Regimental Nicknames

Ah! But we had the best,
"Gentlemen of the Royal Engineers"

True, we were gentlemen

 

Ah! But we had the best,
"Gentlemen of the Royal Engineers"

True, we were gentlemen

Brian,

Absolutely, my late uncle Ron never let me forget that address to a Royal Engineer.

Regards
Tom

 

HUGE GRIN Smudger.

 

Durham Light Infantry - Devils Last Issue

 

Ah! But we had the best,
"Gentlemen of the Royal Engineers"

True, we were gentlemen

We called them the "Gingerbeers"

 

'Falling Plate' is a term the Army use on ranges all the time, they are metal targets that electronically drop when hit by a round. 'Targets will fall when hit, Watch and Shoot, Watch and Shoot'.

Some folk are just too touchy.

 

Have Realised that the 9th Battalion Royal Sussex Rgt has been missed off this thread..They were known as The Shiny Ninth.Never found out why, but there is an old song which "nine for the nine bright shiners" so maybe that was the source.

 

'Shiners' is a shared nickname - the Northumberland Fusiliers have this and the 10th Hussars were the 'Bright Shiners' or the 'Shiny Tenth' - due to their smart appearance on parade in both cases - or the gleaming cavalry accoutrements in the latter?

 

I've not seen these 2 mentioned, or I've missed them, The Paratroopers,- umbrella danglers, and The Gloucesters - slashers. also was there another name as they wore 2 cap badges from time in Korea?

 

I think it might have been the Back Badgers, but not certain.

 

As has been mentioned upthread, Second Battalion, The Essex Regiment were known as the Pompadours - perhaps related to the shade of purple employed on caps, badges and colours.

1/4th Essex were known to all as the Swede-Bashers despite the fact that a large proportion of their men - and an even larger proportion as attrition eroded the link to traditional recruiting grounds - were not from the 'wilds' of rural Essex but from East London.

I had thought that this was exclusive to the 1/4th Essex, but there is some suggestion that it extended to other battalions, notably 2/5th.

Perhaps a Burma expert can enlighten me, but I'm fairly sure that I saw reference to a Swede-Basher in that theatre, so it could be either a reference to the Essex boys there (I've temporarily forgotten which battalion that was - 1st?), or else they shared the name with another supposedly rural mob.

 

Swede-bashers is perhaps more of a generic dig at the yokel element of any regiment. That said, it might well have been used within the regiment by those at the London end against the rest, particularly as the TA battalions would have started off with a very local flavour.

 

You're probably correct and I assumed that much too, but then I read the memoirs of one of the battalion's padres and he mentioned how the name had stuck and they referred to themselves by that moniker, so it sounds as if it became more than generic.

 

The 13th Battalion of the King's Regiment gave themselves two nicknames whilst training for the first Chindit operation in India during late 1942.
The men who survived the harsh and arduous training regime and took part on Operation Longcloth, were known a 'Pukka' Kings.
The men who had fallen out through sickness, injury or general lack of fitness, were rather unkindly referred to as 'Jossers'.

 

Thanks for your replies Gents, either way, this was not meant as a complimentary nickname. I have always thought it somewhat unkind, directed as it was, towards men who were not exactly in their first flush of youthfulness.

 

Leinster Regiment
The Forty Tens
When given from the right number., answer from number 50

 

Although not the nickname for a complete regiment, I like the name 'The Red Devils' for the Parachute Regiment display team. They are quite an elite team.