List of battalions of the Durham Light Infantry

This is a list of battalions of the Durham Light Infantry, which existed as a regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1968.

Original composition

When the 68th Regiment of Foot and the 106th Regiment of Foot became the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) in 1881 under the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Armed Forces, seven pre-existing militia and volunteer battalions of County Durham were integrated into the structure of the DLI. These latter battalions had existed intermittently for some time, but had been made permanent in reaction to a perceived threat of invasion by France the late 1850s.Beckett p. 164Ward pp. 10–22Vane pp.288-297 The militia, in two battalions, were more appealing to the working classes as the equipment was government funded, while the volunteers were organised as "rifle volunteer corps", independent of the British Army, financially self-supporting and composed primarily of the middle class, they underwent a number of reorganisations before reaching the form in which they were incorporated into the county regiment.Ward pp. 252–263Vane pp. 297–298Vane pp.304–306

Battalion Formed FormerlyDepot/HeadquartersRegular1st25 August 1756Vane pp.1-32/23rd Regiment of Foot, 68th Regiment of Foot (Lambton's Regiment of Foot) (22 April 1758Ward p. 27), 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (15 August 1782Ward p. 60), 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) (late 1808Vane p. 40) Sunderland (since 1873)2nd1839Vane p. 1072nd Bombay European Regiment, 2nd Regiment Bombay European Light Infantry (1840Vane p. 109), 2nd European Regiment Bombay Light Infantry (14 December 1854Vane p. 112), Her Majesty's 2nd Regiment of Bombay European Light Infantry (3 November 1859Ward p.239), 106th Regiment Bombay Light Infantry (30 July 1862Ward p. 242)Sunderland (since 1873)Militia3rd (Militia) 17591st Durham FusiliersWard p. 252Barnard Castle (since 1853)4th (Militia) 18532nd North Durham MilitiaDurham (since 1853)Volunteers1st Durham Rifle Volunteer BattalionDecember 18614th Administrative Battalion Durham Rifle Volunteer CorpsWard pp. 263-4Westlake, pp. 74–8.Stockton 2nd Durham Rifle Volunteer BattalionAugust 18612nd Administrative Battalion Durham Rifle Volunteer CorpsBishop Auckland3rd (Sunderland) Durham Rifle Volunteer Battalion February 18613rd (The Sunderland) Durham Rifle Volunteer CorpsDunn.Sunderland4th Durham Rifle Volunteer Battalion August 18611st Administrative Battalion Durham Rifle Volunteer CorpsChester-le-Street5th Durham Rifle Volunteer Battalion August 18613rd Administrative Battalion Durham Rifle Volunteer CorpsGateshead

In December 1887 the Durham Rifle Volunteer Battalions were renamed as Volunteer Battalions of the Durham Light Infantry retaining their Administrative battalion numbers.Vane p. 307 The 3rd Corps sub-title was granted in 1867, with the slight change officially registered in 1887.Westlake p.75

Reorganisation

The Territorial Force (renamed the Territorial Army in 1920) was formed in 1908, from the volunteer infantry battalions of the county regiments, and other volunteer arms. The militia battalions transferred to the "Reserve" or the "Special Reserve". The 3rd and 4th battalions exchanged numbers that year, and were recast as the 3rd (Reserve) and 4th (Extra Reserve) battalions in a draft finding role.Ward p. 255 The reason for this apparently pointless exchange of numbers was that in the event of a mobilisation the War Office intended to use the 3rd battalion of a regiment to provide reinforcements for the regular battalions, while if a regiment had a 4th battalion it would be mobilised as a whole unit. The older unit (1st Durham Fusiliers, then the 3rd battalion) wished to remain as a fighting unit, and so exchanged numbers.Order of Service (4th) All volunteer battalions were renumbered to create a single numerical sequence.Ward p. 266

BattalionFormerly3rd (Reserve)4th (Militia)4th (Extra Reserve)3rd (Militia)5th1st Volunteer Battalion6th2nd Volunteer Battalion7th3rd Volunteer Battalion8th4th Volunteer Battalion9th5th Volunteer Battalion

First World War

The Durham Light Infantry would send 22 battalions overseas and lose 12006 other ranks during the course of the war.Ward pps. 334, 446 The regiment's territorial components formed duplicate second and third line battalions of progressively lower fitness men.Ward p. 332 Many new battalions, technically of the Regular Army, were formed as part of Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener's appeal for an initial 100,000 men volunteers in August 1914, referred to as the New Army or Kitchener's Army. The 18th and 20th Service battalions, were referred to as "Pals" because they were predominantly composed of colleagues, the 19th battalion was originally a Bantam battalion.Ward pp. 328-329 The Volunteer Training Corps were raised with overage or reserved occupation men early in the war, and were initially self-organised into many small corps, with a wide variety of names, such as the Darlington Civilian Rifle Club, formed on 12 September 1914 which had amembership of 260 by December that year. Recognition of the corps by the authorities brought regulation and as the war continued the small corps were formed into battalion sized units of the county Volunteer Regiment. In 1918 these were linked to county regiments.Westlake pp. 4-7