10th London Regiment

The 10th London Regiment was a territorial infantry regiment of the British Army based in Hackney. It was formed in 1912, served in the First and Second World Wars under various titles before being converted to an artillery role in 1947 and finally disbanded in 1955.

Formation
The unit was raised in October 1912 as the 10th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment. The battalion took the number of the former Paddington Rifles which had been disbanded earlier in the year due to poor recruiting.

The new 10th Battalion was based at The Grove, Hackney. Hackney had anomalously formed part of the area of the 7th Battalion, Essex Regiment, headquartered at Leyton.

First World War
With the outbreak of war in August 1914 the 10th Battalion was mobilised for service. At the same time additional recruits allowed a "second line" battalion: the 2/10th to be formed in September and the existing unit was redesignated as the 1/10th. A "third line" duplicate, the 3/10th was formed in April 1915. The 1/10th Battalion served on the Western Front from 1917 while 2/10th Battalion took part in the Suvla landing and Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine campaigns. The 3/10th remained in the United Kingdom providing trained reinforcements. All three battalions were disbanded at the end of the conflict in 1918/1919.

Inter war
In 1920 the unit was reformed as part of the renamed Territorial Army (TA). In 1922 each of the battalions of the London Regiment was reconstituted as a separate regiment and accordingly they were renamed to 10th London Regiment (Hackney)'. In 1924 the regiment was awarded twenty-five battle honours for the 1914-1918 war. Of these it was permitted to display ten on the king's colours, shown below in bold type:


 * Ypres 1917
 * Menin Road
 * Polygon Wood
 * Passchendaele
 * Villers Bretonneux
 * Amiens
 * Somme 1918
 * Albert 1918
 * Bapaume 1918
 * Hindenburg Line
 * Épéhy
 * Pursuit to Mons
 * France and Flanders 1917-18
 * Suvla
 * Landing at Suvla
 * Scimitar Hill
 * Gallipoli 1915
 * Egypt 1915-17
 * Gaza
 * El Mughar
 * Jaffa
 * Tell 'Asur
 * Megiddo
 * Sharon
 * Palestine 1917-18

In 1937 there was a further reorganisation of the Territorial Army, with the various London Regiments redesignated as battalions of regular army regiments. The unit became: 5th (Hackney) Battalion, The Royal Berkshire Regiment. With the prospect of war with Germany becoming more and more likely the Territorial Army was doubled in size in 1939: the 5th formed the basis of a new 7th (Stoke Newington) Battalion.

Second World War
The 5th Battalion, nicknamed the "Hackney Gurkhas", took part in the Normandy Landings, landing on Juno beach in support of Canadian troops. They later formed part of the force that forced a crossing of the Rhine. Battle honours for the conflict were not awarded until 1957 (after the battalion's disbandment) with "Normandy Landing, Rhine, North-West Europe 1944-45" awarded to The Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Post-war and disbandment
At the end of the war all territorial units were disbanded. The TA was reformed in April 1947 and the unit was converted to an artillery role as 648th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RA (Royal Berkshire), still based in Hackney. The unit was disbanded in 1955.