Cap Badge - Royal Sussex Regiment The Royal Sussex Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment of Foot and the 107th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Light Infantry). In 1966 it was amalgamated with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment to form the Queen's Regiment which was, on 9 September 1992, amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment to form the present Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment. Following its formation in 1881, the regiment was sent to Egypt in 1882 as part of General Wolseley's expedition to crush the Urabi Revolt and conquer Egypt in the name of the Khedive. The 2nd Battalion was stationed in Alexandria after its bombardment by the Royal Navy and the 1st Battalion was engaged in several of the decisive land battles in that short-lived conflict. Later, in 1884, the regiment was part of the Nile Expedition—the unsuccessful attempt to save General Gordon and his garrison at Khartoum during the Mahdist War. The 2nd Battalion, stationed in India, was part of the Black Mountain Expedition of 1888, as one of many battles fought along the North-West Frontier Province. In 1900, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd (Royal Sussex Militia) Battalions of the regiment joined the British Army in the bloody Anglo-Boer War. The Royal Sussex Regiment raised 20 battalions for the war, all of which saw action. The regiment had a battalion in every theatre including in Russia in 1919. The regiment lost 6,800 men during the war and four Victoria Crosses were awarded to men from the regiment. The 1st Battalion was one of the few infantry battalions that remained in India throughout the whole war, being stationed at Peshawar. With the 2nd Brigade, part of the 1st Division, the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment crossed the channel with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and fought through the war on the Western Front. It was during the First Battle of Ypres that the 2nd Battalion was given the unofficial title "The Iron Regiment" as an unsolicited testimonial by German prisoners captured on 1 November 1914. The battalion subsequently fought alongside the 5th (Cinque Ports) Battalion during the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May 1915. Later that year, on 25 September, during the Battle of Loos Sgt Harry Wells was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, when the battalion took part in the attack in the vicinity of the Lone Tree in front of Hulluch. The battalion moved to the Somme in 1916 where it was involved in actions including High Wood, moving back to the Ypres Sector in 1917. The battalion lost 1,723 officers and men killed by 1918. Battle of the Boar's Head At Richebourg, in 1916, the 11th, 12th and 13th (Southdowns) Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment, made up the 116th Brigade of the 39th Division in Kitchener's New Army. On 30 June 1916 they took part in the Battle of the Boar's Head, Richebourg L'Avoue. After a bombardment of the German trenches the 12th and 13th Battalions went over the top (most for the first time) and, under heavy fire, attacked the enemy trenches, bombing and bayoneting their way in. The 11th Battalion supplied carrying parties. They succeeded in taking the German front line trench, holding it for some four hours, and even briefly took the second line trench for about half an hour, beating off repeated counterattacks, and only withdrew from the shortage of ammunition and mounting casualties. Over a period of less than five hours the three Southdowns Battalions of The Royal Sussex lost 17 officers and 349 men killed, including 12 sets of brothers, of whom three were from one family. A further 1000 men were wounded or taken prisoner. In regimental history this is known as The Day Sussex Died. The following day the Battle of the Somme began and almost 20,000 died on the first day. The Royal Sussex attack at Richebourg was just a diversion, not even considered a separate action in the history of the war, and remains largely unmentioned in any of the official histories.