Buried Battles & Veterans' Voices
The Twilight of Empire:
Serving with the Regiments, 1945-1959
After the war, the Surrey regiments, reduced in size, had to serve across a British Empire which was now shrinking rapidly as nationalist movements rejected British rule, often violently. In the first major conflict of the Cold War era, in Korea, a company of men from the Queen's Royal Regiment, fought with the Middlesex Regiment. In Malaya in 1954-1957, the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Royal Regiment, many of them national servicemen, encountered conditions not dissimilar to those in Burma during the war, as they fought communist terrorists attacking rubber plantations. In the Suez fiasco of 1956, reservists who had served with the Queen's received emergency call ups and were despatched to Egypt.
Men of 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, in Malaya, c.1954-1957.
(Click to enlarge)
Company Sergeant Peter Henman Peter Henman, 1st Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment, recalls peacekeeping operations in a turbulent Palestine, 1945-1946. |
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Major General Mike Reynolds Mike Reynolds, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, recalls the dismal state of the army in the post war years. |
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Major General Mike Reynolds Mike Reynolds, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, remembers the stalemate of the Korean War, 1950-1953. |
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Private Roy Harding Roy Harding, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, recalls the challenge of tracking Communist terrorists in Malaya in 1954-1957. |
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Sergeant Bob Hatcher Bob Hatcher, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, recalls the particular challenge of patrolling the Malayan jungle, 1954-1957. |
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Colonel John Davidson John Davidson, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, recalls the fear and excitement of jungle fighting in Malaya and the difficulty of getting supplies. |
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Private Cyril Dwight Cyril Dwight, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, and Royal West Kents, remembers his surprise recall to serve with the West Kents in the disastrous Suez campaign, 1956. |
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Private Roy Harding Roy Harding, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, and Royal Fusiliers, remembers his recall as a reservist to serve in the Suez campaign, 1956. |
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Private Ron Harper Ron Harper, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, remembers his tour of duty in Malaya as a national serviceman. |
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Private Ron Harper Ron Harper, 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, remembers food drops, disease and head-hunting trackers in the Malayan jungle, 1954-57 |
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Private George Crook George Crook, 1st Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment, remembers his service with the motorised transport section in the Libyan desert while on national service. |
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Private George Crook George Crook, 1st Battalion, the East Surrey Regiment, remembers his surprise when a secret, experimental army vehicle proved no challenge to an Egyptian village elder. |
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