The King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Light Infantry Militia, later the 3rd Battalion,

North Staffordshire Regiment The North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was created on 21 April 1758 from the 2nd Battalio ...

was an auxiliary regiment raised in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

of England in 1853. Under the Cardwell and

Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms of 1881 reorganised the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were done by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers during 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms. The reorganisation was ...

it became part of the North Staffordshire Regiment and saw active service during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it trained thousands of reinforcements for the battalions serving overseas. After a shadowy postwar existence it was formally disbanded in 1953.

Background

The universal obligation to military service in the

Shire levy A shire levy was a means of military recruitment in medieval England and Scotland. As opposed to a levy of noble families, a shire levy was effected within a geographical administrative area (a shire), entailing the mobilisation of able-bodied men ...

was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by two Acts of 1557, which placed selected men, the '

Trained Bands Trained Bands were companies of part-time militia in England and Wales. Organised by county, they were supposed to drill on a regular basis, although this was rarely the case in practice. The regular army was formed from the Trained Bands in the ev ...

', under the command of Lords Lieutenant appointed by the monarch. This is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. The Staffordshire Trained Bands saw some active service during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. The Militia was re-established in 1662 after the Restoration of the Monarchy, and was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' in contrast to the 'Standing Army' that was tainted by association with the

New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...

that had supported the military dictatorship of

The Protectorate The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, refers to the period from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659 during which England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and associated territories were joined together in the Com ...

. However, the militia declined in the years after the

Peace of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne of ...

in 1713.Hay, pp. 348–50. Under threat of French invasion during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

a series of Militia Acts from 1757 reinvigorated county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by the lord lieutenant. The Midland counties further from the threat of invasion were generally apathetic: Staffordshire was given a quota of 560 men to raise, but the county leaders failed to do so, and paid a fine instead.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Western, Appendices A & B. It was not until the

War of American Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, that the Staffordshire Militia was reformed on 7 February 1777. It served until 1783 and was called out again at the beginning of the

French Revolutionary War The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

. Additional quotas (the Supplementary Militia) were called up in 1797 – Staffordshire's quota rose to 2095 men – and the following year the 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia were formed from these men. In 1799 there was a recruiting drive to get militiamen to volunteer for the Regulars. The colonel of the 2nd Staffordshire Militia, Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, previously a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the 1st Regiment, offered to raise a regiment for foreign service and soon obtained 300 recruits from the three Staffordshire regiments; however,

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

objected and the plan was scrapped. The following year the militia quotas were reduced, the 2nd and 3rd Staffordshires were disbanded and their remaining men incorporated into the 1st Regiment. After the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...

broke down in 1803, the militia were embodied once more, and a new 2nd Staffordshire Militia was formed, commanded by Francis Perceval Eliot, previously colonel of the 3rd Regiment, who was commissioned on 28 June. After several periods of duty guarding the royal residences, George III commanded in 1805 that the 1st Staffordshire Militia should become the King's Own Staffordshire Militia, and it was augmented by 200 men from the 2nd Regiment, which was disbanded. The King's Own served until the end of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

.Frederick, p. 309.1st Staffs Militia at Regiments.org.
/ref>Staffordshire Militia at School of Mars.
/ref>

1852 Reforms

After the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

there was another long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers were progressively reduced. The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act of 1852, enacted during a renewed period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:Dunlop, pp. 42–5. * 1. 'Whenever a state of war exists between Her Majesty and any foreign power'. * 2. 'In all cases of invasion or upon imminent danger thereof'. * 3. 'In all cases of rebellion or insurrection'.

King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Light Infantry

Under this Act, two new militia regiments were raised in Staffordshire in 1853, the King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Light Infantry Militia and the

King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia The King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia, later the 4th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment was an auxiliary regiment raised in Staffordshire in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England in 1853. Under the Cardwell Reforms, ...

; the original regiment was redesignated the

King's Own (1st Staffordshire) Militia The King's Own (1st Staffordshire) Militia, later the 3rd and 4th Battalions, South Staffordshire Regiment was an auxiliary regiment in Staffordshire in the West Midlands of England. From 1662, and again after 1777, the regiment's primary role wa ...

