The regiment was formed during the 1688 Glorious Revolution from independent companies raised in Somerset by Colonel Francis Luttrell, to support William III.

[2][3] In 1690, it supplied detachments for Ireland and Jamaica, incurring heavy losses from disease, including Luttrell who was replaced by Thomas Erle.

[4] after the 1697 Peace of Ryswick, it escaped disbandment by being made part of the Irish garrison, where it remained until the War of the Spanish Succession began in 1702.

[5] In 1703, it was part of an expeditionary force in the West Indies and Newfoundland, losing many men to disease before returning to Ireland in 1704.

Back in Flanders in 1710, it took part in the sieges of Douai and Bouchain and when the war ended in 1713, it resumed garrison duties in Ireland.

[5] When the War of the Austrian Succession began in 1740, the regiment was based in Edinburgh; by 1744, many of its men were Scots and recruiting officers warned to exclude 'Jacobites and Irish Papists.

This led to severe shortages in middling and senior ranks, with a total of 15 officer positions vacant during the assault on Belle Île including five captains and the regimental major.

[9] With the end of the American War, the regiment was stationed in Jamaica, a notoriously unhealthy posting where it was common for units to lose 100% of their strength every two years.

[14] It remained there until 1791, when it returned to Britain; in 1796, it was posted to India, the also saw action at the Siege of Seringapatam in April 1799 during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

[21] The regiment adopted a cap badge consisting of the Princess's cypher "A" combined with the Dannebrog or Danish cross and topped by her coronet.

After a brief spell in Gibraltar in 1899, the battalion was posted to South Africa as reinforcement for the Second Boer War, where it was involved in the Relief of Kimberley and the battles of Diamond Hill (June 1900) and Belfast (August 1900).

It was embodied in December 1899, and 700 men embarked on the SS Assaye in February 1900 for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War.

555 officers and men returned to Southampton by the SS Tagus in October 1902, following the end of the war, and was disbanded at the Richmond barracks.

[34] The 1/4th and 1/5th Battalions landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the York and Durham Brigade in the Northumbrian Division in April 1915 for service on the Western Front.

Over the next 30 years it served in Afghanistan, Suez, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Libya, Belize, Berlin and Northern Ireland.

[51] The Green Howards Regimental Museum is located in the old Trinity Church in the centre of the market place in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Present: Past: Bond of Friendship: Unofficial: The precise date on which the regiment adopted the green facings from which it derived its name is uncertain, with yellow known to have been the colour of the lapels in 1709.

However the official Cloathing Book of 1742 shows full green facings being worn on the standard red coats of the era.