Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)

The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that was traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It originated in 1572 and was therefore one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, in which it ranked third in order of precedence.

It provided distinguished service over a period of almost four hundred years, in which it earned one hundred and sixteen battle honours. In 1881, under the Childers Reforms, it was named the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and later, on 3 June 1935, was renamed the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

In 1961, it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, which was later merged, on 31 December 1966, with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) to form the Queen's Regiment. This regiment was, in turn, amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, in September 1992, to create the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires).

History

Formation to end 17th century

The Dutch fight for independence from Spain in the 1568–1648 Eighty Years' War was supported by Protestants across Europe; the origins of the regiment were Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot, a group of 300 volunteers from the London Trained Bands formed in 1572. In 1586, these English and Scottish volunteer units were brought together in the Scots Brigade, which in various formats served in the Dutch military until 1782.

When the Second Anglo-Dutch War started in 1665, the brigade's units were ordered to swear loyalty to the Stadtholder and those who disobeyed were cashiered. Using his own funds, Sir George Downing, the English ambassador to the Netherlands, raised the Holland Regiment from the starving remnants of those who refused to sign.