Buried Battles & Veterans' Voices
End of an Era: The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment & The Queen's Regiment
As army cutbacks continued to bite, the Surrey regiments suffered two amalgamations between 1959 and 1966, emerging in the latter year as the Queen's Regiment. The heavy military presence in north Germany, as part of NATO's forces, continued to be maintained there were tours of duty to Aden, Hong Kong and, later, Bahrain. In 1969, with the eruption of sectarian violence in Northen Ireland, peacekeeping duties in Belfast and Derry presented a new challenge.
Colonel John Davidson
John Davidson, 1st 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.
Colonel John Davidson
John Davidson, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, and the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, remembers the fraternisation ban whiles stationed in North Germany.
Major John Rogerson
John Rogerson, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, recalls the misery, tedium and pleasure of the long voyage out to Aden and testing new vehicles in the desert, 1961-1962.
Sergeant Alan Caulkett
Alan Caulkett, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, remembers life in the Hong Kong garrison, 1962-1963.
Colonel Toby Sewell
Toby Sewell, the Queen's Regiment, remembers the end of the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment in 1966.
Sergeant Alan Caulkett
Alan Caulkett, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Regiment, remembers the tedium of service in Bahrain in 1968.
Sergeant Alan Caulkett
Alan Caulkett, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Regiment, remembers the ceremonial guarding of the Bank of England, 1969.
Sergeant Alan Caulkett
Alan Caulkett, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Regiment, recalls peacekeeping operations in Derry during 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland, 1969-1970.
Major General Mike Reynolds
Mike Reynolds, the Queen's Regiment, recalls some tense episodes when stationed in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s.
Related
A Sergeant of the Queen's patrolling the ancient walls of Derry City, Northern Ireland.
(Click to enlarge)
