Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959. Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles.

The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, by the merger of the 32nd (Cornwall Light Infantry) Regiment of Foot and the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot. The DCLI also incorporated the militia and rifle volunteers of Cornwall.

In 1959 the regiment merged with the Somerset Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry.

1881–1899
Under the Childers system, one regular battalion of each regiment was to be at a "home" station, while the other was abroad. Every few years, there was to be an exchange of battalions. In the period from the regiment's formation to the outbreak of the Second Boer War the two regular battalions were stationed as follows:

1899–1914
In October 1899 war broke out between the United Kingdom and the Boer Republics. The 2nd Battalion arrived in South Africa in the following month, where it took part in minor actions on the western border of the Cape Colony. In February 1900 it became part of the 19th Brigade. It saw action against the Boers at Paardeburg, and in March 1900 entered Bloemfontein. It continued to take part in a series of skirmishes until the end of the war. The 1st Battalion took no part on the war, moving from India to Ceylon in December 1900 where its soldiers guarded South African prisoners of war.

Following the war in South Africa, the system of rotating battalions between home and foreign stations resumed as follows:

Reserve battalions 1881–1914
The 1881 reorganisation also redesignated the militia and rifle volunteers of Cornwall as battalions of the regiment as follows:
 * 3rd (Militia) Battalion (formerly the "Royal Cornwall Rangers, Duke of Cornwall's Own Rifles", raised 1760)
 * 1st Volunteer Battalion (formerly 1st Cornwall Rifle Volunteer Corps, raised 1860)
 * 2nd Volunteer Battalion (formerly 2nd Cornwall Rifle Volunteer Corps, raised 1860)

Neither militia nor volunteer battalions were liable for service outside the United Kingdom. However, in the Second Boer War, both volunteer battalions contributed "Active Service Companies" that reinforced the regular battalions, and were awarded the battle honour "South Africa 1900–1901".

In 1908 reserve forces were reorganised by the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (the Haldane Reforms). The militia was renamed the "Special Reserve", with the duty of providing trained recruits in time of war. The volunteer battalions became part of the new Territorial Force, which was organised into 14 infantry divisions which were called upon to serve abroad. On 1 April 1908 the three reserve battalions were accordingly redesignated as the 3rd (Special Reserve), 4th (Territorial Force) and 5th (Territorial Force) Battalions, DCLI.

World War I
The war saw a large expansion of the regiment. This was done in two ways: by the formation of duplicate units to the existing territorial battalions, and by the raising of wartime "New Army" or Service battalions. The following battalions of the DCLI saw active service in the conflict:

World War II
In the war the regiment was increased to seven battalions. In 1944 Hill 112 in Normandy acquired the name "Cornwall Hill" after Cornish soldiers of 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry suffered 320 casualties in the fighting there.

Post-War
The regiment was reduced back to two battalions following the war.

Between 1946 and 1954, the First Battalion served in Palestine, Cyprus, Somaliland, England, and the Federal Republic of Germany. The Second Battalion, between 1946 and 1948, served in Greece (including Eastern Macedonia). In 1948, it was reduced to a skeleton "Representative Cadre", before being amalgamated into the First Battalion in 1950.

In 1954, the First Battalion was posted to Jamaica, the last battalion to be posted to the West Indies for a full, three-year term. A Company detached on transit, posted to Prospect Camp, in the Atlantic archipelago of Bermuda. The Bermuda Garrison no longer received a full Regular Army infantry battalion as the part-time Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) and Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) had long-since taken on most of the responsibility for local defence. A Company would be the last regular unit posted on garrison to Bermuda, with its departure constituting the withdrawal of the garrison from the one time Fortress Bermuda. The Officer Commanding A Company, Major J. Anthony Marsh, DSO, a Second World War veteran of the Special Air Services, took permanent residence in Bermuda after leaving the Regular Army, retiring from military service in 1970 as a Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the Bermuda Regiment (a 1965 amalgam of the BVRC and BMA). E Company also detached, being posted to British Honduras. In 1957, A and E Companies reunited with the rest of the Battalion in England, before being posted to Germany, where it remained 'til 1959.

On the 6th of October, 1959, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry merged with the Somerset Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry.

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regimental Museum
The original barracks in Bodmin houses the regimental museum, founded in 1925. It includes the history of the regiment from 1702, plus a military library. There is a fine collection of small arms and machine guns, plus maps, uniforms and paintings on show. Included in the display are the medals of Harry Patch, the last British survivor of the First World War, and the VC awarded to Herbert Augustine Carter for gallantry in Somaliland in 1903.

Bodmin Parish Church was the regimental place of worship where there are memorials to some of the servicemen and regimental colours from the past.

Literature
Surfing Tommies is a 2009 play by the Cornish author Alan M. Kent which follows the lives of three members of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on a journey from the mines of Cornwall to the fields of Flanders, where they learned to surf with South African troops.

Recipients of the Victoria Cross
Eight soldiers of the DCLI were awarded the VC including:


 * Lieutenant Philip Curtis (medal displayed in the Museum)
 * Thomas Edward Rendle (medal displayed in the Museum)
 * Clement Leslie Smith (medal displayed in the Museum)

Others

 * Lieutenant-General Arthur Nugent Floyer-Acland CB, DSO, MC, DL (7 September 1885 – 18 February 1980)
 * John Moore, a Major of the 32nd regiment who died at the Siege of Lucknow
 * Harry Patch, a supercentenarian, the last Tommy, served on the Western Front of the Great War (d. July 2009)
 * Harold Royffe
 * Major-General David Tyacke (born 1915 at Breage, Cornwall; d. 2010); Colonel 1957–59 (afterwards Deputy Colonel of the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry)
 * Sir David Willcocks CBE MC, choral conductor, organist, and composer, was formerly an officer in the regiment.

Battle honours
Battle Honours of the regiment:-
 * From 32nd Regiment of Foot: Roliça, Vimiero, Corunna, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Peninsula, Waterloo, Goojerat, Mooltan, Punjaub, Lucknow
 * From 46th Regiment of Foot: Dominica, Sevastopol
 * Gibraltar 1704-05, Dettingen, St. Lucia 1778, Tel el Kebir, Egypt 1882, Nile 1884-85, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899-1902
 * The Great War (15 battalions): Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1915 '17, Gravenstafel, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Hooge 1915, Mount Sorrel, Somme 1916 '18, Delville Wood, Guillemont, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Le Transloy, Ancre 1916, Bapaume 1917 '18, Arras 1917, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917, Arleux, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Rosières, Lys, Estaires, Hazebrouck, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Havrincourt, Canal du Nord, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Italy 1917-18, Struma, Doiran 1917 '18, Macedonia 1915-18, Gaza, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Tell 'Asur, Megiddo, Sharon, Palestine 1917-18, Aden
 * The Second World War: Defence of Escaut, Cheux, Hill 112, Mont Pincon, Noireau Crossing, Nederrijn, Opheusden, Geilenkirchen, Rhineland, Goch, Rhine, North-West Europe 1940 '44-45, Gazala, Medjez Plain, Si Abdallah, North Africa 1942-43, Cassino II, Trasimene Line, Advance to Florence, Incontro, Rimini Line, Italy 1944-45