This infantry unit was raised in 1685 and subsequently served in many British Army campaigns during its long history. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. Dad was a real larrikin. [89], The 8th Battalion was raised in 1939 alongside the 9th Battalion with many veterans of the First World War. He died in Belfast in 1962 and is buried in the Roselawn Cemetery. There is nothing in the family history until he is posted to India on the 13th of April 1942. The entire unit was captured at Castelo de Vide, on the Spanish-Portuguese border, and taken back to France as prisoners of war. The Wartime Memories Project is a non profit organisation run by volunteers. In 1960, it was amalgamated with The Northamptonshire Regiment to form the 2nd East Anglian Regiment. The regiment was granted a Royal prefix in 1935 to mark King George Vs silver jubilee, as well as its own 250th anniversary, becoming The Royal Norfolk Regiment in the process. In 1854, it served at Sevastopol during the Crimean War (1854-56), before moving to Canada two years later. It is incorrect because it recruited from all over North Norfolk, with companies being raised by towns as far apart as Great Yarmouth and Dereham. [105], The Royal Norfolk Regiment held an anniversary on 25 April for the Battle of Almansa, which they inherited along with the regimental nickname of the "Holy Boys" from the 9th Regiment of Foot. He survived the war and went back to Belfast, but couldn't settle in civilian life and rejoined REME, serving in Palestine. [84][85], The 4th, 5th and 6th battalions, all part of the Territorial Army, served in the Far East. I inquired a lot about them but all I could find out was that they had disappeared-vanished. The Fourteenth Army was commanded by the popular and highly respected William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim. The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum archive holds a unique record of many soldiers who were on active service with the regiment during the First World War. One of them, 1/5th Battalion, included the Sandringham Company, raised on the royal estate. Then the next bit of family history starts around Hull after the evacuation. (d.2nd Aug 1943), Nelson Clifford Reginald. [88] Due to an acute shortage of infantrymen in the British Army at the time, the battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ian Freeland, and division were disbanded in late August 1944 and its men used as replacements for other British divisions in the 21st Army Group who had also suffered heavy casualties in Normandy. 2nd Btn. This coincided with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802), during which the regiment took part in the captures of Tobago (1793), Martinique (1794) and St Lucia (1794). The 1st Royal Norfolks had suffered 20 officers and 260 other ranks killed with well over 1,000 wounded or missing in 11 months of almost continuous combat. 12 Militia and Special Reserve battalions [106], The following were the regiment's battle honours:[2]. It was formed as the Norfolk Regiment in 1881 under the Childers Reforms of the British Army as the county regiment of Norfolk by merging the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot with the local Militia and Rifle Volunteers battalions.[1]. [81] During the battle, members of the Royal Norfolks were victims of a German war crime at Le Paradis in the Pas-de-Calais on 26 May. ", 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk), 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire), 3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot), 208th (2/1st Norfolk and Suffolk) Brigade, 205th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), 220th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home), Thomas Twisleton, 13th Baron Saye and Sele, "Regiments involved in the Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1880", "Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907", "Massacre of Royal Norfolk Soldiers at Le Paradis", "The Officers of the 70th Young Soldiers Battalion, DLI, October 1941", "Royal Norfolk Museum Moves to Norwich Castle", Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum: Norfolk Museums Service, 5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment The True Story, Imperial War Museum, War Memorials Register, 13th (1st Somersetshire) (Prince Albert's Light Infantry), 14th (Buckinghamshire The Prince of Wales's Own), 19th (1st Yorkshire, North Riding Princess of Wales's Own), 42nd (The Royal Highland) (The Black Watch), 45th (Nottinghamshire Sherwood Foresters), 49th (Hertfordshire - Princess Charlotte of Wales's), 51st Regiment of Foot (Cape Breton Regiment), 51st (2nd York, West Riding, The King's Own Light Infantry), 61st (South Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot, 77th (East Middlesex) (Duke of Cambridge's Own), 85th (Bucks Volunteers) (The King's Light Infantry), 91st (Princess Louise's Argyllshire Highlanders), 97th (The Earl of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot, 98th (Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot, 103rd Regiment of Foot (Volunteer Hunters), 103rd Regiment of Foot (King's Irish Infantry), 107th (Queen's Own Royal Regiment of British Volunteers), Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), Prince Albert's (Somerset Light