During the First World War men from the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment served in France, Belgium, Italy, India, Gallipoli, Afghanistan, Palestine…
The 1st and 2nd battalions were pre-war regulars. Among the first to fight at the famous battles at Mons and on the Marne they suffered heavily
998 men of the 1st Battalion marched to war in 1914.
32 still lived by November 1914.
Only 17 came home.
Bolstered by new men the 1st battalions went on to fight at Ypres on the Somme, at Passchendaele and on the Hindenburg line, whilst the 2nd also went to the Italian Theatre.
However, the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment also sent entire battalions of territorials to India, releasing the regular troops stationed there to fight on the Western Front. Some of these men would fight skirmishes in Afghanistan.
Throughout the war the regiment grew with territorials and Kitchener’s Volunteers
This regimental history is a fantastic account of not only the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, but of the vast amount of theatres they served in.
Harold Carmichael Wylly (1859-1932) was a British colonel and military historian.
Colonel Wylly published a number of military-based books, including a biography of Sir Joseph Thackwell. His later works specialised in the First World War.
