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The 68th Regiment of Foot was tranformed into a light infantry regiment in c. 1808 and was sent to fight in Wellington 's army in Portugal and Spain during the Napoleonic Wars . The regiment later went on to fight in the Crimean War and in New Zealand . During these campaigns, three Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross - John Byrne , Thomas De Courcy Hamilton and John Murray . In 1881 , The Durham Light Infantry was finally formed and soon saw action in Egypt and against the Boers in South Africa . During the First World War the DLI raised 43 battalions with 22 seeing active service overseas - on the Western Front , in Italy , Egypt , Salonika and India . The DLI fought in every major battle of the Great War - at Ypres , Loos , Arras , Messines , Cambrai , Moreuil Wood on the Somme and in the mud of Passendale . Six Durhams were awarded the Victoria Cross during the Great War - Thomas Kenny , Roland Bradford , Michael Heaviside , Frederick Youens , Arthur Lascelles and Thomas Young . During the Second World War, 9 battalions of the DLI fought with distinction. Dunkirk in 1940 , North Africa , Malta , Sicily , Italy , Burma and from D-Day to the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 . In Belgium in May 1940 , Richard Annand , 2nd Battalion DLI, became the first soldier of the Second World War to gain the Victoria Cross . In June 1942 Adam Wakenshaw of Newcastle was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross fighting with the 9th Battalion DLI in North Africa . After 1945 , The Durham Light Infantry was reduced in size until only the 1st Battalion DLI remained. In 1952 - 1953 , 1 DLI fought as part of the United Nations forces in Korea . 1 DLI later served in Cyprus and was based in Berlin in 1961 , the time when the Berlin Wall was built. In 1966 , the Durhams fought their last campaign and suffered their last casualties in the jungles and mountains of Borneo . Finally in 1968 , whilst the battalion was serving in Cyprus , it was announced that The Durham Light Infantry would join with three other county light infantry regiments to form one large Regiment - The Light Infantry . Durham Light Infantry, 11th Battallion, Thomas Bonney marked with a cross EXTERNAL LINKS |
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