Fantasy Orbats
1: The Modern British Army at Waterloo
What if the units of the British Army on that day in June 1815 had
been represented by their descendant regiments instead? Of the ten
line infantry regiments in the modern British Army (excluding Paras
and Ghurkas), seven were represented at Waterloo, including all 5 battalions
of The Rifles, and 4 out of 5 battalions of the present Royal Regiment
of Scotland.
Unfortunately the KGL cannot be shown, as the regiments descended
from it effectively ceased to exist in 1945. Some British units present
on that day have also ceased to exist, so cannot be listed. Still,
those remaining look like this:
The Cavalry: Earl of Uxbridge
Royal Horse Artillery:
A Battery (Chestnut Troop)
E Battery
Household Brigade: Major General Lord Somerset
The Household Cavalry Regiment (The Life Guards)
The Household Cavalry Regiment (The Blues and Royals)
1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards
Union Brigade: Major General Ponsonby
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Greys and Carabiniers)
The Royal Dragoon Guards
3rd Cavalry Brigade: Major General Dornberg
(lineage for KGL units ceased to exist after 1945)
4th Cavalry Brigade: Major General Vandeleur
The King's Royal Hussars
9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's)
The Queen's Royal Lancers
5th Cavalry Brigade: Major General Grant
The Light Dragoons
The Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish)
6th Cavalry Brigade: Major General Hussey Vivian
(lineage for KGL units ceased to exist after 1945)
7th Cavalry Brigade: Colonel Arentschildt
(all disbanded)
Infantry:
1st Guards Division: Major General Cooke
1st Brigade: Major General Maitland
The Grenadier Guards
2nd Brigade: Major General Byng
The Coldstream Guards
The Scots Guards
2nd Division: Major General Clinton
3rd Brigade: Major General Adam
2nd Battalion, The Rifles
The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment
of Scotland
4th Battalion, The Rifles
1st Brigade, King’s German Legion: Colonel du Plat
(lineage for KGL units ceased to exist after 1945)
3rd Division: Major General Alten
2nd Brigade, King’s German Legion: Colonel Baron Ompteda
(lineage for KGL units ceased to exist after 1945)
5th Brigade: Major General Halkett
3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment
2nd Battalion, The Royal Welsh (Royal Regiment of Wales)
4th Division: Lieutenant General Colville
4th Brigade: Colonel Mitchell
1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh (Royal Welch Fusiliers)
1st Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment
5th Battalion, The Rifles
5th Division: Lieutenant General Picton
8th Brigade: Major General Kempt
1st Battalion, The Rifles
3rd Battalion, The Rifles
The Highlanders, 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland
9th Brigade: Major General Pack
1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment
The Royal Scots Borderers, 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of
Scotland
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland
6th Division: Lieutenant General Cole
10th Brigade: Major General Lambert
2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s,
Lancashire and Border
1st Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment
1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment (King’s,
Lancashire and Border)
Artillery:
5th Regiment, Royal Artillery
26th Regiment, Royal Artillery
(Apologies if I have missed any artillery regiment, my excuse
is that the lineage of the modern RA is so very complicated!)
Sources
Where Have All the Regiments Gone? The
Modern Descendants of the Regiments of the 1815 British Army:
compiled by Donald E. Graves, Napoleon Series.
Placed on the Napoleon Series: April 2010
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