Infantry), Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment), Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment), Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment), Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's), Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish Fusiliers), Princess Louise's (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians), Liverpool Rifles, King's (Liverpool Regiment), Liverpool Irish, King's (Liverpool Regiment), Liverpool Scottish, King's (Liverpool Regiment), Leeds Rifles, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), Cinque Ports Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, Hallamshire Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Royal_Norfolk_Regiment&oldid=1137034310, Military units and formations established in 1881, Military units and formations of the United Kingdom in the Korean War, Regiments of the British Army in World War II, Regiments of the British Army in World War I, Military units and formations disestablished in 1959, 1881 establishments in the United Kingdom, Military units and formations in Burma in World War II, Military units and formations in British Malaya in World War II, CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 17151717: Lt-Gen. Hon. During the attack I did not see anything of Capt Pattrick. May Staying at Yarmouth. And the actual casualty list, recorded between 12th and 31st August 1915, is 11 Officers and 151 Other Ranks killed. Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. [14] The regiment was renamed the 9th Regiment of Foot in 1751 when all British regiments were given numbers for identification instead of using their Colonel's name. [25] In November 1805, shortly after the Battle of Trafalgar, the Regiment suffered a significant misfortune: as the 1st battalion sailed for the Hanover Expedition a storm wrecked the troop transport Ariadne on the northern French coast and some 262 men were taken prisoner. The regiment was raised for the English Army in Gloucester by Colonel Henry Cornewall as Henry Cornewall's Regiment of Foot at the request of James II in 1685 as part of the response to the Monmouth Rebellion. William Robert Howell 2nd Btn. And They Loved Not Their Lives Unto Death: The History of Worstead and Westwicks War Memorial and War Dead, A dispatch by Sir Ian Hamilton reported, . A memorial plaque was placed on the barn wall in 1970. An officer of the 9th Foot at the Battle of Ferozeshah, 1845, Shako, 9th (The East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot, 1844. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Pte. Terms of Service apply. [67], On 12 August 1915, the 1/5th Battalion suffered heavy losses at Gallipoli when it became isolated during an attack. Captain Frank Peter Barclay, was awarded the Military Cross, and Lance-Corporal Davis the Military Medal. The treatment of prisoners after the fall of Kut al Amara in April 1916 mirrors what later befell the Royal Norfolks in the Far East during the Second World War. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources. They were then fired upon by two machine guns; 97 were killed and the bodies buried in a shallow pit. When the 50th Anniversary of Gallipoli came round in 1965, references to the Sandringham Company, Battalion and Regiment first started to emerge when three New Zealand veterans claimed to have seen a British regiment marching up a sunken road to be swallowed up in a cloud. [78] Five members of the Royal Norfolks, the highest number of any British Army regiment during the Second World War, were awarded the Victoria Cross: The 1st Battalion was a regular army unit that was stationed in India at the outbreak of war and was recalled to Britain, arriving in July 1940 during the Battle of Britain. It took part in the occupation of Germany with the British Army of the Rhine, before going on to serve in Korea during 1951-52. [83], The 2nd Battalion, still as part of the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, also served in the Far East in the Burma campaign participating in battles such as the Battle of Kohima until the end of the war against Japan in 1945. Bedwell William Charles. The Royal Norfolk Regiment Museum, which includes the relevant archives, covers the history of the Regiment from 1685 and on through the amalgamations to show how the 9th of Foot's traditions are still maintained within A (Norfolk) Company of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Anglian Regiment today. [96] Its exhibits illustrate the history of the Regiment from its 17th-century origins to its incorporation into the Royal Anglian Regiment in 1964, along with many aspects of military life in the Regiment. He said as they made their way down into one of the basements it appeared as if there were lots of burned and distorted bodies standing around, only find out that they were all store mannequins. We are now on Facebook. By the end of the war in Europe, the 1st Battalion had gained a remarkable reputation and was claimed by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, the 21st Army Group commander, as 'second to none' of all the battalions in the 21st Army Group. Royal Norfolk Regiment - Vintage Photograph 1075923. [45][46][47][48][49][50][51], The regiment fought in the Crimean War at the siege of Sevastopol in winter of 1854[52] In 1866 it landed at Yokohama, Japan as part of the British garrison stationed there in protection of British commercial and diplomatic interests in the recently opened treaty port. (d.9th June 1944), Spilling Clifford Frederick William. Royal Norfolk Regiment (d.28th May 1940), Sgt. [26] The Times reported that some 300 men had been captured, including 11 officers (two of them colonels). Records of Royal Norfolk Regiment from other sources. The story goes that he slept to attention! Please see the Copyright Notice. We know he was at Kohimaand and that he was wounded. