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The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire was an infantry regiment of the British Army.
It was formed in 1994 by the amalgamation of two English regiments.
· The Gloucestershire Regiment
· The Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire)
The regiment was unique in the British Army in that it was permitted to wear the United States Distinguished Unit Citation, which it inherited from the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment which was awarded for their defence of Gloster Hill during the Battle of the Imjin River in April 1951 during the Korean War.
It was also the only regiment in the British Army whose members were permitted to wear a cap badge on both the front and the rear of their headdress. The back badge was awarded to the 28th Regiment of Foot for their actions at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801 when the regiment fought on whilst completely surrounded by the enemy. During the Battle of the Imjin River, during the Korean War, the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment (the Glorious Glosters), and their mortar battery — numbering perhaps 750 men in total — again fought on when surrounded on Gloster Hill by at least one Chinese division of 10,000 men.
On 24 November 2005, the Ministry of Defence announced further changes to the amalgamations. The regiment would still merge with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment resulting in a single battalion, however, they were now to join a new large regiment created by the amalgamation of The Light Infantry and the Royal Green Jackets. This new regiment was to be called The Rifles and would be formed by the end of 2007. The battalion that will result from the merger of the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment and the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment will be designated 1st Battalion, The Rifles. On becoming part of a rifle regiment, the RGBW will no longer carry its colours; the Colours of the 1st. Battalion will be laid up at The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Gloucester and the Colours of the 2nd Battalion will be laid up at the Wardrobe, home of The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire)