The
Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) was an
infantry regiment of the
British Army.
History
It was formed on 9 June 1959 after defence cuts implemented in the late 1950s saw the amalgamation of
The Royal Berkshire Regiment and
The Wiltshire Regiment , forming The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) (DERR). The Regiment was amalgamated at
Albany Barrack,
Isle of Wight. The first posting for the First Battalion (1 DERR) was in
Tidworth,
Wiltshire and it was from there in June 1960 B Company arrived in the
Bahamas to augment the
garrison unit in the Caribbean, the
Royal Hampshire Regiment. The following year, ethnic violence in
British Guiana saw the DERR send a company to assist in the re-establishment of order. In December 1962 the Regiment arrived in
Malta for a deployment that would last just over 3-years. While based there, the Regiment deployed to
Cyprus in February 1964, a month before the establishment of the
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNIFICYP), returning to Malta in April though the Regiment did see subsequently deployments in Cyprus. Malta became independent from the
British Empire on 21 September and the Regiment took part in the occasion. In January 1966 the Regiment arrived in
Minden,
West Germany as part of the
British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) on a three-year posting. In West Germany they formed part of the 11th Infantry Brigade. From that location they trained in
Libya, Norway, and France....
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