Authors and Contributors this page: T.F. Mills
Page created 15 July 2000. Corrected and updated 21.08.2004
 
The  South Staffordshire Regiment
crest and tie
 by A. Melville-Brown
United Kingdom 
  Titles & Lineage
  History
  Battle Honours
  Colours, Standards & Guidons
  Uniforms & Badges
  Colonels-in-Chief
  Colonels

  Biography & Gallantry Awards
  Traditions
  Alliances
  Associations, Forums, Re-Enactors
  Museums, Monuments, Memorials
  Bibliography
How to find information about individuals who served in this corps
 
1881.07.01 The South Staffordshire Regiment
organised as the county regiment of South Staffordshire , encompassing its Militia and Volunteer infantry [see below] and uniting two regular battalions:
 
1959.01.31 amalgamated with The North Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's), to form The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's)
The South Staffordshire Regiment, by Chris Baker (The British Army in the Great War).
The South Staffordshire Regiment, by Brad Chappell (The Regimental Warpath 1914-1918)
     
  RHQ and Depot:
    RHQ:
    38th Regimental District at Lichfield [1881-1905]
   
    K Group, at Oswestry [1946-1948]
    Mercian Brigade, at Lichfield [1948-1959]
     
  Regulars:
    1st Battalion [1881-1959]
    2nd Battalion [1881-1948]
   
     
Militia and Special Reserve:
3rd Battalion (King's Own (1st Staffordshire) Militia) [1881-1953]
4th Battalion [1881-1953]
Territorials and Volunteers:
1st Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
2nd Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
3rd Volunteer Battalion [1881-1908]
5th Battalion [1908-1959]
6th Battalion [1908-1947]
Hostilities-Only Units (First and Second World War, including T.A. duplicates):
[combined battle honours of 38th Regiment and 80th Regiment, plus:] 

Guadeloupe 17591, Martinique 17621, South Africa 1878-92, Egypt 1882, Kirbekan, Nile 1884-85, South Africa 1900-02 

The Great War [18 battalions]: Mons, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914 '18, Ypres 1914 '17, Langemarck 1914 '17, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Albert 1916 '18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Ancre 1916, Bapaume 1917 '18, Arras 1917 '18, Scarpe 1917 '18, Arleux, Bullecourt, Hill 70, Messines 1917 '18, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Lys, Bailleul, Kemmel, Scherpenberg, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Havrincourt, Canal du Nord, St. Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914-18, Piave, Vittorio Veneto, Italy 1917-18, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1916

The Second World War:  Caen, Noyers, Falaise, Arnhem 1944, North-West Europe 1940 '44, Sidi Barrani, North Africa 1940, Landing in Sicily, Sicily 1943, Italy 1943, Chindits 1944, Burma 1944

The King's Own 1st Staffordshire Militia:  Mediterranean
5th, 6th Battalions:  South Africa 1900-02

1.  awarded 1909 for services of 38th Regiment.
2.  awarded 1882 for service of 80th Regiment.
   
Badges:
Uniform: scarlet; facings: white (1881-1935), yellow (1935-1959)
   
   
     
   
[none]
1881 [1st Bn:] Gen. James Pattoun Sparks, CB
1881 [2nd Bn:] Gen. sir Richard Wilbraham, KCB
188u [1st Bn:] Gen. Charles Elmhirst, CB
188u [2nd Bn:] Gen. Hon. Sir St. George Gerald Foley, KCB
1897.01.25 Gen. John William Sidney Smith, CB
1900.04.12 Lt-Gen. Sir George Samuel Young, KCB
1911.09.11 Lt-Gen. Sir Charles Tucker, GCB, GCVO
1935.12.03 Maj-Gen. Percy Ryan Conway Commings, CB, CMG, DSO
1946.04.06 Maj-Gen. Sir Guy de Courcy Glover, KBE, CB, DSO, MC
1954.11.11 Maj-Gen. Alec Wilfred Lee, CB, MC
Victoria Crosses, by Mike Chapman (VC Reference).
VCs in the Staffordshire Regimental Museum, by Iain Stewart.
Tom Drury and the South Staffordshire Regiment/Labour Corp [WW1], by Kevin Noble.
 
