Suffolk Regiment

The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment as the 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) in 1959. Its lineage is continued today by the Royal Anglian Regiment.

History
The "Duke of Norfolk's Regiment of Foot" raised in 1685 incorporated men from the East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Until 1751 it was named after ten different colonels and was ranked in 1747 as the 12th Foot regiment. In 1751 it was retitled the 12th Regiment of Foot and in 1782 given a county association as the 12th (the East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot. In 1758 the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Regiment of Foot was redesignated as the 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot. The 63rd Regiment of Foot (another regiment recruiting in Suffolk) became the 63rd (the West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot, which would later form the 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

Boer War
The 1st Battalion served in the Second Boer War.

2nd Battalion
By contrast between 1895 and 1914, the 2nd Battalion Suffolk Regiment was not involved in hostilities. It was stationed for the majority of the time in India. Garrison postings during this period include; Secunderabad (India) 1895, Rangoon and the Andaman Islands (Burma) 1896 to 1899, Quetta (North West Frontier) 1899 to 1902, Karachi and Hyderabad (Northern India, now Pakistan) 1902 to 1905, Madras (India) 1905 to 1907, Aden 1907, Returning to Southhampton in 1908 after seeing 20 years overseas service as a battalion.

During its service in India the 2nd Battalion became known as a "well officered battalion that compared favourably with the best battalion in the service having the nicest possible feeling amongst all ranks". The 2nd was also regarded as a good shooting battalion with high level of musketry skills.

The spirit of independence and self-reliance exhibited by officers and non-commissioned officers led to the 2nd Battalion taking first place in the Quetta Division of the British Army of India, from a military effectiveness point of view, in a six-day test. This test saw the men under arms for over 12 hours a day conducting a wide selection of military manoeuvres, including bridge building, retreats under fire, forced marches and defending ground and fixed fortifications.

The Battle of Le Cateau
The value of the 2nd Battalion's 20 years of peacetime training was exemplified at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914. In this action the 2nd Battalion undertook a fierce rear-guard defence out-manned and out-gunned by superior numbers of enemy. The 2nd Battalion held their defensive position despite losing their commanding officer, Lt. Col. C.A.H Brett D.S.O., at the commencement of the action and their second in command, Maj. E.C. Doughty, who was severely wounded after six hours of battle as he went forward to take ammunition to the hard-pressed battalion machine gunners.

Almost totally decimated as a fighting unit after over eight hours of incessant fighting, the 2nd Battalion was gradually outflanked but would still not surrender. This was despite the fact that the Germans, knowing the 2nd Battalion had no hope of survival, entreated them to surrender, even ordering the German buglers to sound the British Cease Fire and gesticulating for the men of the 2nd to lay down their arms. At length an overwhelming force rushed the 2nd Battalion from the rear, bringing down all resistance and the 2nd's defence of Le Cateau was at an end. Those remaining alive were taken captive by the Germans, spending the next four years as prisoners of war and not returning home until Christmas Day 1918.

As an example of their valour and the level of training they had been subject to as a peacetime unit, it is noted that 720 men of 2nd Battalion Suffolk Regiment total roll call of some 1,000, many of whom had been with the battalion since the 1899 posting to Quetta, were killed, wounded or captured. This fight-to-the-last-man defence at Le Cateau was later recognised as a key factor in preventing the German occupation of Paris. (Bell 2007)

Gallipoli
The 1/5th Battalion was a part of the 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division and saw action at Gallipoli (1915) and the First Battle of Gaza (1917).

Defence of Singapore
The 4th and 5th (Territorial Army) Battalions of the Suffolk Regiment fought briefly in the defence of Singapore, with the 18th East Anglian Division, before British Commonwealth forces on that island surrendered on 15 February 1942. Men from the two battalions suffered great hardship as prisoners of war and only a few would survive the war.

7th Bn
The 7th Battalion was converted to a regiment in the Royal Armoured Corps in November 1941, becoming 142nd Regiment RAC. They continued to wear their Suffolk cap badge on the black beret of the RAC. Equipped with Churchill tanks the regiment landed at Algiers in 1943, fighting at the Battle of Medjez-el Bab in Tunisia in April. In 1944 it landed at Naples for the Italian campaign and was present when the Allies overcame the Gothic and Hitler lines. It disbanded in January 1945 while in northern Italy.

Battle honours

 * Dettingen, Minden, Gibraltar 1779-83, Seringapatam, South Africa 1851–52–53, New Zealand, Afghanistan 1878-80, South Africa 1899-1902


 * The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Givenchy 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Ypres 1915 '17 '18, Gravenstafel, St Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Aubers, Hooge 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916 '18, Arras 1917 '18, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Pilckem, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Lys, Estaires, Messines 1918, Hazebrouck, Bailleul, Kemmel, Béthune, Scherpenberg, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Épéhy, Canal du Nord, Courtrai, Selle, Valenciennes, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Struma, Doiran 1918, Macedonia 1915-18, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1915-17, Gaza, El Mughar, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Tell 'Asur, Battle of Megiddo 1918, Sharon, Palestine 1917-18


 * The Second World War: Dunkirk 1940, Normandy Landing, Odon, Falaise, Venraij, Brinkum, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Singapore Island, Malaya 1942, North Arakan, Imphal, Burma 1943-45.

Suffolk Regiment Museum
The Suffolk Regiment Museum is at The Keep, Gibraltar Barracks, Newmarket Road, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Exhibits include uniforms, weapons, medals, badges, insignia, photographs, regimental regalia and memorabilia. Admission is free.