The NRR fought in the Second World War in Somaliland, Madagascar, the Middle East, Ceylon and Burma. The 1st Battalion served with distinction in the Malayan Emergency from 1953 to 1955. Between 1953 and 1963, during federation with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, it made up part of the Federal armed forces. On Northern Rhodesia's independence as Zambia in 1964, the NRR was renamed the Zambia Regiment and integrated into the new Zambian Defence Force.