3^rd Bn The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment (TA)

By 1960 the Government was announcing a reduction of Infantry Battalions in the Regular Army with the TA similarly affected. In The Queen’s Royal Surreys the desired result was achieved by the amalgamation of the 5^th and 6^th Queen’s and 565 Regiment RA (formerly 4^th Queen’s) as 3^rd Queen’s Surreys; 6^th East Surreys and 23^rd London Regiment were to form 4^th Queen’s Surreys. A general period of re-organisation followed while efforts were made to define policies and roles in ever changing situations.

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The 3^rd Battalion, despite being widely spread geographically, soon began a training programme which, among other things laid particular emphasis on the running of specialist and Junior NCOs Cadres. Its first camp was established on Dartmoor, occupying Plasterdown Camp. Back home in Guildford the Battalion later welcomed members of the Belgian Resistance from Ghent to the Regimental At Home in Stoke Park.

In October the Battalion took part in the Tercentaary Parade on Putney Heath. At Easter time in 1962 a tour was made of the battlefields of Waterloo, Namur, Liege and Bastogne. In June the Battalion participated in exercises on Salisbury Plain with 16 Parachute Brigade. Low level training continued in 1963. Later a party went to Streenwerk in France to retrieve the 1/6^th Queen’s drums which had been temporarily lost in the withdrawal to Dunkirk.

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Throughout 1964 falling recruiting figures gave cause for concern, barely keeping place with losses and making training difficult. Despite these problems the battalion was graded as efficient at the Annual Administrative Inspection. In October 1965 the Battalion underwent amphibious training with the Royal Marines, Poole. 1966 saw prospects of change for the future and by the end of the year these were beginning to take effect as shown later.