The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army based in the county of Kent in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), by the amalgamation of the 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot and the 97th (The Earl of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot. In January 1921, the regiment was renamed the Royal West Kent Regiment (Queen's Own) and, in April of the same year, was again renamed, this time as the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment.
After distinguished service in the Second Boer War, along with both the First and the Second World Wars, on 1 March 1961, the regiment was amalgamated with the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, which was destined to be short-lived. On 31 December 1966, the Queen's Own Buffs was merged with the other regiments of the Home Counties Brigade—the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment—to form the Queen's Regiment, which was in turn amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, on 9 September 1992, to form the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires). Throughout its existence, the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was popularly and operationally known as the Royal West Kents.
History
Early years
When the regiment was formed, Kent was one of five counties (the others being Surrey, Staffordshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire) that was split to create more than one regiment. Kent was split into two areas, with those in West Kent forming the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, while those in East Kent becoming the Buffs (East Kent Regiment). The dividing line that separated the two regimental areas was east of the River Medway. The regiment's recruitment area covered both the towns and rural areas of West Kent and a number of south-east London suburbs that were later included in the County of London.
The Childers reforms also affiliated Militia and Volunteer battalions with their local county regiments, giving the Royal West Kents the following organisation:
Regulars
1st Battalion – former 50th Foot
2nd Battalion – former 97th Foot
Militia
3rd Battalion – former 1st Battalion, West Kent Light Infantry
4th Battalion – former 2nd Battalion, West Kent Light Infantry, disbanded 1894
Volunteers
1st Volunteer Battalion – former 1st Kent Rifle Volunteer Corps
2nd Volunteer Battalion – former 3rd Kent (West Kent) Rifle Volunteer Corps
3rd Volunteer Battalion – former 4th Kent (Royal Arsenal) Rifle Volunteer Corps
4th Volunteer Battalion – new battalion raised in 1900
1881–1914
The 1st Battalion fought at the second battle at Kassassin on 9 September 1882 and at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir a few days later during Anglo-Egyptian War. It then spent two years on garrison duty in Cyprus before being transferred to Sudan, where it fought at the Battle of Ginnis during the Mahdist War. It spent the years up to the outbreak of the First World War on garrison duty, including at Ceylon (together with the 2nd battalion) and Malta.
In 1899, at least twenty members of the regiment raped an elderly Burmese woman in Rangoon, who subsequently died. The matter was initially covered up by military authorities, but when the viceroy, Lord Curzon, upon learning of the affair, dismissed many of the men involved and punished the regiment by sending it to Aden for two years without any leave.
The 2nd Battalion was deployed to South Africa shortly after its formation, in the aftermath of the First Boer War. It was then posted to Ireland and spent the remaining years of the 19th century in the United Kingdom before being sent to Egypt in 1899. After only six months, they returned to the United Kingdom in March 1900, to mobilize into a new 8th Division going to South Africa which was in the middle of the Second Boer War. A total of 1,030 officers and men of the regiment left Southampton in the SS Bavarian in March 1900, but the regiment's only action was a skirmish at Biddulphsberg, alongside the 2nd battalions of the Grenadier and Scots Guards. It stayed in South Africa until early November 1902, when it left Cape Town for Ceylon, then served in Hong Kong, Singapore, Peshawar and Multan before the outbreak of the First World War.
Between 1881 and 1913, the regiment lost 219 men: 22 killed in action or died from wounding, 12 by accident, and 185 from disease. A memorial for those who died in service exists in All Saints Church, Maidstone, which is located next to the regiment's barracks.