HM The Queen Approves New Regimental Titles

[Michael Dorosh]

I am a strong advocate of the regimental system. It's proven, effective, it works, and it makes you feel like you're a part of something special and larger. Plus it just seems to sound much better when someone asks what unit you're from and you reply e.g. 1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment instead of 2nd Platoon, C Coy, 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 5th Brigade.....

You can just as easily say that a non-regimental system is proven, effective, and works also.  Take the Canadian Expeditionary Force.  Battalions in most cases were amalgams of several prewar Militia regiments - often with very little or no history - and yet they did exceedingly well.  The 16th Battalion were drawn from at least four pre-war Highland Regiments, none of whom had any battle honours, and yet fought in every major Canadian battle of the war and won a large number of VCs and other awards despite only having "Canadian Scottish" for a name and absolutely none of the trappings of the 50th Gordon Highlanders, 79th Cameron Highlanders or 93rd Canadian Highlanders from which they were recruited.  That title is very significant to Princess Mary's boys in Victoria today, but it was fairly meaningless in 1915.

At its worst, the Regimental system reinforces the idea of promoting from within - Terry Copp points out that regimental officers during WW II, for example, tended to be drawn from within the same regiment; the Black Watch were, IIRC, sending new officers to the general reinforcement stream already badged as Black Watch.  I don't think it was a huge issue in WW II as officers did tend to move around - the CO of the South Saskatchewans at Dieppe (who won the VC) was actually a Seaforth Highlander, for example, and in late 1944 they got a new CO from the Calgary Highlanders. 

I am for the regimental system, don't get me wrong, but why use non-sensical arguments to defend it?  Soldiers of the Tenth Battalion, CEF didn't feel the need to refer to themselves as anything more grandiose than "Tenth Canadians" and yet managed to win massive laurels for themselves.  And again, not one single uniform distinction or tradition was carried over from the 103rd Calgary Rifles or 106th Winnipeg Light Infantry from which they were formed.  It was the same for most of the numbered battalions of the CEF.

The problem with defending the regimental system is that most of the arguments in favour are purely sentimental - which in my books is still ok.  We shouldn't be scared of sentiment.  But let's not fool ourselves into pretending its scientific fact because those outside the regimental system don't buy it for a second.