up during the Blitz so they did not consider the conditions too bad, and the food was better than at home. Offensive activity was limited to patrolling, until May 1953.

In 1970 the Regiment regained its own identity, still as the King's Regiment, with a cap badge of the Hanover horse superimposed over the Manchester's fleur de lis. I've been astonished at the results. Beginning with very little hard evidence, it has been possible to build a comprehensive and detailed narrative of my father's wartime service that goes far beyond my expectations at the start of the project. The usual working parties. Two shells fell among 'C' Coy as they were moving off to work. Sec Lieut Ball was wounded. 7 OR killed and 23 wounded some of them seriously." My father's card (Figure 10) gave me little new information but was invaluable in confirming for the first time all of the investigation and deduction that had gone before. xxv] Later, tests showed that a search for anything other than simply Initial, Surname & Number fails to deliver a result.

Object Details

The fact that the estimate of total casualties is more than 100 reflects the broad assumptions in the calculation, quite probably a few survived unscathed - but it seems clear that almost all of the ‘Liverpool Boys’ would have made a personal sacrifice. The Western Front Association for preserving the MoD’s archive of pension record cards which, when digitised will become an outstanding resource for researchers.

The analysis revealed a complete alphabetic series of names from AKRILL to YATES with consecutive KLR numbers. Here was a coherent group of men of the Kings Liverpool Regiment who at some time were split up and transferred to other regiments. (Figure 9). The King’s Company guards the body of the Sovereign in life and even after death. Few will forget the sight of members of The King’s Company standing vigil by and then bearing Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin at Her funeral in September 2022. Herbert's were correct, a man's medals were supposed to be inscribed with his regimental details as they were on the day he landed overseas. My father's records seem to have been subject to administrative difficulties during the German spring offensive.would have been virtually identical, their medal inscriptions were different. Herbert Marshall's were stamped "L' POOL. R." with his Liverpool Regt no. "95990" while Robbie Robinson's were marked "NORF. R." with his Norfolk Regt no. "49085". Figure 21: 7th Norfolk's advance 8th Aug. - 28 th Oct.1918 overlaid (in red) onto a map published in The Times on 27 th Aug 1918. Locations from April to July referred to in the text are underlined in red.

Nine days in Base Hospital near the French coast culminated in transfer to England where he was admitted to the North Evington War Hospital, Leicester on 24th November 1918. When my mother told me that Dad was in hospital when the armistice was signed - she was right, but it was not for the reason I had assumed - it wasn't because of gas poisoning, it was because he was a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic that spread through the army and across the world in 1918. [xxiv] Discovering that fact was a breakthrough that came to light in an extraordinary way. Overall, the two-month 25 mile advance from Morlancourt to Epehy had cost the battalion 37 officers and 634 other ranks, about two thirds of its official peacetime strength. The 'Liverpool boys' had lost another six killed and at least 13 wounded. [xxi]