Mercian Regiment

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The Mercian Regiment
Cap Badge of the Mercian Regiment
Active	1 September 2007-
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Line Infantry
Role	1st Battalion - Light Role 2nd Battalion - Light Role 3rd Battalion - Armoured 4th Battalion - TA Reserve
Size	Four battalions
Part of	Prince of Wales' Division
Garrison/HQ	RHQ - Lichfield 1st Battalion - Catterick 2nd Battalion - London 3rd Battalion - Tidworth
Nickname	The Heart of England's Infantry
Motto	Stand Firm and Strike Hard
Mascot	Ram named Private Derby
Commanders
Colonel in Chief	HRH The Prince of Wales
Colonel of the Regiment	Brigadier C.B.S. Hughes, OBE
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash
Arm Badge	Stafford Knot and Glider From Staffordshire Regiment

The Mercian Regiment is one of the new large infantry regiments of the British Army. The regiment's formation was announced on 16 December 2004 by Geoff Hoon and General Sir Mike Jackson as part of the restructuring of the infantry - it will be formed of three regular battalions, plus a TA battalion, and will be created through the merger of three single battalion regiments:

22nd (Cheshire) Regiment - 1st Battalion
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment - 2nd Battalion
Staffordshire Regiment - 3rd Battalion

The new structure will see the regiment having a single battalion of armoured infantry and two battalions of light role infantry:

1st Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Cheshires) - Light Infantry based at Catterick
2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters) - Light Infantry based at Holywood, Northern Ireland
3rd Battalion, Mercian Regiment (Staffords) - Armoured Infantry based at Fallingbostel (although it will move there in 2009 from Tidworth).
4th Battalion (V), Mercian Regiment - A T.A battalion created from the West Midlands Regiment

The regiment will be formed on September 1, 2007 at Tamworth Castle. It is called the Mercian Regiment as it is generally located within the ancient English kingdom of Mercia. The regiment's cap badge will be a double headed Mercian Eagle with Saxon crown. This has been chosen because it forms a link to the regiment's recruiting area, which will encompass a number of divergent counties that do not have traditional links, except under the ancient Kingdom of Mercia (unlike the other new regiments from Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire). It has also been decided to use the old Mercian Brigade badge that the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment, Staffordshire Regiment, Worcestershire Regiment and Sherwood Foresters all served under, rather than create an amalgamated badge that would require elements from all of the antecedents. Various "Golden Threads" will be incorporated into the regiment:

Stafford Knot and Glider Badge from the Staffordshire Regiment will be incorporated into the new regiment's formal arm badge
Oak Leaves and Acorn from the 22nd Regiment combined with the motto Firm from the Worcestershire Regiment will be incorporated into the collar badge
Private Derby, the mascot of the Sherwood Foresters, will be the new regiment's mascot
The new regiment's facing colour will be buff, from the 22nd Regiment
The wearing of a sword frog with the Sam Browne Belt comes from the Worcestershire Regiment
The regiment's rank badges will be coloured dark bronze, from the North Staffordshire Regiment
The green beret patch comes from the Sherwood Foresters

On formation, the Mercian Regiment will serve as the county regiment of the following counties:

The regiment will be formed on September 1, 2007; at this point, 1 CHESHIRE will move to Catterick as part of 4 Mechanised Brigade, becoming 1 MERCIAN. At the same time, 1 WFR will become 2 MERCIAN while part of London District (although the battalion will be in Afghanistan at the time of re-badging) , and 1 STAFFORDS to become 3 MERCIAN at Tidworth. The 4th Battalion will retain a multi-badge structure, with E Company (Light Infantry) West Midlands Regiment being badged as Rifles.

Although no list of regimental alliances has been announced as yet, due to the Mercian Regiment not forming until August 2007, using the large regiments that have formed already as examples, it can be assumed that all of the current alliances of the three individual regiments will be carried into the Mercian Regiment.