Royal Fusiliers Article Index for
Royal
Website Links For
Royal
 

Information About

Royal Fusiliers





HISTORY


Formation


It was formed as a Fusilier regiment in 1685 by Lord Dartmouth , George Legge , from two companies of the Tower Of London guard, and was originally called the Ordnance Regiment. Most regiments were equipped with Matchlock Musket s at the time, but the Ordnance Regiment were armed with Fusils. This was because their task was to be an escort for the Artillery , for which matchlocks would have carried the risk of igniting the barrels of Gunpowder .


The American Revolution


The Royal Fusiliers played an active part in saving Canada from invasion by the army of the American (1778), the Capture Of Charleston (1779), and the Southern Campaigns under the command of General Cornwallis .


The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars


The Royal Fusiliers formed part of the famed Fusilier Brigade in Wellington's Peninsular Army along with the 23rd Regiment of Foot (The Royal Welch Fusiliers) at the Battle of Albuhera on 16 May 1811 .


The First World War

, resting in the town square at Mons .]]
The Royal Fusiliers served with distinction in the First World WarThe 2nd City of London Regiment-Royal Fusiliers-in the Great War, 1914-19 Gray,W.E. (1929, London, Seeley,Service &Co), raising 76 battalions who wore the regimental cap badge.They served on the Western Front, in Africa, the Middle East and Macedonia. Members of the Royal Fusiliers won the first two Victoria Crosses of the war near Mons in August 1914, and the last two in North Russia. Its War Memorial is on High Holborn , near Chancery Lane Tube Station , surmounted by the lifesize statue of a World War One soldier, and its regimental chapel is at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate .

The 38th through 42nd Battalions of the regiment served as the Jewish Legion in Palestine {Link without Title} .

The 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion has no current links with the Legion Of Frontiersmen , as the 25th Battalion was disbanded in 1918.


The Second World War


The Royal Fusiliers were involved in many notable battles of the war, including , father of Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters , who wrote the song " When The Tigers Broke Free " about the attack.

Post 1945


On 23 April 1968 the regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (5th Ft), The Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers (6th Ft) and the Lancashire Fusiliers (20th Ft) to form 3rd Bn. The Royal Regiment Of Fusiliers .


NOMENCLATURE


The Regiment became the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers) in 1751, although a variety of spellings of the word "fusilier" persisted until the 1780s, when the modern spelling was formalised. In 1881, under the Cardwell Reforms when regimental numbers were abolished the Regiment became The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment).


REFERENCES