.The new 2nd Regiment was raised on 5 January 1853 at

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

, and gained its Light Infantry designation in March.Frederick, p. 312.Hay, pp. 397–8.King's Own (2nd Staffs) LI at Regiments.org.
/ref> The new regiment established its headquarters (HQ) at

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

; the

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

was the Hon Edward Littleton, MP, with Henry, Earl of Uxbridge, MP, formerly of the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

, as his

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

. (The Earl of Uxbridge succeeded as 2nd Marquess of Anglesey the following year, and resigned his commission in 1855.)''Army List'', various dates.''Harts'', various dates.''Burke's'': Hatherton. When the list of militia precedence (originally assigned by lot) was revised in 1855, the 2nd Staffordshires received the vacant number 58th, ranking them above the 1st Staffordshires at 66th; in line with most other militia regiments the Staffordshires paid little attention to the additional number.Baldry.
/ref>Parkyn.
/ref>

Crimean War and after

War having broken out with Russia in March 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

, the militia were called out for home defence. The 2nd Staffords were embodied for full-time service from 19 December 1854 to 16 June 1856. The regiment was embodied again on 28 September 1857 to release regulars for service in suppressing the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

. By May 1859 it was serving at

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, moving to the

Curragh The Curragh ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the ...

the following month, and then to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in December, where it stayed until the end of its embodied service. It was disembodied on 31 July 1860. During this period it supplied 417 trained men to the regular army. Thereafter the regiment carried out the usual round of annual training. The Hon Edward Littleton succeeded as 2nd Baron Hatherton in 1863; he continued in command until 1883, when he became the regiment's Honorary Colonel. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war.Grierson, 84–5, 113, 120.Spiers, ''Late Victorian Army'', pp. 126–7. In 1870 all three Staffordshire Militia regiments took part in a field day on Stafford Common.

Cardwell reforms

Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the

Cardwell Reforms The Cardwell Reforms were a series of reforms of the British Army undertaken by Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell between 1868 and 1874 with the support of Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstone paid little attention ...

of 1872, militia regiments were brigaded with their local Regular and

Volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

battalions – for the King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Militia this was with the 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot, the 98th (The Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot and the King's Own (3rd Staffordshire) Rifle Militia in Sub-District No 20 (County of Stafford). The Militia now came under the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

rather than their county lords lieutenant.

Whittington Barracks DMS Whittington, otherwise known as Defence Medical Services Whittington (formerly Whittington Barracks), is a military base in Whittington, Staffordshire, near Lichfield in England. It is home to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum, the Headquarte ...

was completed on Whittington Heath outside Lichfield in 1881 as a combined depot for the north and south Staffordshire brigades. Although often referred to as brigades, the sub-districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the ''Army List'' from December 1875. This assigned regular and militia units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia formed 2nd Brigade of 2nd Division,

VI Corps 6 Corps, 6th Corps, Sixth Corps, or VI Corps may refer to: France * VI Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry formation of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars * VI Corps (Grande Armée), a formation of the Imperial French army du ...

. The brigade would have mustered at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in time of war.

3rd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment

The

of 1881 took Cardwell's reforms further, with the linked regiments becoming two-battalion regiments and the militia formally joining them. On 1 July the 64th and 98th Foot became the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the

Prince of Wales's (North Staffordshire Regiment) The North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was created on 21 April 1758 from the 2nd Battal ...

(the 'North Staffs') and the King's Own (2nd Staffordshire) Light Infantry Militia became the 3rd Battalion (the 3rd Staffordshire Militia became the 4th Bn). Militia battalions now had a large

cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics), a politically controlled appointment to an institution in order to circumvent the state and bring control to th ...

of permanent staff (about 30). Around a third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army. Although Cardwell's army corps scheme had been abandoned, the

Stanhope Memorandum The Stanhope Memorandum was a document written by Edward Stanhope, the Secretary of State for War of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, on 8 December 1888. It set out the overall strategic aims of the British Empire, and the way the Br ...

of 1888 proposed that the home defence army should consist of three corps, of which the first two would be regular, and the bulk of the third would be militia, while the rest of the militia and the volunteers would be assigned to fixed defences round London and the seaports.

