Kenya Regiment

The Kenya Regiment was formed in 1937 and disbanded in May 1963.

Volunteers were recalled in about 1950, with European settlers making up the main force. At the end of 1950 a call-up of eighteen-year-olds was introduced as the Mau Mau uprising was beginning. The first recruits were sent to Salisbury, now Harare, in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, for basic military training and then on to operational units. Later, training was conducted at Sgt Leakey V.C. Barracks (Kenya Regiment Training Centre) at Lanet, near Nakuru, Kenya.

The Kenya Regiment then operated as a part of combined operations, which included British Regiments, King's African Rifles, Kenya Police and Kenya Police Reserve, and the Royal Air Force. Apart from the Kenya Regiment operating in its own right, it also seconded officers to the Kings African Rifles and as District Officers in the Kenya Administration.

References

*Guy Campbell "The Charging Buffalo: A History of the Kenya Regiment 1937-1963" (London: Leo Cooper, 1986)
*Leonard Gill "Military Musings" (Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2003)
*Leonard Gill "More Military Musings" (Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2004)
*Leonard Gill "Remembering the Regiment" (Victoria, BC: Trafford, 2004)

(these three books by Gill are personal anecdotes relating to the Kenya Regiment, but given the relative scarcity of material on the Kenya Regiment they are a useful resource)