20th London Regiment

The 20th London Regiment was a volunteer infantry unit of the British Army based in Blackheath. The unit had various titles from the time of its raising in 1859. The regiment served in the First World War before being converted to an anti-aircraft role in 1935.

Formation
Tensions rose between the United Kingdom and France following an assassination attempt on Emperor Napoleon III in January 1858. It emerged that the would-be assassin, Felice Orsini had travelled to England to have the bombs used in the attack manufactured. On 29 April 1859 war broke out between France and the Austrian Empire (the Second Italian War of Independence), and there were fears that Britain might be caught up in a wider European conflict.

On 12 May 1859 the Secretary of State for War, Jonathan Peel issued a circular letter to lord lieutenants of counties in England, Wales and Scotland, authorising the formation of volunteer rifle corps and of artillery corps in defended coastal towns.

A number of small rifle volunteer corps were formed in suburban areas of north west Kent between November 1859 and 1860. In February 1860 they were grouped together as the 1st Administrative Battalion, Kent Rifle Volunteer Corps headquartered at Blackheath. In 1880 the battalion was renamed to 3rd Kent (West Kent) Rifle Volunteers and in 1883 it was affiliated to the regular infantry regiment for the area as the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment).

During the Second Anglo-Boer War they provided Active Service Companies as reinforcements to the Queen's Own, and were awarded the battle honour "South Africa 1900-'02".

In 1908 reserve forces were reorganised with the creation of the Territorial Force. All rifle volunteer units within the County of London became battalions of the new London Regiment. The unit's title became the 20th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Blackheath and Woolwich).

First World War
With the outbreak of war in August 1914 the 20th Battalion was mobilised for service. At the same time additional recruits allowed a "second line" battalion: the 2/20th to be formed in September and the existing unit was redesignated as the 1/20th. A "third line" duplicate, the 3/20th was formed in March 1915. The 1/20th fought on the Western Front while the 2/20th served in Macedonia and Palestine and the 3/20th remaining in the United Kingdom and 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 20th London Regiment (The Queen's Own). In 1924 the regiment was awarded twenty-four battle honours for the 1914-1918 war. Of these it was permitted to display ten on its king's colours, shown below in bold type:


 * Loos
 * Somme 1916 '18
 * Flers-Courcelette
 * Le Transloy
 * Messines 1917
 * Ypres 1917
 * Langemarck 1917
 * St. Quentin
 * Bapaume 1918
 * Ancre 1918
 * Hindenburg Line
 * Havrincourt
 * Canal du Nord
 * Cambrai 1918
 * Selle
 * Sambre
 * France and Flanders 1915-18
 * Doiran 1917
 * Macedonia 1916-17
 * Gaza
 * Jerusalem
 * Jericho
 * Jordan
 * Palestine 1917-18

Conversion
In December 1935 it was announced that the 1st Anti Aircraft Division was to be formed for the air defence of London. The division was to be formed by the conversion of a number of battalions of the London Regiment to anti aircraft regiments of the Royal Artillery or searchlight regiments of the Royal Engineers. On 15 December the 20th London Regiment was accordingly redesignated as the 34th (The Queen's Own Royal West Kent) Anti-Aircraft Battalion, Royal Engineers. Later transferred to the Royal Artillery the unit underwent a number of name changes before finally losing its separate identity in 1961.