The amalgamation parade to create the new regiment took place at Albany Barracks, Isle of Wight, when it also received its first set of Colours, presented by its Colonel-in-Chief, the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The following year, ethnic violence in British Guiana saw 1 DERR send a company to assist the re-establishment of order.

[4] Malta became independent from Great Britain on 21 September 1964 and the battalion fulfilled a major role in the ceremonial parade and associated events staged for this occasion.

In January 1966, 1 DERR arrived in Minden, West Germany as part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) for a three-year posting as a mechanized infantry battalion.

The battalion moved to Catterick in June 1969, and thereafter successive companies carried out deployments to the Central American colony of British Honduras.

[4] In 1975, following its eighteen-month posting to Abercorn Barracks in Ballykinler, Northern Ireland, 1 DERR moved to Shoeburyness, Essex.

[4] In addition, a few months after its arrival at Canterbury, 1 DERR began an operational tour in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, from June to October 1983.

Based at Stanley Fort on Hong Kong Island, the battalion carried out a wide range of internal security duties, which included patrolling the border with the People's Republic of China to deter and prevent illegal immigration into Hong Kong.

From Hong Kong, 1 DERR returned to the United Kingdom and Catterick in July 1990,[4] where it joined the 24th Airmobile Brigade.

This comprehensive account of the regiment focuses extensively upon 1 DERR, describing all aspects of its life and times, and its numerous operational, peacetime and training activities and tours of duty about the world, as well as placing these subjects within wider military/political contexts of the period 1959-1994, especially those involved with aspects of the Cold War.

[6] In August 1979, members of the regimental band were hurt in the 1979 Brussels bombing on the Grand-Place, carried out by volunteers belonging to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).