Regiment (military unit)

A Regiment is a military unit consisting of several battalions, usually commanded by an officer with the rank of Colonel. The size and role of regiments vary throughout history and country to country, however, this definition is based on regiments of the British Army during the First World War. Prior to the war each standard regiment was made up of Regular Army battalions and Territorial Force battalions, of which the latter started in 1908. Within two weeks of Britain declaring war on Germany (4 August, 1914) Field Marshal Earl Kitchener's famous recruiting campaign of 'Your King and Country Needs You' saw 100,000 volunteers answer the call to arms resulting in the start of Kitchener's Army and the Service Battalions.

The Border Regiment consisted of 17 battalions: 3 Regular Army battalions, 6 Territorial Force battalions, 7 Service battalions and one other battalion that existed for less than three weeks.

On the 3 December 1914 the War Office conveyed that the Lonsdale Battalion was officially titled 11th (Service) Battalion, Border Regiment (Lonsdale).

The above term is listed in our Compendium of the Great War.

This compendium forms the central hub of words, phrases, people, and places relative to the Great War period of 1914–1918. These also include battles, political events, ships, trench slang, British and American service terms and expressions in everyday use, nicknames, sobriquets, the titles of British and Commonwealth Regiments and their origins, and also warfare in general. These words and phrases are contemporary with the war, which is reflected in the language used, some of which may seem derogatory by today's standards. Feel free to expand upon and improve this content.

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