The Home Counties Brigade was an administrative formation of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 from 1948 to 1968. The Brigade administered the regular infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 battalions of the Home Counties

Home Counties

The home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...

 of south east England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

After the Second World War the British Army had fourteen infantry depots, each bearing a letter. The depots were territorially organised, and Infantry Depot C at Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 was the headquarters for the seven county regiments of the City

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 and County of London

County of London

The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government Act 1888. The Act created an administrative County of...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 and Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

. In 1948, the depots adopted names and this depot became the Home Counties Brigade, with all regiments being reduced to a single battalion at the same time.

The Home Counties Brigade was formally formed on July 14, 1948, combining the depots of the following regiments:

• The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
  Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)
  The Queen's Royal Regiment was a regiment of the English and later British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Army line infantry order of precedence...
  
  
• The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
  The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
  The Buffs , formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army until 1961. It had a history dating back to 1572 and was one of the oldest regiments in the British Army being third in order of precedence...
  
  
• The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
  The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
  The Royal Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army until 1968 when it was amalgamated with other regiments to form The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers...
  
  
• The East Surrey Regiment
• The Royal Sussex Regiment
• The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
  The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment
  The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1961. It was formed as The Queen's Own as part of the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 50th Regiment of Foot and the 97th Regiment of Foot...
  
  
• The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own)

Under the Defence Review

1957 Defence White Paper

The 1957 White Paper on Defence was a British white paper setting forth the perceived future of the British military. It had profound effects on all aspects of the defence industry but probably the most affected was the British aircraft industry...

 announced in July, 1957, the infantry of the line was reorganised: On April 1, 1958 the Royal Fusiliers were transferred to a newly-created Fusilier Brigade

Fusilier Brigade

The Fusilier Brigade was an administrative formation of the British Army from 1958 to 1968. The Brigade combined the depots of the English infantry regiments designated as fusiliers.The Brigade was created as part of the defence reforms announced in July 1957...

, and over the next three years the remaining six regiments were reduced to four by amalgamation.

From 1958 all regiments in the Brigade adopted a common cap badge and brigade buttons, depicting an upright sword within a Saxon crown. The individual battalions were henceforth being distinguished by their collar badges. By 1961 the four regiments in the brigade were:

Regiment	Collar badge
The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment -History:As a consequence of defence cuts in the late 1950s, the Queen's Royal Regiment and the East Surrey Regiment were amalgamated on 14 October 1959 to form the 1st Battalion, Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment.... (formed October 14, 1959 from the Queen's Royal and East Surrey Regiments)	On a crowned, eight-pointed star, a paschal lamb Paschal Lamb Paschal Lamb can refer to:* Korban Pesach, in Judaism* Lamb of God, in Christianity* Sacrificial lamb...
The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1961 to 1966. Its lineage is continued by the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.... (formed March 1, 1961 from the Buffs and the Royal West Kent Regiment)	The white horse of Kent with the motto"Invicta" and a scroll with the regiment's name.
The Royal Sussex Regiment	In front of the Roussillon plume, a Maltese cross Maltese cross The Maltese cross, also known as the Amalfi cross, is identified as the symbol of an order of Christian warriors known as the Knights Hospitaller or Knights of Malta and through them came to be identified with the Mediterranean island of Malta and is one of the National symbols of Malta... , in the centre of which was St George's Saint George Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...  cross within the Garter Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...  and a laurel wreath.
The Middlesex Regiment	The plumes of the Prince of Wales Prince of Wales Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...  and cypher of the Duke of Cambridge within a laurel wreath, with a scroll inscribed "Albuhera Battle of Albuera The Battle of Albuera was an indecisive battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about 20 kilometres south of the frontier fortress-town of Badajoz, Spain.From... "

On December 31, 1966 the four regiments of the Home Counties Brigade were merged to become a new "large regiment": The Queen's Regiment, with the four regular battalions redesignated as the 1st to 4th Battalions of the new regiment.

On July 1, 1968 the Home Counties Brigade was united with the Fusilier and East Anglian Brigades, to form the Queen's Division

Queen's Division

The Queen's Division is a British Army command, training and administrative apparatus designated for has the regiments from the east of England and the remaining regiment of Fusiliers. The Queen's Division was formed in 1968 with the regimentation of the Home Counties Brigade, Fusilier Brigade and...

.