Battle honours of the British and Imperial Armies

[14][15] A committee was therefore set up under Major-General Sir Archibald Alison in 1881 to determine the honours that should be awarded to the various regiments for past battles.

[19] Also, the honours Mediterranean 1901–02 and St Helena were awarded to the Militia battalions of several regiments for garrison and prisoner-of-war camp duty.

When the Militia was disbanded, these honours (and the earlier Mediterranean, earned for similar service during the Crimean War) were allowed to lapse.

King William IV was also responsible for a most peculiar guidon-shaped standard[30] presented to the Royal Horse Guards on 13 August 1832, which, in addition to carrying the battle honours Peninsula and Waterloo, bore the words Dettingen, Minden, Warbourg and Cateau.

[40] In addition, the 1857 Dress Regulations ordered that the blades of the Foot Guards officers' swords be embossed[41] with the regiment's device and battle honours.

[42][43] The Second Boer War came as an unpleasant surprise to a British military establishment that had stagnated for decades under the command of the hidebound and reactionary Duke of Cambridge.

They are always running away on their little ponies',[45] and the disasters of Black Week demonstrated that the Regular army was numerically, technologically and tactically ill-prepared to face a militarily competent and well-equipped adversary.

Among the responses of the British government to these setbacks were the formation of the Imperial Yeomanry and the embodiment of the Militia and Volunteer battalions of the infantry regiments for overseas service.

Many more corps, therefore, became eligible for campaign honours than had been the case in any previous war: including the Regular Army, Yeomanry, Militia and Volunteers, a total of 196 British regiments were awarded South Africa with appropriate year dates between 1899 and 1902.

It was at this time that the rule was instituted that, for a cavalry regiment or infantry battalion to be eligible for an award, the Headquarters and fifty per cent or more of its strength must have been present.

These principles (presence of a unit's headquarters and fifty per cent or more of its strength) were continued by General Ewart's and subsequent Battle Honours committees, but, again, numerous exceptions were made.

The sheer scale of the Great War led to a previously unheard of number of honours being awarded and it was simply impractical to emblazon every one of them on the Regimental Colour.

Owing to amalgamations, more than the total of 20 First and Second World War awards may be found on the Queen's Colour of modern regiments.

[54] After considerable correspondence between the Colonial Office and the government of Newfoundland, a compromise was reached whereby the regiment would be awarded the honour Albert (Beaumont Hamel) 1916, but only with the personal approval of the King.

During the Second World War, a number of Territorial Army infantry battalions and Yeomanry regiments were temporarily re-roled to other arms (particularly artillery, signals and reconnaissance) for the duration of the conflict and resumed their normal function at its end.

Colours of the 1st Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) , showing emblazoned Battle Honours
Regimental Colour of the 18th Regiment of Foot showing the earliest battle honour (for Namur) and the badges later awarded for Egypt and China .
Badge of the 4th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment , of the period 1908 to 1917. Since this is the badge of a Territorial battalion, the scrolls which, on the badge of the regular battalions, carried the battle honours Gibraltar and Talavera are here blank.
Queen's Colour of the 1st Battalion, the Grenadier Guards . In contrast with those of the line infantry regiments, the Queen's Colours of Foot Guards regiments are crimson, and it is their Regimental Colours that are based on the Union Flag . Foot Guards regiments also emblazon the same honours (from all conflicts, including both World Wars) on both colours.
Regimental Colour of the 1st Battalion, 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot (later the South Wales Borderers ), presented in 1860 and here shown with the honours awarded up to the time of the Zulu War . This colour was left at the battalion's depot at Helpmakaar during the invasion of Zululand and the Battle of Isandlwana , and thus escaped the fate of the regiment's other colours. It was eventually laid up (with the battalion's Queen's Colour, recovered from the Buffalo River after the battle) in Brecon Cathedral in 1934. [ 65 ] [ 66 ]
An unusual award of honorary colours was made by the Governor-General of India to the British regiments that participated in the Battle of Assaye in 1803 ( 19th Light Dragoons , 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot and 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot ). The colour illustrated (on which is also emblazoned the award for Seringapatam ) is one previously carried by the Royal Highland Fusiliers , successor to the 74th Foot. [ 67 ]
Queen's Colour of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, presented in 1880 to replace the colour destroyed at Isandlwana and later emblazoned with 10 honours selected from those won by the South Wales Borderers in the Great War.
Queen's Colour of the 1st Battalion, the Black Watch , showing the 20 honours selected to be emblazoned from those awarded for the two World Wars
Regimental Colour of the 1st Battalion, the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment . Representative of the period of mass amalgamations of the line infantry regiments following the 1957 Defence White Paper , this colour bears the honours and mottos of its antecedent regiments (the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment ).