British Army The British Army was a branch of the United Kingdom ' s military . The Doctor worked directly with them on occasion ( TV : " Aliens of London " , " Empress of Mars " ) ; he was also involved with them through UNIT . History . 18th century . In 1746 , British troops , also known as " Redcoats " , fought against the Jacobite s in the Battle of Culloden . ( TV : " The Highlanders " ) 19th century . In the early 19th century , the British fought against Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars . Under the Duke of Wellington , the British defeated the French at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 . ( PROSE : " World Game " ) During the First Afghan War , the British Army was afflicted by poor planning and leadership , leading to huge disasters such as the retreat from Kabul in 1842 . A new British army invaded Afghanistan later that year , ending the war , ( PROSE : " Mire and Clay " ) although the British Empire became involved in further engagements in Afghanistan in later years . ( PROSE : " All - Consuming Fire " ) From 1853 to 1856 , the British , with French and Turkish allies , fought against the Russia ns in the Crimean War . ( TV : " The Evil of the Daleks " ) A miscommunication on 25 October 1854 led to the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade , where a light British cavalry brigade was sent to advance upon the wrong Russia positions and were slaughtered . Florence Nightingale arrived at the Scutari barracks on 18 November 1854 and helped clean up the medical institutions to provide better aid for the sick and wounded soldiers . ( AUDIO : " The Angel of Scutari " ) After the end of the Indian Mutiny in 1857 , the British Army was sent into India to maintain order . ( PROSE : " All - Consuming Fire " ) 20th century . From 1914 to 1918 , Britain and its allies fought in World War I against Germany and the Central Powers . Some of the battles the British were involved in included Passchendaele , the Somme , Verdun and Ypres . ( TV : " To the Last Man " , AUDIO : " The Next Life " , PROSE : " Byzantium ! " , " Remembrance of the Daleks " , " Illegal Alien " ) A million British soldiers died during the war . ( TV : " To the Last Man " ) In World War I , several British troops , also called " Tommies " , were abducted by the War Lord s for their War Game s . They helped the Second Doctor and his friends defeat the War Lords . The surviving troops were sent by the Time Lord s to their right time zone . ( TV : " The War Games " ) At a different point in World War I , the New Dalek Paradigm interfered in the course of the war by influencing British and German industrialists to manufacture robotic , Dalek - like drones , supposedly to assist members of the British and German armies , respectively . However , their true plan was to use the Proto - Daleks to wipe out the British and German soldiers who were aware of their existence , in order to eliminate all evidence of their interference . ( COMIC : " The Dalek Project " ) From 1939 to 1945 , Britain and its allies fought World War II against Nazi Germany and Japan . ( PROSE : " " , " Magic of the Angels " ; AUDIO : " Casualties of War " ; COMIC : " Sky Jacks " ) In 1941 , two British soldiers who came to protect Winston Churchill were exterminated by the Dalek s . ( TV : " Victory of the Daleks " ) When WOTAN tried to conquer Earth on 20 July 1966 , the British Army fought against its War Machine s . ( TV : " The War Machines " ) Some time before the formation of UNIT , a squad of British Troops led by Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge - Stewart ( who later founded UNIT ) fought against the Great Intelligence and its Robot Yeti servants . ( TV : " The Web of Fear " ) Following the formation of UNIT , the British Army — often referred to by the organisation ' s personnel as " the Regular Army " — appointed a UNIT liaison officer to whom the officer in charge of the British branch of UNIT reported . At the time of the Auton incident , Major General Scobie was the British Army ' s UNIT liaison officer . UNIT troops were usually members of the British Army serving on detached duty , and were thus subject to the orders of British Army officers . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) During the time of " Mars Probe 7 " , the army had a new Space Security Department headed by General Carrington . He called in the Military Police to arrest UNIT , fearing the Brigadier was in league with aliens . ( TV : " The Ambassadors of Death " ) In 1984 , an army bomb disposal squad under Colonel Archer got caught up in a Dalek plot which resulted in them being killed and replaced with duplicates . ( TV : " Resurrection of the Daleks " ) 21st century . A platoon of soldiers were guarding the hospital were a victim from a spacecraft that had crashed into Big Ben was situated . They were walked in on by the Ninth Doctor and they all aimed their rifles at him , though he quickly took charge when they heard a scream . One soldier shot the mermaid from the spacecraft , much to the Doctor ' s anger . ( TV : " Aliens of London " ) Whilst the Battle of Canary Wharf raged in 2007 , the British Army fought the invaders across London . ( TV : " Doomsday " ) At Christmas 2007 , when the Racnoss Webstar attacked London , a Challenger 2 British Army Tank acting under orders from Harold Saxon opened fire and destroyed it as its shields were down . ( TV : " The Runaway Bride " ) In the first decade of the 21st century , the British Army were involved in the Iraq War . Soldiers were killed , including Simon Metcalf . ( TV : " Warriors of Kudlak " , " To the Last Man " ) In September 2009 , when the 456 demanded that ten percent of Earth ' s children be taken to them , soldiers were ordered to round up the lowest performing ten percent of the UK ' s children and hand them over to the 456 . They stood down when the 456 were destroyed . ( TV : " " ) In 2020 , Sally Morgan served as a private in the King ' s New Delta Squadron of the British Army . ( AUDIO : " Black and White " ) By the 2020s , the British Army had been privatised . Certain units performed private security work . ( AUDIO : " Signs and Wonders " ) In 2048 , after the Korven Lomax hijacked the British government and created the Department , the cyborg CCPC acted as the army of the United Kingdom , although they were referred to as a police force . ( TV : " Regeneration " , " Liberation " , et al . ) Parallel world . When Britain closed its borders in a parallel world in 2009 , soldiers rounded up foreigners and took them to labour camps . ( TV : " Turn Left " ) Behind the scenes . " Doctor Who : Battles in Time " . According to material in " DWBIT " 1 , in 2158 , when a Dalek flying saucer attacked London as part of their invasion of Earth , the British Army sent tanks to fight off the invaders , but in a matter of days they were defeated by the Daleks .