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below. Private 1432, Cecil Ernest Bullimore, killed in action on 12th August 1915. Lieutenant John Spring, 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment, c1834, Colour party of the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment, 1812. This, in turn, converted into a battalion of The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1964. A small element of the Norfolks managed to reach a small vineyard and another element managed to get to a group of small cottages where they were joined by Colonel Proctor-Beauchamp and the Adjutant. Pte. [9], In 1701, over the objections of General William Selwyn, the threat of war led the English government to post an Independent Company of regular soldiers, detached from the 2nd Regiment of Foot, to Bermuda, where the militia continued to function as a standby in case of war or insurrection. Each entry records the individual soldiers number, rank, name, and battalion or battalions. For the Canadian regiment, see, British infantry regiments of the First World War, The other regiment linked with Norfolk, the. to help with the costs of keeping the site running. I am aware that William was listed as a full Corporal in March 1940, when my natural mother, Kathleen was born in the South Shields area of Tyneside. Some resources are difficult to classify. [27], In June 1808, the regiment sailed to Portugal for service in the Peninsular War. A myth grew up long after the War that the men had advanced into a mist and simply disappeared. It was originally made from the bronze cannon captured during the Crimean War (1854-1856). It was the last British battalion to evacuate the city of Corunna after burying Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, who had been fatally wounded there. [Norwich Record Society: Vols I,VI,VII (1931/5/6)] Militia Regiment and Musters. Pte. The Royal Norfolk Regiment | National Army Museum Regiments and Corps The Royal Norfolk Regiment This infantry unit was raised in 1685 and subsequently served in many British Army campaigns during its long history. They served with the British Fourteenth Army, known as the 'Forgotten Army' as their actions were generally over-looked and the main focus was in the North West Europe campaign. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Other battalions from the regiment served in Palestine and on the Western Front. [19] It surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga in autumn 1777 and its men then spent three years as prisoners of war as part of the Convention Army. It was captured at Saratoga the following year and interned for the rest of the conflict. Pte. [59] Pte. Simply enter your email address below to start receiving our monthly email newsletter. [97], St Saviour's Chapel in Norwich Cathedral is the chapel of the Royal Norfolk and Royal Anglian Regiments. The regiment raised a 2nd Battalion for a third and final time in 1857. Family History - Royal Norfolks.jpg 1,354 635; 355 KB. [63] The 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion, formed in October 1914 as a duplicate of the 1/6th (Cyclist) Battalion, had much the same history as the 1/6th Battalion and remained in the United Kingdom until May 1918 when it was disbanded. (d.8th July 1944). In fact, they lay where they fell until 1919 when the battalions Chaplin the Reverend Pierrepoint Edwards found them and reported at the time: We have found the 5th Norfolks there were 180 in all; 122 Norfolk and a few Hants and Suffolks with 2/4th Cheshires. Want to know what life was like during the War? Cunningham led a failed attempt to relieve the besieged city of Derry. Supported by recent research, it dispels many of the myths attached to the battalion including disappearing into a cloud of smoke. At first, like others, I thought that the officers and men who are now reported missing had returned to other trenches but later I found that this was not the case. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest award available to the armed forces for gallantry in action with the enemy. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 261046 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Units became separated from each other and HQ Company had formed a defensive position based at the Duriez farmhouse. [70] However, both battalions were disbanded in 1918: the 2/4th in June and the 2/5th in May. L/Cpl. The summary includes a brief description of the collection(s) (usually including the covering dates of the collection), What happened to the Sandringhams during the disastrous Dardanelles campaign in the middle of their first battle, on the afternoon of August 12 1915? Privacy Policy and All 300 survivors were captured. The whole thing quite bears out the original theory that they did not go very far on, but got mopped up one by one, all except the ones who got into the farm.. $12.90 . [87] The 59th Division was one of the follow-up units after D-Day in June 1944 and was considered by General Sir Bernard Montgomery as one of his best divisions. 