Second Boer War

After the disasters of

Black Week Black Week refers to the week of 10–17 December 1899 during the Second Boer War, when the British Army suffered three devastating defeats by the Boer Republics at the battles of Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. In total, 2,776 British s ...

at the start of the

in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa, and many militia units were called out to replace them for home defence. The 3rd North Staffs was embodied from 2 May to 15 October 1900. However, the war – which seemed to be over in late 1900 – dragged on for a further two years. The 3rd North Staffs volunteered for overseas service and were embodied again on 10 February 1902. The battalion embarked with a strength of 27 officers and 525 other ranks (ORs) and disembarked at

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on 26 March 1902. It proceeded to

Vryburg Vryburg () is a large agricultural town with a population of 48,400 situated in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality of the North West Province (South Africa), North West Province of South Africa. It is the seat and the industrial ...

and was employed in fortifying the town. Then it was sent south to guard of railway, constructing and manning

blockhouses A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

at half-mile intervals. On one occasion two of the blockhouses were heavily attacked. A company proceeding up the line was ambushed, but the Boers were driven off by the

Armoured train An armoured train is a railway train protected with armour. Armoured trains usually include railway wagons armed with artillery, machine guns and autocannons. Some also had slits used to fire small arms from the inside of the train, a facili ...

. A 100-strong party from the battalion took part in a big 'drive' to the north of Vryburg which resulted in 20,000 head of cattle being captured and 600 Boers surrendering. The war was ended by the

Treaty of Vereeniging The Treaty of Vereeniging was a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other. This settlement provided f ...

on 31 May. The battalion went home and was disembodied on 23 September 1902. During its short campaign it had lost 10 ORs killed or died of disease. The participants received the

Queen's South Africa Medal The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps wer ...

with the clasps for 'Cape Colony' and 'South Africa 1902'.

Special Reserve

After the Boer War, the future of the militia was called into question. There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia,

Yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army, British Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Army Reserve, descended from volunteer British Cavalry, cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of ...

and Volunteers) to take their place in the six army corps proposed by the

Secretary of State for War The Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The Secretary of State for War headed the War Office and ...

St John Brodrick William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 185613 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alli ...

. However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out. Under the more sweeping

Haldane Reforms The Haldane Reforms were a series of far-ranging reforms of the British Army made from 1906 to 1912, and named after the Secretary of State for War, Richard Burdon Haldane. They were the first major reforms since the " Childers Reforms" of the ...

of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the

Special Reserve The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 with the function of maintaining a reservoir of manpower for the British Army and training replacement drafts in times of war. Its formation was part of the Haldane Reforms, military reforms im ...

(SR), a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for regular units serving overseas in wartime, rather like the earlier Militia Reserve. The battalion became the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment, on 5 July 1908.

World War I

The 3rd Bn was embodied at Whittington Barracks on the outbreak of

on 4 August 1914 under the command of Lt-Col C.H. James, who had been CO since 31 July 1911. Among the other officers was Capt the Hon William Littleton, grandson of the regiment's first CO.James, p. 98.North Staffs at Long, Long Trail.
/ref> The battalion proceeded to its war station at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, where it served alongside the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment (the former 1st Stafford Militia). While there it probably assisted in the formation of 10th (Reserve) Battalion, North Staffords, from

Kitchener's Army The New Army, often referred to as Kitchener's Army or, disparagingly, as Kitchener's Mob, was an (initially) all-volunteer portion of the British Army formed in the United Kingdom from 1914 onwards following the outbreak of hostilities in the Fi ...

volunteers. In May 1915 the 3rd Bn moved to

Seaham Seaham is a seaside town in County Durham, England. Located on the Durham Coast, Seaham is situated south of Sunderland and east of Durham. The town grew from the late 19th century onwards as a result of investments in its harbour and c ...

, and by November 1916 it was at

Forest Hall Forest Hall is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in the United Kingdom. It is a north eastern suburb of Newcastle and lies six kilometres from the city centre. It borders Killingworth to the north, Holystone to the east and Benton to the so ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, where it stayed for the remainder of the war in the Tyne Garrison. As well as its defence responsibilities, the battalion's role was to train and form drafts of reservists, special reservists, recruits and returning wounded for the 1st Bn North Staffs serving with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front (the 2nd Bn spent the war in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and would have required fewer reinforcements). Thousands of reinforcements would have passed through the 3rd Bn. It was finally disembodied on 28 July 1919, when its remaining personnel were posted to the 1st Bn.

Postwar

The SR resumed its old title of Militia in 1921 but like most militia battalions the 3rd North Staffs remained in abeyance after World War I. By the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1939, there were no officers listed for the battalion. The Militia was formally disbanded in April 1953.

