Can someone fill me in here....ebay item.. The seller says 87th is an Irish regiment...what exactly does this mean...is the man Ulster Rifles..Inniskilling..North Irish Horse? Could someone be a member of a regiment that has a number but not a name...sorry if this seems stupid! Cheers Mark
The 87th Regiment were the Royal Irish Fusiliers. Where does the seller get the 87th from? I saw nothing in the pictures to suggest this. Sounds a bit odd, it would be like describing a member of the 1st Gloucestershire Regt as being '28th Regiment'. I have never seen any WWII documents using the old regiment numbers. Could they mean 87th Regiment, Royal Artillery? Steve
Originally posted by markinbelfast@Oct 19 2004, 12:15 PM Can someone fill me in here....ebay item.. The seller says 87th is an Irish regiment...what exactly does this mean...is the man Ulster Rifles..Inniskilling..North Irish Horse? Could someone be a member of a regiment that has a number but not a name...sorry if this seems stupid! Cheers Mark [post=28832]Quoted post[/post] Mark Prior to the Cardwell reforms of 1881 British Infantry was numbered. From 1881 most Infantry was associated with a particular county or area. However, it was often seen as a mark of distinction within a unit to use the "old" name. As late as WW2 soldiers in the KRRC were calling the unit "the 60th" or "The 60th Rifles". Below is an extract from a piece about the 1809 battle of Talavera in the Peninsula War. You can see which Regiments of foot were involved, and what these units later became, including 87th Foot. For the full article see here: http://www.britishbattles.com/peninsula/pe...la-talavera.htm "48th Foot, later the Northamptonshire Regiment and now the Royal Anglian * 53rd Foot, later the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and now the Light Infantry * 60th Foot, later the King’s Royal Rifles and now the Royal Green Jackets * 61st Foot, later the Gloucestershire Regiment and now the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment * 66th Foot, later the Royal Berkshire Regiment and now the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment * 83rd Foot, later the Royal Ulster Rifles and now the Royal Irish Regiment * 87th Foot, later the Royal Irish Fusiliers and now the Royal Irish Regiment * 88th Foot, the Connaught Rangers, disbanded in 1922 *
Quote "Prior to the Cardwell reforms of 1881 British Infantry was numbered. From 1881 most Infantry was associated with a particular county or area. However, it was often seen as a mark of distinction within a unit to use the "old" name. As late as WW2 soldiers in the KRRC were calling the unit "the 60th" or "The 60th Rifles"." Many of the regiments which were linked in 1881 continued to use the old numbers for their first and second battalions until the 2nd bns of most regiments were placed in suspended animation in 1948. The exceptions to this were the old 1st-25th foot regiments which were two battalion regiments prior to 1881 and did not need to be linked with any others and the 79th Cameron Highlanders which did not link with anyone else in 1881 and didn't raise a second battalion until 1897. Cheers Adam
The "Handbook on the british Army 1943 " which was issued to the Americans lists "infantry of the line" giving both name and number of the unit.
Cheers all...I emailed the seller asking was there proof of a link with the 87th and got this back..Hello. I purchased this from the family who stated he was in the 87th. Kind regards, Patrick Make of it what you will! Mark
Originally posted by markinbelfast@Oct 20 2004, 01:15 AM Cheers all...I emailed the seller asking was there proof of a link with the 87th and got this back..Hello. I purchased this from the family who stated he was in the 87th. Kind regards, Patrick Make of it what you will! Mark [post=28844]Quoted post[/post] Mark It's probably true. An old soldier would have told his family that he was in the 87th. As a kid my father told me that he was in the "60th Rifles" in WW2, and our neighbour said that he had been in "Forty Twa" - 42nd Foot or 'Black Watch'. My grandfather told me that, in WW1, he was in the "Dirty Half Hundred" - 50th Foot, later Royal West Kents. And so on....
Originally posted by BeppoSapone@Oct 19 2004, 05:49 PM [ 60th Foot, later the King’s Royal Rifles and now the Royal Green Jackets * This is one of the regiment which was amalgamated into the RGJ, the others being the Rifle Brigade (the old 95th, but they lost their line number in 1816) and the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. I once made the mistake of telling an ex-Sergeant Major in the KRRC, "Of course, you were in the Rifle Brigade". I then had to endure rather painfully about 30 minutes of lecture to explain to me in some detail that he was not! It took my eardrums some days to recover!
Some years ago I was shown the photo album of an officer of The Royal Irish Fusiliers. Included were photos taken on board the landing craft carrying the 1st Battalion to Termoli. One of a group of officers was captioned '1st Bn 87th'. This was October 1943.
When the Green Jackets had three battalions the 1st battalion was adopted the Ox and Bucks, the second the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the third was the Rifle Brigade. Each battalion holds it's traditions dear. Even now the battalions each recruit in their county areas. If the regiment gets downsized now or in the future - don't know if it has, then more than likely the battalion goes into suspended animation, a company in one of the other battalions would be / is dedicated to it to keeping the traditions alive. As far as I am aware that is why they have the name the royal green jackets as a recognition of their role as elite reconnaissance / skirmishers but without giving prefence to any of the three regiments in it's composition.
