Royal Bermuda Regiment

The Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR) is the home defence unit of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is a single territorial infantry battalion that was formed on the amalgamation in 1965 of two originally voluntary units, the mostly black Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) and the almost entirely white Bermuda Rifles (titled the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) until 1949), and the only remaining component of the Bermuda Garrison since the 1957 withdrawal of regular units and detachments from Bermuda.

The two original units, the mostly black Bermuda Militia Artillery and the almost entirely white Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, were raised 1895 and 1894, respectively, in accordance with two of three acts passed by the Bermudian parliament in 1892 at the insistence of the British Government, which had been attempting to encourage, entice, or coerce the local government to restore reserve military units since the last Militia Act had been allowed to lapse following the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812. The regulations of the two units were the same as those of militia and volunteer units in the British Isles at the time, with a few additions specific to the units. The units were fully funded by the War Office as parts of the British Army, rather than as auxiliary to it. Contingents from both units were deployed to France and Belgium in June 1915 and saw action on the Western Front during the First World War.

Following the First World War, the British Government's policy of austerity resulted in a substantial reduction of the regular army, including reducing the regular infantry in Bermuda and removing the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers Fortress companies from Bermuda in 1928, with the local reserve units shouldering more responsibility. This resulted in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps being re-organised on territorial lines in 1921. Those other ranks who chose to continue serving were re-attested, committing to terms of service which meant they could no longer quit the corps with fourteen days notice. The name of the corps was not modified to reflect the change, however. Militia soldiers were already engaged for terms of service, and the Bermuda Militia Artillery was not similarly re-organised until 1928 (its name, also, was not modified to reflect the change). The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was created as a unit to operate the search lights at coastal artillery batteries in June 1931 (previously, the third act of 1892 had authorised the creation of a militia unit to assist the Royal Engineers company tasked with maintaining and operating Bermuda's submarine mining defences, but this unit had not been raised), while the Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in October 1939, originally relieving the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps of the task of protecting St David's Battery from attack by enemy landing parties, but taking on new roles as it expanded to a strength of two companies, with the infantry defence of the colony being split between the regular infantry (by then a detachment of 4th Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders), the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and the Bermuda Militia Infantry.

A contingent of volunteers for overseas service from the Bermuda Militia Artillery (one officer), Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (four sappers), and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (sixteen officers and other ranks) was sent to Britain in June, 1940, where the contingent members separated to join their parent corps (Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the Lincolnshire regiment, respectively). With the regular garrison having been drastically reduced due to post-First World War economic austerity by the British Government, concern over further weakening the garrison meant the local-service units, which had been embodied for full-time service for the duration of the war, were barred from sending further contingents abroad until 1943, by which time the threat of enemy attacks on Bermuda and its strategic defence infrastructure had greatly diminished and the United States Army and United states Marine Corps had garrisoned the colony. Following this, a contingent of volunteers from the Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Militia Infantry was attached to the 1st Caribbean Regiment and saw action in Europe and North Africa during the Second World War while a company from the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps was attached to the Lincolnshire Regiment and saw action in North West Europe and in Burma during that war. The two contingents had been grouped together in 1943 as the Command Training Battalion, stationed at Prospect Camp while training in preparation for deployment to Europe.

After the war the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps was belatedly renamed the Bermuda Rifles. The Bermuda Militia Artillery, however, was not renamed. Following the closure of the Royal Navy's dockyard commenced in 1951 (a process that lasted until 1958, leaving only a small naval base, HMS Malabar, within the former dockyard), the military garrison, which had existed primarily to protect the Royal Navy base, was also closed.

The Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Rifles amalgamated to form the Bermuda Regiment on 1 September 1965. The new Bermuda Regiment's stand of colours was presented in November 1965 by Princess Margaret. Princess Margaret presented a second stand of colours to replace the first in November 1990 to mark the Bermuda Regiment's 25th anniversary. The latest set of Colours were presented by Duchess of Gloucester, GCVO, at the National Sports Centre on 13 November 2010. In 1945, the part-time reserve units in Bermuda, the Channel Islands and Malta had numbered collectively as 28th in the British Army order of precedence (the number varied before and after 1945 depending on the make-up of the British Army), but were ordered within that according to the order of precedence of their parent corps in the regular army. This meant, that the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA), as part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery and the Militia, preceded the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) (as part of the infantry and the Volunteer Force) despite being the second of the two to be raised. Today, the Royal Bermuda Regiment, as an amalgam of the BMA and BVRC, is 29th and was formerly 28th which changed in 2007 with the Special Reconnaissance Regiment being added to the Order of Precedence.

On 1 September 2015, Queen Elizabeth II awarded the title "Royal" to the regiment to mark the 50th anniversary of its formation.

The badge of the Royal Bermuda Regiment combines elements from those of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and the BVRC. The full badge, as displayed on the Colours, features two crossed cannons creating an X behind a Maltese cross (the symbol of rifle regiments in the British Army, and used on the white metal BVRC badge), set on a circular shield with "THE BERMUDA REGIMENT" inscribed around it, and the whole enclosed within a wreath and surmounted by the Crown. The cap badge is bi-metal – all brass, except a white metal Maltese cross, which is set inside the wheel of a cannon (taken from the badge of the Royal Artillery), with a half-wreath about the lower hemisphere of the badge. Flashes, and other colour marks used on dress and elsewhere (such as backgrounds on signs about Warwick Camp) are blue and red, reflecting the colours of the Royal Artillery, but the stable belt (issued only to permanent staff, officers and senior ranks) worn is rifle green, with black edges, referring to the colours used by the BVRC.