When a call was issued for the formation of local Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1859,[1] the City of Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire responded enthusiastically.

Captain Thomas Kinnear of the Leeds Rifles, a partner in the textile firm Benjamin Gott & Son, lent over £1100 of his own money to offset the unit's debts.

In 1866 he sent a circular to other RVCs that revealed the level of dissatisfaction around the country about the insufficiency of the government grant, but despite strong support for the Volunteer movement in Parliament, funding was not increased.

At least three members of the Leeds Rifles volunteered to serve in the unofficial British Legion that went to fight with Giuseppe Garibaldi in his 1860 campaign in Naples.

[10] Officers from the Leeds Rifles apparently served in Captain Watt Whalley's Natal Light Horse in the Anglo-Zulu War.

)[15][16] 146 Brigade landed at Boulogne on 15 April 1915 and served in 49th (West Riding) Division on the Western Front for the rest of the war.

[18][19] Much more serious was the German attack of 19 December 1915 on the British line between Frezenberg and Boesinghe (Boezinge) on the Northern side of the Ypres Salient.

Their lines were swept by machine-gun fire from Thiepval Fort, and the survivors were withdrawn into reserve and the rest of the attack cancelled.

[22][23] However, a 30-man party of 1/7th Leeds Rifles got left behind in the redoubt, and held out for two more days under the command of Corporal George Sanders until it could be withdrawn.

[24][25][26] For much of the war, the 1st West Riding Division was involved in static trench warfare, holding parts of the notorious Ypres Salient.

On 9 October 1917, 49th and the untried 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Divisions of II ANZAC attacked along two parallel ridges towards the village of Passchendaele (the Battle of Poelcappelle).

[29] The two attacking brigades barely reached their jumping-off line on time, covered with mud from the approach march through the swampy ground, and 'looking like men who had been buried alive and then dug up again'.

They managed a few hundred yards and then 'they were staggered by shrapnel and heavy machine-gun fire from pill-boxes on the higher ground ahead'.

Finally, the Yorkshiremen faced the main resistance from the rifles and light machine-guns of the Rhinelanders of the German 16th Infantry Division hidden among the hundreds of shell-holes in the front.

[35] 62 Division was not involved in the Ypres offensive of 1917, but in October 1917 it began training to cooperate with tanks in the forthcoming Battle of Cambrai.

[39] G Battalion Tank Corps was assigned to lead 185 Bde's assault when the attack began at dawn on 20 October.

[35][48] On 28 July the division captured Bligny against strong opposition, and the French awarded the Croix de Guerre to 8th Leeds Rifles for this action.

On 23 July 1918, having cleared a path through the dense thickets of the Bois du Petit Champ, it captured a vital position despite continuous fire from enemy machine guns.

In June 1939, the company at Morley was split off to form the cadre for a duplicate unit, the 51st (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment.

[64] There were almost no armoured fighting vehicles available for the TA regiments, and the few possessed by 45 RTR were deployed for airfield defence in North East England during the Battle of Britain.

[66][67] In May 1942, 45 RTR embarked at Liverpool for the Middle East, sailing round the Cape and reaching Egypt in July.

[76] In August, 51 RTR and the rest of the brigade moved to Northumberland to guard the coastline with machine gun posts along the cliffs and sand dunes.

[79] In January 1943, the regiment embarked with 25th Tank Brigade for North Africa, where it came under the command of British First Army in the Tunisia Campaign.

The 128th Brigade of 46th Infantry Division crossed the Wadi Marguellil during the night and at 5.30 am on 8 April began its main attack, supported by 'C' Sqn 51 RTR, and by noon was on its objective.

[82] 25 Tank Brigade came under the command of Brigadier Noel Tetley of the Leeds Rifles at the end of the Tunisia campaign.

[57][84] Brigadier Tetley, formerly of the Leeds Rifles himself, was the only Territorial Army RTR officer to command a brigade on active service.

[53][94][95] In June 1941 66th (Leeds Rifles) HAA Rgt returned to England, joining 62nd AA Bde in 10th Anti-Aircraft Division covering Yorkshire.

Successive amalgamations led by 1999 to the Leeds Rifles being reduced to a Leeds-based Platoon of Imphal Company, the East and West Riding Regiment.

[54] After the 45th/51st (Leeds Rifles) RTR reverted to the infantry role, it continued to carry on its colours and appointments the honorary distinction of the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment with dates '1942–45' and two scrolls inscribed 'North Africa' and 'Italy'.

The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled on Remembrance Sunday 1921 by Captain George Sanders, VC.