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The Dukes - A Proud History
The Regiment is a direct descendant of two old Regiments of Foot, the 33rd and 76th. The Regiment has been in existence for over 300 years and today is one of a handful that has not been disbanded or amalgamated. In 1881 the 33rd and 76th Regiments were merged to form The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment.
The 33rd was raised at the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1702. It soon established a reputation for excellence and by the 1770s was described as the best trained regiment in the Army.
Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, joined the 33rd in 1793 and subsequently commanded it in the Netherlands and in India. He was Colonel of the Regiment from 1806 to 1813 and the 33rd fought under his command at the Battle of Waterloo. Because of his particularly close personal connection with the Regiment, the title of “The Duke of Wellington's Regiment" was awarded on 18th June, 1853, the first anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, following his death.
The 76th was raised in 1787 for service in India where it particularly distinguished itself. For its service in India it was awarded an honorary stand of colours and the badge of an elephant, circumscribed by the word Hindoostan.
The Regiment was formally linked with the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1782, in recognition of its then already long practice of recruiting its soldiers from that part of the country.
During the First World War fourteen out of twenty two battalions of the Regiment were engaged on active service on the Western Front, in Italy and at Gallipoli. In the Second World War battalions of the regiment took part in the campaigns of Dunkirk, North West Europe, North Africa, Italy and Burma. Since then the 1st Battalion has fought in Korea, been part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, trained in all parts of the world from the Artic to the Caribbean, undertaken numerous tours in Northern Ireland and served in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq, commencing a second tour in October 2004. |
