- East Anglian Brigade
The East Anglian Brigade was an administrative formation of the
British Army from 1948 to 1968. The Brigade administered the regularinfantry regiments of easternEngland .After the
Second World War the British Army had fourteen infantry depots, each bearing a letter. The depots were territorially organised, and Infantry Depot G atColchester was the headquarters for the county regiments ofBedfordshire ,Cambridgeshire ,Essex ,Hertfordshire ,Huntingdonshire ,Norfolk ,Northamptonshire andSuffolk . In 1948, the depots adopted names and this depot became the East Anglian Brigade, with all regiments being reduced to a single battalion at the same time.The East Anglian Brigade was formed on
14 July 1948 atBury St Edmunds as an administrative apparatus for the infantry regiments from East Anglia:
*The Royal Norfolk Regiment (until 1959)
*The Suffolk Regiment (until 1959)
*The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (until 1958)
*The Essex Regiment (until 1958)
*The Northamptonshire Regiment (until 1960)Under the Defence Review announced in July, 1957, the infantry of the line was reorganised: In 1958, the
Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was transferred from theForester Brigade , and by 1960 the six individual regiments had amalgamated to form three "East Anglian Regiments":*Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment and Essex Regiment - 3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot) on
June 2 ,1958 [Army Order 35/1958]
*Royal Norfolk Regiment and Suffolk Regiment - 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) onAugust 29 ,1959 [Army Order 40/1959]
*Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and Northamptonshire Regiment - 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire) onJune 1 ,1960 [Army Order 29/1960]At the same time East Anglian Brigade cap badges and buttons replaced those of the individual regiments. The cap badge was a silver eight-pointed star bearing the castle and key of
Gibraltar , with a scroll inscribed "East Anglia". The key and castle was a badge awarded to predecessors of all three regiments for their part in theGreat Siege of Gibraltar from 1779 - 1783. [A L Kipling and H L King, "Head-dress badges of the British Army", Volume II, London 1979] The brigade buttons were identical to those of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, bearing the figure ofBrittania . [Howard Ripley, "Buttons of the British Army 1855 - 1970", London, 1971]The three regiments could be distinguished by their collar badges and coloured lanyards:
*The 1st East Anglian Regiment wore collar badges consisting of Brittania in front of the Castle of Gibraltar and a yellow lanyard
*The 2nd East Anglian Regiment wore collar badges consisting of asphinx on a tablet inscribed "Egypt" over a scroll with thebattle honour Talavera and a black lanyard
*The 3rd East Anglian Regiment wore collar badges depicting aNapoleonic eagle enclosed within the Garter and a pompadourpurple (claret purple) lanyardIn 1963,
The Royal Leicestershire Regiment was transferred from the Forester Brigade. The regiment wore collar badges comprising a royal tiger within an unbroken wreath oflaurel and a pearl grey, black and scarlet lanyard.In 1964, all four were amalgamated to form a new, large regiment called the
Royal Anglian Regiment . The new regiment's cap badge was identical to that of the East Anglian Brigade except that the scroll was now inscribed "Royal Anglian".On
July 1 1968 the East Anglian Brigade was united with theFusilier Brigade and theHome Counties Brigade s, to form theQueen's Division .References
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