Medals from the Royal Berkshire Collection

Foreword

The Medals from the Royal Berkshire Collection primarily tell the story of Berkshire’s two former County Regiments: The Berkshire Yeomanry; and the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, later the Royal Berkshire Regiment. The collection is also augmented by the two Berkshire Companies of Imperial Yeomanry that served during the Boer War, the 39th and 58th Companies.

The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 as The Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Berkshire Regiment), by the amalgamation of the old 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) (Hertfordshire) Regiment of Foot and the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, and consisted of two Regular Battalions; a Militia Battalion; and a Volunteer Battalion (formerly the 1st Berkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps). In 1885, following its service at the Battle of Tofrek, the regiment was granted Royal status, to become The Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire Regiment). In 1921, the named was reverse to The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s).

The regiment notably saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars; the Second Afghan War, where the Regiment was decimated at the Battle of Maiwand; the Second Boer War; the Great War; and the Second World War. During the Great War the Regiment raised a total of 16 Battalions, and was awarded two Victoria Crosses. In 1959 the Regiment was amalgamated with the Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh’s) to form the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire), which was further amalgamated in 1994 with the Gloucestershire Regiment to form the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire Regiment. Finally, in 2007, the regiment merged with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, the Royal Green Jackets, and the Light Infantry to form the regiment of today, The Rifles.

As well as the two county regiments, Berkshire has always had a rich military heritage, and currently hosts Combermere Barracks at Windsor, which houses many of the Household and Ceremonial troops based at Windsor Castle; Brook Barracks at Reading; and Denison Barracks at Hermitage, which was the one time home of the Royal School of Military Survey; as well as other logistic units stationed within the county. Consequently the scope of the medals in Royal Berkshire Collection is more varied than just those to the former County Regiment.

The Royal Berkshire Collection also includes various Police and Special Constabulary Medals to Berkshire units, as well as other related Berkshire medals; these will be sold in Part 2 later in 2023.