The Wessex 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 Wessex

Wessex

The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...

 area of south and south west 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 H at Bulford

Bulford

Bulford is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, close to Salisbury Plain. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,698.The name is derived from the Old English bulut ieg ford meaning 'ragged robin island ford'....

 was the headquarters for the six county regiments that recruited in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 and Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

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

The Wessex Brigade was formally formed at Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

 on October 28, 1948 and combined the depots of the following regiments:

• The Devonshire Regiment
  The Devonshire Regiment
  The Devonshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army which served under various titles from 1685 to 1958. Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles.-Origin and titles:...
  
  
• The Gloucestershire Regiment
  The Gloucestershire Regiment
  The Gloucestershire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Nicknamed "The Glorious Glosters", the regiment carried more battle honours on their regimental colours than any other British Army line regiment.-Origins and early history:...
  
  
• The Royal Hampshire Regiment
• The Dorsetshire Regiment renamed as The Dorset Regiment in 1951
• The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's)
• The Wiltshire Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh's)

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, and the number of battalions was reduced to four by amalgamation. Accordingly, on May 17, 1958 the Devonshire Regiment and Dorset Regiment were amalgamated into the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment

Devonshire and Dorset Regiment

The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, usually just known as the Devon and Dorsets, was an infantry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1958 by the amalgamation of two county regiments:*The Devonshire Regiment*The Dorset Regiment...

, while on June 9, 1959 the Royal Berkshire Regiment and the Wiltshire Regiment were merged into the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire).

Proposals were made over the next decade to amalgamate the Gloucesters and Royal Hampshires, which went as far as the battalions reducing ready for amalgamation, but this was cancelled less than two weeks before formation day.

From 1958 all regiments in the Brigade adopted a common cap badge consisting of the Wessex wyvern

Wyvern

A wyvern or wivern is a legendary winged reptilian creature with a dragon's head, two legs , and a barbed tail. The wyvern is found in heraldry. There exists a purely sea-dwelling variant, termed the Sea-Wyvern which has a fish tail in place of a barbed dragon's tail...

on a plinth inscribed Wessex.

On July 1, 1968 the Wessex Brigade was united with the Welsh and Mercian Brigades, to form the Prince of Wales's Division.

External links

• http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/depot/948welsh.htm - Wessex Brigade at Regiments.org