10th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Hackney) was a battalion of the

London Regiment London Regiment may refer to two infantry regiments in the British Army: * London Regiment (1908–1938) The London Regiment was an infantry regiment in the British Army, part of the Territorial Force (renamed the Territorial Army in 1921). The ...

, the only all-

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

regiment in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The battalion existed between 1912 and 1955 and was later re-attached to the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

Royal Berkshire Regiment The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was created in 1881, as the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), by ...

and

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

History

1912-1918

It was formed in 1912 to replace the London Regiment's disbanded 10th (County of London) Battalion (

Paddington Rifles The Paddington Rifles was a unit of the Territorial Army. Origin The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer units composed of part-time soldiers ...

) and took over its battalion numeral. Now demolished, the new battalion's drill hall was sited on The Grove in Hackney. In September 1914 a 2/10th Battalion London Regiment was formed as part of 2/2nd London Brigade in 2/1st London Division, with the existing regiment renamed 1/10th Battalion. On its mobilisation in August 1914 1/0th Battalion moved to Bullswater Camp near

Pirbright Pirbright ( ) is a village in Surrey, England. Pirbright is in the borough of Guildford and has a civil parish council covering the traditional boundaries of the area. Pirbright contains one buffered sub-locality, Stanford Common near the nati ...

then the following month to

Crowborough Crowborough is a town and civil parish in East Sussex, England, in the Weald at the edge of Ashdown Forest in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 7 miles (11 km) south-west of Royal Tunbridge Wells and 33 miles (53 ...

- 2/9th Battalion joined it at Crowborough that November. The Hundred Days Offensive, August-november 1918 Q6911

1/10th formed part of 3rd London Brigade, itself part of

1st London Division The 56th (London) Infantry Division was a Territorial Army infantry division of the British Army, which served under several different titles and designations. The division served in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. ...

- that brigade was renamed 162nd Brigade in 54th (East Anglian) Division the following year. The battalion sailed from Plymouth for Gallipoli in late July 1915 with the rest of its brigade, stopping at

Mudros Moudros ( el, Μούδρος) is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lemnos, of which it is a municipal unit. It covers the entire eas ...

en route and landing at

Suvla Bay file:Suvla from Battleship Hill.jpg, View of Suvla from Battleship Hill Suvla () is a bay on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros. On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landi ...

on 11 August 1915. It was evacuated from Gallipoli that December and stationed in Egypt for the rest of the war. A 3/10th Battalion was also formed in 1915. On 7 July 1916, 1/10th and 3/10th Battalions London Regiment were both transferred to the corps of the

whilst retaining their London Regiment affiliation. 1/10th kept its old name whilst 3/10th absorbed 3rd/25th Battalion London Regiment and was renamed 10th (Reserve) Battalion. 2/10th and 3/10th Battalions were disbanded by or at the war's end. The 1/10th, 2/10th and 3/10th Battalions' First World War memorial is at the

Church of St John-at-Hackney St John at Hackney is a Grade II* listed Anglican Church in the heart of the London Borough of Hackney with a large capacity of around 2,000. It was built in 1792 to replace Hackney's medieval parish church, of which St Augustine's Tower rem ...

1920-1955

During the Territorial Force's 1920-1921 conversion into the Territorial Army 1/10th Battalion's transfer to the Rifle Brigade was formalised and it was renamed 10th London Regiment (Hackney), The Rifle Brigade. In 1929 it was transferred again, this time becoming 5th (Hackney) Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) and moving its headquarters to Hilman Street in Hackney. In June 1939 elements of 5th Battalion were split off to create a duplicate 7th (

Stoke Newington Stoke Newington is an area occupying the north-west part of the London Borough of Hackney in north-east London, England. It is northeast of Charing Cross. The Manor of Stoke Newington gave its name to Stoke Newington the ancient parish. The ...

) Battalion, which served on home defence throughout the Second World War. On the outbreak of war 5th Battalion was serving with its duplicate 7th Battalion in the 161st (Essex) Infantry Brigade,

54th (East Anglian) Division The 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division was raised in 1908 following the creation of the Territorial Force (TF) as the East Anglian Division. During the First World War the division fo ...

