Border Regiment The Border Regiment was an infantry regiment of the line in the British Army , which was formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 34th ( Cumberland ) Regiment of Foot and the 55th ( Westmorland ) Regiment of Foot . After service in the First and Second World Wars , it was amalgamated into The King ' s Own Royal Border Regiment in 1959 . Its lineage is continued today by the Duke of Lancaster ' s Regiment . 1881 – 1914 . The regiment was formed on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms . Under the reforms , each line infantry regiment was to have a defined regimental district , with two regular battalions sharing a single permanent depot . At any one time , one battalion was to be on foreign service and one on " home " service . In the case of the Border Regiment , the regimental district comprised the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland , with the depot established at Carlisle Castle . The outbreak of the Second Anglo - Boer War in 1899 found the British Army overstretched , and the 1st Battalion was one of many " home service " units dispatched to fight in the conflict . The Battalion saw action at Colenso and Spion Kop as part of the campaign to relieve Ladysmith . The two regular battalions were stationed as follows : 1st Battalion ( ex 34th Foot ) 2nd Battalion ( ex 55th Foot ) The militia and rifle volunteers of Cumberland and Westmorland also became reserve battalions of the regiment in 1881 : The Royal Cumberland Regiment of Militia and the Royal Westmorland Regiment of Militia became the 3rd and 4th Battalions respectively , while the rifle volunteers became the 1st ( Cumberland ) and 2nd ( Westmorland ) Volunteer Battalions . Detachments of these battalions saw service in the Boer War of 1899 – 1902 , and a 3rd Volunteer Battalion was raised in 1900 . In 1908 , the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 reorganised the reserve battalions : the 4th Battalion was disbanded , while the 3rd was transferred to the Special Reserve , the volunteer battalions became units of the new Territorial Force as the 4th ( Westmorland and Cumberland ) and 5th ( Cumberland ) Battalions . World War I . In common with other infantry regiments , the Border Regiment was increased in size for the duration of the 1914 – 1918 war by the creation of additional battalions , either by the duplication of the existing territorial units or by the raising of new " service " battalions . Victoria Crosses . Five men of the Border Regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross , all during World War I : Inter War Period . By 1919 , all the war - formed battalions had been disbanded and the system of rotating the two regular battalions had resumed . The 1st Battalion moved to the North West Frontier of India , where they were engaged in the Waziristan campaigns of 1919 – 1920 and 1921 – 1924 . In 1924 they moved to Aden , returning to England in the following year . Apart from a brief spell in Shanghai in 1927 they remained in the United Kingdom until 1936 . In that year , they moved to Palestine to suppress the Arab revolt . They returned to England in the following year , and were based at Catterick Garrison when the Second World War broke out . The 2nd Battalion were in Italy at the end of the First World War , remaining there until 1919 . In that year they moved to Ireland , where the War of Independence had broken out . Based in County Mayo , the battalion had few casualties , and returned to England at the end of the conflict in 1922 . In the next few years , the 2nd Battalion was on garrison duty at various locations : Malta , The Sudan , Tientsin in China aand Rawalpindi in India . The Battalion was part of the forces that suppressed the Afridi and Red Shirt Rebellions of 1930 – 1931 . The Battalion remained in India , and on the outbreak of World War II was stationed in Calcutta . The 3rd ( Reserve ) Battalion was placed in " suspended animation " following the war , and was never embodied again . It was formally disbanded in 1953 . The two territorial battalions were reformed in 1920 as part of the renamed Territorial Army ( TA ) . In April 1939 , when it seemed clear war was likely to break out with Germany , the TA was doubled in size , with each existing unit forming a duplicate . When war broke out in September 1939 , the four TA battalions were as follows : World War II . In 1941 , the 5th Battalion was converted to armour as the 110th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps . They continued to wear their Border cap badge on the black beret of the RAC . 110 RAC was disbanded in 1943 , and 5th Bn Border Regiment was reconstituted in April 1944 by redesignation of 7th Border , a reserve battalion serving in 213th Infantry Brigade It spent the rest of the war as a training battalion .