Heritage and ceremonial

Honorary Colonels

The following served as Honorary Colonel of the regiment: * Edward Littleton, 2nd Lord Hatherton, CB, former CO, appointed 3 January 1853 * Sir Morton Manningham-Buller, 2nd Baronet, former CO, appointed 11 August 1888

Uniforms & Insignia

The uniform when the 2nd King's Own was formed was red with the blue

facings A facing colour is a common tailoring technique for European military uniforms where the visible inside lining of a standard military jacket, coat or tunic is of a different colour to that of the garment itself.René Chartrand, William Younghusba ...

appropriate for a royal regiment. Its badge was the

Stafford knot The Stafford knot, more commonly known as the Staffordshire knot, is a distinctive three-looped knot that is the traditional symbol of the English county of Staffordshire and of its county town, Stafford. It is a particular representation of the s ...

common to all regiments of the county, combined with a light infantry bugle horn. The other ranks'

Glengarry The Glengarry bonnet is a traditional Scots cap made of thick-milled woollen material, decorated with a toorie on top, frequently a rosette cockade on the left side, and ribbons hanging behind. It is normally worn as part of Scottish military ...

cap badge in 1874–81 had the knot within the strings of the bugle horn. On

coatee A coatee was a type of tight fitting uniform coat or jacket, which was waist length at the front and had short tails behind. The coatee began to replace the long tail coat in western armies at the end of the eighteenth century, but was itself su ...

and

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...

buttons the knot was displayed below a crown with the letters 'K' and 'O' either side and a scroll below inscribed 'Stafford Lt. Inf.' When the regiment joined the North Staffordshires in 1881, it adopted the badges and uniform of that regiment, including its white facings.

Battle honours

The 3rd Battalion was awarded the

Battle honour A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In European military t ...

South Africa 1902. After Army Order 251 of 1910, Special Reserve units carried the same battle honours as their parent regiment.Leslie, p. xiii.

Footnotes

Notes

References

W.Y. Baldry, 'Order of Precedence of Militia Regiments', ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'', Vol 15, No 57 (Spring 1936), pp. 5–16.
* ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage,'' 100th Edn, London, 1953. * Col John K. Dunlop, ''The Development of the British Army 1899–1914'', London: Methuen, 1938. * Sir John Fortescue, ''A History of the British Army'', Vol I, 2nd Edn, London: Macmillan, 1910. * Sir John Fortescue, ''A History of the British Army'', Vol II, London: Macmillan, 1899. * J.B.M. Frederick, ''Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978'', Vol I, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, . * Lt-Col James Moncrieff Grierson (Col Peter S. Walton, ed.), ''Scarlet into Khaki: The British Army on the Eve of the Boer War'', London: Sampson Low, 1899/London: Greenhill, 1988, . * Lt-Col H.G. Hart, ''The New Annual Army List, and Militia List'' (various dates from 1840).
Col George Jackson Hay, ''An Epitomized History of the Militia (The Constitutional Force)'', London:United Service Gazette, 1905.
* Richard Holmes, ''Soldiers: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors'', London: HarperPress, 2011, . * Brig E.A. James, ''British Regiments 1914–18'', London: Samson Books, 1978/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2001, . * N.B. Leslie, ''Battle Honours of the British and Indian Armies 1695–1914'', London: Leo Cooper, 1970, .
H.G. Parkyn, 'English Militia Regiments 1757–1935: Their Badges and Buttons', ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'', Vol 15, No 60 (Winter 1936), pp. 216–248.
* Edward M. Spiers, ''The Army and Society 1815–1914'', London: Longmans, 1980, . * Edward M. Spiers, ''The Late Victorian Army 1868–1902'', Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992/Sandpiper Books, 1999, . * J.R. Western, ''The English Militia in the Eighteenth Century: The Story of a Political Issue 1660–1802'', London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965. * Capt C.H. Wylly, Col .Charrington and Capt .A.E.Bulwer, ''Historical Records of the 1st King’s Own Stafford Militia, now 3rd & 4th Battalions South Staffordshire Regiment'', Lichfield: The Johnson's Head, 1902/London: Forgotten Books, 2015, .

External sources

British Civil War Project

Historic England listings

Chris Baker, ''The Long, Long Trail''

* ttps://thisreilluminatedschoolofmars.wordpress.com Richard A. Warren, ''This Re-illuminated School of Mars: Auxiliary forces and other aspects of Albion under Arms in the Great War against France'' {{British Militia Regiments Staffordshire Militia

Stafford Military units and formations in Staffordshire