Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment

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The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment is an infantry regiment of the British Army.

The Wardrobe in Salisbury houses the RGBW regimental museum.

It was formed in 1994 by the amalgamation of two English Regiments.

The regiment is unique in the British Army in that it is permitted to wear the United States Distinguished Unit Citation, which it inherited from the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment which was awarded for their defence of Gloster Hill during the Battle of the Imjin River in April 1951 during the Korean War.

It is also unique in being the only regiment in the British Army permitted to wear a cap badge on both the front and the rear of their hats. The back badge was awarded to the 28th Regiment of Foot for their actions at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.

Between 2002 and 2005, the 1st Battalion, Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment served as a public duties battalion in London, where its duties included providing the Queen's Guard.

On 16th December 2004, it was announced that the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment will be disbanded - the Gloucestershire element will, along with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment be merged with the Light Infantry, while the Berkshire and Wiltshire elements will be merged with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.

In March 2005, it was further announced that the de-amalgamation of the regiment would now not take place; instead it would merge completely with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment as 1st Battalion, Light Infantry. In preparation for this, the regiment will be moved from the Prince of Wales' Division to the Light Division and renamed the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry in July 2005.

See Also

Non US Winners of US gallantry awards

BBC News article on the reorganization

The official website

Regiments.org entry on the RGBW