26th May 1940 Road Blocks 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment were holding Le Paradis, Le-Cornet Malo and Riez-du-Vinage in an attempt to block the enemy's road to Dunkirk. [53] The regiment saw action at Kabul again in 1879 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 261046 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. Stanley John "Tanker" Barker 2nd Btn. Bill became Regimental Sergeant Major of the Regiment and trained fresh troops for the now famous D-Day invasion of France in June 1944 which eventually led to the fall of Nazi Germany. The years covered run from August 1914 through to the early months of 1919 and the return home of prisoners of war. (d.2nd August 1943), Mann Horace Frederick. Norfolk Yeomanry (The King's Own Royal Regiment), Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Debt of Honour Register, Report problems or contribute information. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. On its retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940, 97 of its men were captured and shot by an SS unit at Le Paradis. The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum displays are divided into two main sections: the 20th century; covering two World Wars plus the National Service years, including the Korean War and the. [103][104] Regimental tradition claimed that it was granted to the regiment by Queen Anne in 1707 in recognition of its service at the Battle of Almanza. (d.21st July 1944), Littlejohns Leslie Victor . I know absolutely nothing about how the officers and men disappeared. (d.19th May 1940), Parker Kenneth Alfred. Davis Frederick Lloyd. After the war, Bill left the Army to become Mulbarton's postman for 17 years. In 1733, official permission was given to change from bright green back to light orange facings. To find out more about how we collect, store and use your personal information, read our Privacy Policy. Posted by Paul Nixon. And there is an excellent article printed in the Lynn News from a survivor: I did not see anything of the missing officers after I got lost. recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. [63] They saw their first action of the war against the German Army at the Battle of Mons in August 1914. If you have any unwanted [16], Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and the end of the war, the regiment moved to a posting at St Augustine, Florida, where it remained until 1769. This infantry unit was raised in 1685 and subsequently served in many British Army campaigns during its long history. Our If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small 200 hundred logs and journals, several hundred. We knew that some of the men had been killed and others been wounded, so it did not seem at all unlikely that these others had been captured by the enemy. William John O'Brien Daunt, CBE, 19511959: Brig. [67] A BBC TV drama, All the King's Men (1999), starring David Jason as Captain Frank Beck, was based upon their story. It has deployed on a variety of operations across the UK and around the world, including the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may not be copied, and the links within them may not be harvested for use on your own web pages. William Herbert McQuitty 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment. Barker Stanley John. Meanwhile, 2nd Battalionwas back in India when the First World War started. The Suffolk Regiment. However, one of the aims of this project is to provide access to the unique body of information in a way that appeals to the wider community, by providing context in an engaging way, Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum, Shirehall, Market Avenue, Norwich NR1 3JQ. This led to other theories that they had been kidnapped by aliens who had landed in flying saucers and a book and TV adaptation depicted a highly charged new solution to the mysteries, suggesting they had been executed by the Turks. Cpl. He was court marshalled again. Pte. 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment saw action during the Battle of France and were evacuated from Dunkirk. If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here. It was formed as the Norfolk Regiment in 1881 under the Childers Reforms of the British Army as the county regiment of Norfolk . Among other monuments it contains memorial stones to the 9th Foot/Royal Norfolk Regiment[98] and to the 1st Bn Royal Norfolk Regiment in the Korean War. He took his discharge in India, as did my mother and they married there then my brother was born there. Pte. photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. Abrahams James Michael. Papers and photographs relating to the general and in particular the social history of the Royal Navy from the 17th century to the present day. Supported by recent research, this article may perhaps help to clarify what actually happened to the 5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment and acknowledges their bravery and tenacity in the face of an extremely determined enemy. The 74th Division was then sent to reinforce the BEF in France, where the 12th Norfolks were detached to the 31st Division, with which the battalion served during the final Hundred Days Offensive. Pte. The Musters Returns for Divers Hundreds in the County of Norfolk transcribed by Farrow, Miss Margaret Arabella.