Colonel John Davidson

Colonel John Davidson, 1^st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment and the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, recalls the amalgamation of the Queen's and the East Surrey Regiments in 1959.

Then we met up at Brunswick, where the East Surreys were, for a four day bash of sports, drinking, dinners, balls in the sergeants’ mess, to meet our future partners. And that was a brilliant idea of the two COs, David Lloyd-Owen on our part and Clive Wallace, an erstwhile Irish rugby international who commanded the East Surreys. And we had a most wonderful time. We got to know each other and, to my mind, set up what was an extremely successful amalgamation.