[1][4][5][6][7][8][9] The unit's Honorary Chaplain, appointed on 7 December 1860, was the Rev Frederick Denison Maurice, a leading Christian Socialist and one of the founders of the Working Men's College.

[10][20][21][19][22] In 1913 the TF Association built a new HQ and drill hall in Handel Street, Bloomsbury, which the battalion shared with the 1st City of London Brigade Royal Field Artillery.

1/1st Londons were stationed at St Andrews Barracks, and two companies at a time of other battalions were attached to it for musketry instruction at the nearby Pembroke Ranges under a sergeant-instructor of the Royal Marine Light Infantry.

However, the inexperienced 1/1st Londons were not committed to the assault, which resulted in the attacking battalions gaining a lodgement in the enemy trenches but being unable to get any further nor were their brigades able to reinforce them across the fire-swept No man's land.

Carts full of empty biscuit tins were driven up and down the streets of Hébuterne to mask the sound of the work, and the artillery stood by to fire protective barrages if the enemy intervened.

The work did not go smoothly in A Sector, where the men had to cope with uncut British barbed wire, clogged communication trenches, and active German patrols, and the marking was not completed by daybreak.

[81][82][83] In March 1917 56th (1st L) Division was preparing to attack as part of the forthcoming Battle of Arras when patrols discovered that the Germans in front had disappeared – the beginning of their retreat to the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich).

However, the battalion suffered heavy casualties including their CO Lt-Col Smith mortally wounded (Capt Eiloart took temporary command), and got held up in the Neuville-Vitasse trench and sunken road.

The German counter-offensive began the following morning, but was successfully held by the division, during which 1/8th Middlesex was heavily engaged while the rest of 167th Bde moved up from reserve and helped to dig defences.

British fire took a heavy toll of the massed attackers as they went through Gavrelle, but they pushed up a shallow valley between 56th (1st L) Division and its neighbour on the right, forcing 169th Bde's flank back to its 'Battle Zone' (the Bailleul–Willerval Line).

British artillery bombarded Croisilles throughout 25 August, but a renewed attack by 167th Bde at 03.00 next morning was unsuccessful, the wire still uncut and machine guns unsuppressed.

While on Malta 2/1st London Bde continued training, maintained coastal patrols, guarded Prisoners of war, caught possible spies, and performed public duties.

In May the 3rd Line of the TF was reorganised, all the men who had not agreed to, or were medically unfit for overseas service, were transferred to 'provisional' units, the 3/1st London Bde forming 100th Provisional Battalion (see below).

At the end of the month the 3/1st London Brigade moved to Bury St Edmunds, later to Ipswich, and was soon recruited back to full strength after the departure of 100th Provisional Bn.

In the following days 2/1st Londons loaned a large party to 58th Divisional Field Ambulance as stretcher-bearers, to help evacuate the suffering wounded from across the battlefield,[34][35][164][165][166][167] The 58th (2/1st L) Division remained at Poelcappelle to hold the line during November and December before it was transferred to the south in January 1918.

At the time of the Dunkirk evacuation in late May 1940 it was rushed to the threatened area of East Kent, with 8th Royal Fusiliers using its collection of impressed civilian vehicles to move to Eastry and Herne Bay.

56th (L) Division was intended to reinforce Persia and Iraq Command (PAIC), but by the time it arrived, the threat to the Persian oilfields had diminished with the British victory at El Alamein and the lack of German progress at Stalingrad.

56th (L) Division was selected for the planned Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky), and its brigades trained in amphibious assault or desert and hill warfare.

8th Royal Fusiliers left on 28 March, some men going to Baghdad by rail, but thereafter the whole journey was by road using battalion transport supplemented by troop carrying vehicles (TCVs).

169 Brigade took Djebel Terhouna during the night of 28/29 April, but was driven off the position the following morning, when Montgomery realised that the division needed time to learn battlecraft.

[179][188][189][190] The division went into action again during the final advance on Tunis (Operation Vulcan), 167 Brigade attacking 'Razorback Ridge' on the evening of 9 May with 8th and 9th Royal Fusiliers supported by Valentine tanks.

The battalion moved off over the Djebel es Sourrah feature at 17.35 and advanced across the open valley of Wadi Rheribi covered by a smokescreen fired by the divisional artillery, which also put down concentrations of high explosive on the enemy positions.

By nightfall 8th Royal Fusiliers was established astride the Battipaglia–Sta Lucia road and the situation was quiet, though the battalion was far short of its objective for the day, some 15 miles (24 km) inland.

Two days later 8th Royal Fusiliers formed the advanced guard of 167 Bde as it moved up Route 8, clearing Baronissi and reaching Costa on 30 September, when X Corps entered Naples.

The division then prepared for a fullscale attack (the Battle of Monte Camino) including building Jeep tracks and dumps from which mules supplied the frontline troops in rain and mud while the battalions trained for mountain warfare.

[179][203][204] The Allies had carried out an amphibious assault at Anzio on 22 January 1944 with the intention of outflanking the German positions at Monte Cassino, but the enemy had succeeded in sealing off the beachhead, where trench warfare had set in.

The brigade moved to a hutted camp at Beni Yousef, where the Fusilier battalions were reinforced by a draft of gunners from disbanded anti-aircraft regiments from the Canal Zone, who had been retrained as infantrymen.

Captain J. Bune and selected NCOs with men drawn from the anti-aircraft platoon of HQ Company manned the guns on the boats used to extract the paratroops after the raid on a German radar station on the French coast.

[19][225][226] In April 1942, 11th Royal Fusiliers was chosen to give a demonstration of battalion tactics with artillery support at Larkhill in front of senior Allied generals and VIP guests from Prime Minister Winston Churchill down.

[21] The following served as Honorary Colonel of the battalion:[7][10] The 1st London Regiment and 8th Royal Fusiliers were awarded the following Battle honours:[7][10][19] Second Boer War: South Africa 1900–02 World War I: Aubers, Somme 1916, '18, Albert 1916, '18, Flers–Courcelette, Morval, Le Transloy, Arras 1917, '18, Scarpe 1917, '18, Bullecourt, Ypres 1917, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917, Hindenburg Line, Canal du Nord, Valenciennes, Sambre, France and Flanders 1915–18, Gallipoli 1915–16, Egypt 1916 World War II: Djebel Tebaga, North Africa 1943, Salerno, Teano, Monte Camino, Garigliano Crossing, Damiano, Anzio, Gothic Line, Coriano, Croce, Italy 1943–45.