On 1 April 1971 the 6th (Volunteer) Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment was formed from the expansion of many cadres which had recently been ordered to be disbanded and reformed as new units.

[1][2][3][4] In 1984, as part of the 1981 Defence White Paper, the 'Home Service Force' was formed, which maintained a company in every TA battalion/regiment by 1992.

This new force was tasked with defending important locations and would be made up of mostly retired TA or Regular Army personnel.

In late 1994, the Front Line First paper was published which underlined that for the TA to be more of use, it would need to be cut almost in half to equal the number of regular army battalions.

[1][2][3] In 1999, the Territorial Army was again reduced, this time with an emphasis on the reduction of the infantry and expansion of the armoured (yeomanry) and royal artillery (air defence elements).

Therefore, on 1 July 1999 the battalion was disbanded as a result of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, and formed the following elements in the new East of England Regiment.