[1] From Egypt it was sent to England before going to Bermuda in 1883, Nova Scotia, back to the West Indies and then on to South Africa (where they fought in the Second Matabele War) before going to India and finally Limerick in Ireland by 1912.

[1] In March 1891 the 2nd Battalion left the West Indies bound for Cape Town, where detachments were sent on garrison duty all around South Africa.

The future Field Marshal Herbert Plumer lead columns containing Yorks and Lancs as did Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Baden-Powell.

Not one single life was lost and this has been attributed to the complete lack of panic and the strong discipline exhibited by the soldiers on board.

[3] At the outbreak of war the battalion was based in Ireland from there they were hurried to the front in Belgium; they landed in France on 6 October 1914.

They relieved greatly reduced battalions of Lincolnshire Regiment and the Royal Scots Fusiliers, which had just fought in the Battle of the Marne, and received their first casualties (three killed and eleven wounded) that night from German artillery.

[4] The two battalions were forced back by a fierce German counterattack but according to Marden's History of the 6th Division; the situation was saved by Major Bayley's company from the Yorks and Lancs.

After a brilliant defence by The Buffs and the 2nd Yorks and Lancs, Radinghem was lost and the 6th Division was forced into a line they would remain in for the next few months and the German offensive of 1918 would find the British still holding.

With good weather and a well co-ordinated creeping artillery barrage the attack was one of the most successful of the Somme Campaign, with the 6th Division capturing 500 prisoners, six machine guns and four heavy trench mortars.

Most of the early part of 1917 was relatively peaceful but after the Canadian success at the Battle of Vimy Ridge the Germans began withdrawing from various sectors in front of the British positions.

[12] Other than this six-month period in the Loos salient the 2nd Battalion spent the rest of 1917 in various quiet sectors until the Battle of Cambrai began in November 1917.

By 7 December, the few positions the British had managed to hold onto, after the German counterattack and the battle had ended, were those gained by the 6th Division at Ribecourt.

[14] Private John Caffrey was awarded the only Victoria Cross won by the battalion during the First World War in November 1915.

At the out break of the Second World War the 2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment was based in Khartoum in the Sudan on garrison duties.

From the middle of May 1941 air attacks against Heraklion increased to four or five a day until 20 May when troop carriers dropped paratroopers at Maleme airfield on the west of the island.

Warning reached Heraklion as their own share of German troop transports were spotted arriving at about 400 feet four abreast in long columns that stretched out of sight.

Of those who escaped death in the air, the majority were killed on the ground, before they had time to get clear of their harness, by small parties of men rushing from their slit trenches with bayonets and bombs.

Quite a large force, however, had fallen clear of the perimeter and parties of them were heard calling to each other after dark; they made no attempt to attack, being possibly too shaken by what had happened to their comrades.

Before the Germans were able to complete the encirclement of Heraklion a company from the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders joined the defence from Tymbaki on the south coast.

The destroyer HMS Imperial suffered mechanical failure and had to be sunk by the Hotspur and due to the delay, caused by transferring men over to the other ships, the convoy was still well within reach of the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force.

Both the Dido and the Orion suffered massive bomb damage with heavy casualties amongst the crew and troops packed onboard both ships.

[16] The battalion remained in Syria on occupational duty until mid-October 1941 when they moved to Alexandria to a staging camp from where they would be sent to Tobruk to relieve the besieged Australian 9th Division.

In November the garrison was informed of its role in the upcoming Operation Crusader in which the 70th Division would have to break out through the besieging German and Italian force and link up with British Eighth Army.

[17] Operation Crusader turned into weeks of attrition the cost of which finally pushed Rommel away from the perimeter of Tobruk allowing Eighth Army to lift the siege.

Tobruk would not stay liberated long; during the Battle of Gazala in 1942 the fortress fell with the Axis forces taking thousands of prisoners of war.

After the death in a plane crash of the commander and creator of the Chindits Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate on 24 March, decisions were made and the plans were changed.

[18] The 14th Brigade with the 2nd Yorks and Lancs made an incredible and exhausting march through the heavy jungle, heading north to operate with US Gen. Joe Stillwell.

[1] Throughout the Second World War the 2nd Battalion had fought against the Germans, Italians, Japanese and the Vichy French in four different campaigns and in extremely different environments.