Motto:
Nicknames:
Anniversaries: Arnhem (17 Sept.), Ferozeshah (21 Dec.)
Freedoms:
Marches:
Musicians:
Mascot: Staffordshire Bull Terrier: 1st Bn took one with them to Egypt in 1882.
Miscellaneous Tradition Links:

The Colchester and Hants Regiment

-1936
The North Nova Scotia Highlanders 1936-1954
53rd Battalion (The West Sydney Regiment) 1926-1951
38th Infantry Battalion (The Northern Victorian Regiment) 1955-1959
Antigua Defence Force 1956-1959
[no external sites have been found]
Staffordshire Regiment Museum, Lichfield (Army Museums Ogilby Trust)
South Staffordshire Regiments Memorial, Walsall Town Hall
Museum of the Staffordshire Regiment, Lichfield (Simonides listing)
Regimental Journal:
The Staffordshire knot.
The knot.
Full Histories:
Jones, James P. A history of The South Staffordshire regiment (1705-1923). Wolverhampton : Whitehead Brothers Ltd., 1923.
Presenting The South Staffordshire Regiment. London : Malcolm Page, 1952.
Vale, Walter Leonard. History of the South Staffordshire Regiment. Aldershot : Gale & Polden, 1969. ISBN: 0700100016
 
Short Histories:
A short history of The South Staffordshire Regiment. [s.l. : s.n., ca. 1922]
Freer, William J. The Thirty-Eighth REgiment of Foot, now the First Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment. London : Harrison & Sons, 1915. [reprinted from: The British numismatic journal, v. 11]
1st Battalion The South Staffordshire Regiment. Aldershot : Gale & Polden, 1936.
Vale, Walter Leonard. A short history of The South Staffordshire Regiment. Wolverhampton : Whitehead Bros., 1949.
The South Staffordshire Regiment, 1705-1955. Celebration of the 250th anniversary of the formation of the regiment. Saturday, 26th March 1955. Aldershot : Gale & Polden, 1955.
The Staffordshire Regiment. Hemel Hempstead : Nexus Special Interests, 1995. (Regiment ; 7)
 

Militia:

Wylly, C. H. (Charles Herbert). Historical records of the 1st King's Own Stafford Militia : now 3rd and 4th Battalions, South Staffordshire Regiment. Lichfield : A.C. Lomax, 1893.
Wylly, C. H. (Charles Herbert) ; Charrington, F. ; Bulwer, E. A. E. ; Collas, W. J. J. Historical records of the 1st King's Own Stafford Militia : now 3rd and 4th Battalions, South Staffordshire Regiment. [new ed.] Lichfield : A.C. Lomax, 1902.
 

Territorials/Volunteers:

The war history of the Sixth Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment (T.F.). London : W. Heinemann, Ltd., 1924.
 

First World War:

Beauman, Archibald Bentley. With the 38th in France and Italy; being a record of the doings of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, from 26th September, 1916, to 26th May, 1918. Lichfield : A.C. Lomax's Successors (F.H. Bull & E. Wiseman), Printers, 1919.
Anderson, A.L.K. The unbreakable coil. Wolverhampton : Whitehead Bros., 1923. [2nd Battalion]
Ashcroft, A. H. (ed.) The history of the seventh South Staffordshire Regiment. London : Printed by Boyle, Son & Watchurst, Ltd, 1919.
 

Second World War:

Duckworth, L. B. (ed.) Your men in battle; the story of South Staffordshire Regiment, 1939-1945. Wolverhampton : Published by the "Express & Star" in aid of the Arnhem Fund, 1945.
Special Topics:
Rosignoli, Guido ; Whitehouse, C.J. The Staffords, 1881-1978 : badges and uniforms. Cannock : Rosignoli, 1978.