1810 – Light Division - Ciudad Rodrigo capitulated. PENINSULA WAR
1919 –1st Bn, OXF & BUCKS LI – NORTH RUSSIA.
1200 - Bolo shelled SUMMER HOUSE & SCOTS HILL. Our guns replied.
1600 - Patrol of “D” Coy. (Lt. A.B. Denham & 30 O.R’s) went out on left bank to locate Bolos position.
Patrol passed over the trenches of Bolos old forward line, which were found to be dismantled, and proceeded on IGNATOVSKAYA Road.
About 200 yards beyond these trenches, patrol came under M.G. & rifle fire from the east of the road and withdrew. One other rank wounded.
Information obtained: - Bolo has left his old advanced position, and is now holding his second (or new) advanced line with an advanced M.G. post 200 yards in front of it.
1919 – 2nd Bn, Oxf & Bucks LI - PARIS VICTORY PARADE.
Arrived Paris, and encamped at Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne.
1944 – 1st Bn, Oxf & Bucks LI – (NORMANDY)
On the 10th July the Regiment took over from the 1st East Lancashire Regiment and the brigade positions were reorganized.
1944 - 2nd (Airborne) Bn, Oxf & Bucks LI – CHATEAU ST COME. (NORMANDY)
Our recce patrols last night were very successful in pinpointing the enemy disposns.
At 16.30 this afternoon the 12th Para Bn put a small attack about a mile to our SOUTH with very strong arty sp.
The enemy reactions were [active?] and part of his DF fire came down in the Regt's area causing us three casualties.
1944 – 1st Buckinghamshire Battalion - NORMANDY
On the 10th July No. 6 Beach Group was dissolved officially.
It had, in fact, disintegrated before this date, as its components had passed one by one to the command of higher formations.
For the first time since the 5th April, 1943, Battalion headquarters was left with only the Battalion to command—a strange sensation.
As the staff captain was without a group to administer Captain J. D. Bicknell was ordered to join headquarters, No. 101 Beach Sub-Area, which had formed a staff to move into Caen as soon as the town fell. He left the Battalion, with which he had served uninterruptedly since the 27th September, 1940, on the afternoon of the 10th July, 1944.
1956 – 1st Bn Oxf & Bucks LI (43rd & 52nd) -The Regiment arrived at Brentwood at 11.30 hrs and moved to Warley Barracks
1968 – The Light Division (an administrative formation) was formed composed of The Light Infantry and the Royal Green Jackets.
The Light Division
On 18th July 1967 the Minister of Defence announced in Parliament the new administrative organization of the Infantry of the regular Army.
By July 1969 the formation of a number of new Divisions, incorporating the existing Brigades and Regiments, will be completed. The Divisions will be known as the Scottish, Queens, Kings, Prince of Wales and the Light Divisions. The Light Division will consist, initially, of the two Large Regiments - The Royal Green Jackets and the Light Infantry (the latter are in the process of forming a Large Regiment).
The Headquarters of the Light Division is already in operation at Winchester and for the present both the Rifle Depot and the Light Infantry Depot, Shrewsbury, will continue to function.
The following appointments to Headquarters The Light Division have been made:
Colonel Commandant: Lieut.-General Sir Antony Read. K.C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C. Divisional Brigadier: Brigadier J. R. Burgess, M.B.E. (late Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry).
G.S.O.II: Major C. St. C. Simmons, Royal Green Jackets.
All members of the 43rd and 52nd will be delighted at General Read's appointment as the first Colonel Commandant The Light Division and will wish to offer him their sincere congratulations. He joined the Regiment in 1934 and during his meteoric career lo the highest ranks was Commanding Officer from 1955 to 1957.
His first directive as Colonel Commandant is given herewith:
From: Lieut.-General Sir Antony Read, K.C.B.,C.B.E..D.S.O.,M.C.,
Colonel Commandant the Light Division:
You will know that I have been appointed Colonel Commandant of the Light Division.
This is a great honour for me, and I am more than proud to have been selected for this task. But it is a task which I approach with great humility, as I feel that no less a person than Sir John Moore will be watching over my shoulder, to ensure that his Division is up to the standard he would like. None of us, in the Light Infantry or the Royal Green Jackets, have any doubt at all what that standard is.
The late General Fuller, himself a Light Infantryman of no mean merit, summarizing John Moore's achievements, wrote:
First he looked ahead; he was not contented with the present; he rebelled against the hierarchy; he saw that tactics were bending towards looser formations, and that these demanded intelligence and not merely drill.
Secondly, he realised that the private soldier was the measure of his officer's worth, and so on, though a man of high feeling, because duty to his country demanded it, he did not hesitate to eliminate inefficient officers from the regiments he controlled.
Thirdly, he instructed the good, he taught them how to teach their men, how to care for them, and how to win their loyalty and respect.
Fourthly, he set so high an example to his soldiers, physically and morally, that he awakened within them not only a pride in him as a leader but the pride of each one of them in themselves as the followers of such a man.
His discipline was based on respect, not on fear, and it was fed on efficiency, not on tradition. And the result—the esorit de corps of Shorncliffe.
These must be our principles, and his inspiration surely is still with us, to guide us all in the task ahead. I have no doubt at all that, in certain circles in Whitehall in 1803, certain people complained about Moore, and thought his new-fangled ideas spelt ruin and disaster for the British Infantry. How wrong these people were is a matter of history, particularly the histories of all our Regiments. He thought very straight, and it is up to all of us to think as clearly and straightly as he did.
Changes there will be. That is certain, and we must ensure that they are changes for the better. We cannot stand still. Regimental life is like riding a bicycle; if you stand still you fall off. It is up to us now to move forward, leading the British Infantry as we always have done, to evolve an organisation and a system that will bring us up to, and keep us at, a standard that Sir John Moore would approve.
All of us, instinctively, resist change in our regimental affairs. But I hope you will all think hard and critically about the future, and ensure that any resistance is based on well thought out principles, and not merely on sentiment. In the future, our standards of character, efficiency, discipline, forward thought, adaptability and modern leadership are what really matter.
I know many people have difficulty in imagining what will happen about inter-posting in the future. First, let me make it clear that there will be no widespread interchange of individuals either between Battalions or Regiments simply in order to "scramble the egg". We shall work as the Light Division, initially composed of two Large Regiments. Within that framework, I shall base my policy on the following principles:
a. The battalion is the entity that matters. It must keep its individual pride, and it will be "home" to members.
b. Such inter-posting as does take place will be because it is specifically in the interests of the Light Division as a whole, or in those of the individual concerned.
c. 'Buggins Turn' will not apply in the Light Division. Appointments will be on merit, regiment or battalion of origin being of secondary importance.
Our Divisional Headquarters is now beginning to assemble at Winchester. From the second half of this year it will gradually take over the responsibilities of Headquarters The Light Infantry Brigade and Regimental Headquarters The Royal Green Jackets.
I am sure that the Light Division 1968 is going to take its place in history alongside that other Light Division of immortal memory. I look forward, with confidence, to your help and support in bringing this about.
Antony Read.