. 5th Battalion was an ordinary infantry battalion until 1942 when it was converted to No. 8 Beach Group, playing an important part in the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, where it landed with the

3rd Canadian Infantry Division The 3rd Canadian Division is a formation of the Canadian Army responsible for the command and mobilization of all army units in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as all units extending westwards from th ...

Juno Beach Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gold ...

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

itself and was responsible for the landing ground. Although still technically a Beach Group it served as infantry in the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...

, losing all but 16 officers and 136 other ranks by August 1944, when it was disbanded. In February 1945 5th Battalion was reformed and re-designated as a Bank Group and assisted

15th (Scottish) Infantry Division The 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that served during the Second World War. It was raised on 2 September 1939, the day before war was declared, as part of the Territorial Army (TA) and served in ...

in its

crossing of the Rhine The crossing of the Rhine River by a mixed group of barbarians which included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on the last day of the year 406 (December 31, 406). The crossing transgressed one of the Roman ...

in March 1945. After this it served as normal infantry until the battalion was disbanded in June 1945. Throughout its existence, some sources state the battalion was nicknamed ''The Hackney Ghurkhas''. 5th (Hackney) Battalion was revived as 648th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment,

(Royal Berkshire) in 1947 before finally being disbanded in 1955.

Battle honours

First World War

1/10th Battalion

Suvla View of Suvla from Battleship Hill Suvla () is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros. On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as par ...

* Landing at Suvla *

Scimitar Hill A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific sword type, but an assortment of different ...

Gallipoli 1915 The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles st ...

* Egypt 1915-17 * Gaza *

El Mughar al-Maghar was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated by the Givati Brigade during Operation Barak on 18 May 1948. It was located 12 km southwest of Ramla, situated north of Wadi al-Maghar. ...

Nebi Samwil An-Nabi Samwil, also called al-Nabi Samuil ( ar, النبي صموئيل ''an-Nabi Samu'il'', translit: "the prophet Samuel"), is a Palestinian village of nearly 220 inhabitants in the Quds Governorate of the State of Palestine, located in the ...

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

* Tell' Asur *

Megiddo Megiddo may refer to: Places and sites in Israel * Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley * Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel * Megiddo church (Israel) * Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * Megiddo Junction, ...

Sharon Sharon ( he, שָׁרוֹן ''Šārôn'' "plain") is a given name as well as an Israeli surname. In English-speaking areas, Sharon is now predominantly a feminine given name. However, historically it was also used as a masculine given name. In I ...

* Palestine 1917-18

2/10th Battalion

Ypres 1917 Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

Menin Road Menin may refer to: *Menin, the French name for the Belgian town of Menen *Menin, a little village in the municipality of Cesiomaggiore, Italy *Menin or MEN1, a tumor suppressor associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 *Měnín, villag ...

Polygon Wood In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...

* Passchendaele * Villers Bretonneux *

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

Somme 1918 Somme 1918 was a battle honour awarded to units of the British and Imperial Armies that took part in one or more of the following engagements in the Great War:T.F. MillFrance and Flanders(archive of Regiments.org page) *First Battle of the Somme (19 ...

Albert 1918 Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Albert C ...

Bapaume 1918 The Second Battle of Bapaume was a battle of the First World War that took place at Bapaume in France, from 21 August 1918 to 3 September 1918. It was a continuation of the Battle of Albert and is also referred to as the second phase of that ba ...

Hindenburg Line The Hindenburg Line (German: , Siegfried Position) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916–1917 on the Western Front during the First World War. The line ran from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne. In 191 ...

* Epéhy *

Pursuit to Mons Pursuit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Pursuit'' (1935 film), a 1935 American action film * ''Pursuit'' (1972 American film), a made-for-TV film directed by Michael Crichton * ''Pursuit'' (1972 Hong Kong film), a Shaw Brot ...

* France and Flanders 1917-18

Second World War

* Normandy Landing * Rhine * North West Europe 1944-45

Notes

References

{{LondonRegiment History of the London Borough of Hackney Battalions of the London Regiment (1908–1938) Military units and formations in London Military units and formations established in 1912 Military units and formations disestablished in 1955 Military units and formations of the British Army in World War II