Childers Reforms The Childers Reforms restructured the infantry regiment s of the British army . The reforms were undertaken by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers in 1881 , and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell reforms . The reorganisation was brought into effect by General Order 41 / 1881 , issued on 1 May 1881 , amended by G . O . 70 / 1881 dated 1 July , which created a network of multi - battalion regiments . In England , Wales and Scotland , each regiment was to have two regular or " line " battalions and two militia battalions . In Ireland , there were to be two line and three militia battalions . This was done by renaming the numbered regiments of foot and county militia regiments . In addition the various corps of county rifle volunteers were to be designated as volunteer battalions . Each of these regiments was linked by headquarters location and territorial name to its local " Regimental District " . The reforms came into effect on 1 July . From 1881 regimental seniority numbers were officially abolished and battalions came to be known by their number within the regiment and the regimental district name . Unofficially , the regiments were still referred to by their numbers by their officers and men , as tradition and a point of pride , and several regiments such as " The Buffs " , The Cameron Highlanders , and " The Black Watch " , lobbied to keep their distinct names as part of their battalion titles . In practice , it was not always possible to apply the scheme strictly : the Cameron Highlanders initially had only one regular battalion , while several regiments had more or fewer militia regiments than envisaged in the initial scheme . In addition , the Rifle Brigade and King ' s Royal Rifle Corps had no local regimental districts , and their affiliated militia and volunteer battalions were selected not on a territorial basis , but due to their " rifle " traditions . This structure lasted until 1948 , when every regiment of line infantry had its regular battalions cut to one , with only the three original Guards Division regiments retaining two regular battalions . Standardisation of uniforms and colours . An attempt was made to have the facings of uniforms standardised : English and Welsh regiments would have white facings , Irish regiments would wear green facings , Scottish regiments would have yellow facings , and royal regiments would have dark blue facings . Officers ' uniforms had lace in distinctive national patterns : rose pattern for England and Wales , thistle for Scotland and shamrock for Ireland . In the case of regular battalions the lace was gold , while that of the militia battalions was silver . There were also attempts to assimilate regimental insignia and remove " tribal " uniform distinctions . This was less successful , as regimental tribalism and tradition forced a national outcry . Two regiments that displayed fierce reaction were the 75th and the 92nd that were grudgingly joined together to become the Gordon Highlanders . The 75th went so far as commissioning a marble monument to themselves in Malta where they were based at the time . They had spent so long away from Scotland that they were effectively an English unit that had to relearn how to wear kilts . The 92nd , though they lost much less identity in the amalgamation , staged a mock funeral procession to themselves , complete with a full - size coffin with the number ' 92 ' on it . In 1890 , The Buffs succeeded in being allowed to resume the wearing of buff facings . Within a few years , a number of other regiments had replaced white facings with traditional colours . After 1935 , the ruling on blue facings for royal regiments effectively lapsed . In that year , in celebration of his silver jubilee , King George V designated three regiments as royal . In each case , they were " " permitted to retain their present facings " " . In 1939 The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , who had worn blue facings since 1881 , were issued buff regimental colours " " by request and gracious permission " " . Again in 1946 three infantry regiments were designated as " royal " for services in the Second World War . Of these , only the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment replaced its ( white ) facings with blue . Regiments created . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > Berwickshire , Dumfriesshire , Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire were transferred to the regimental district of the King ' s Own Scottish Borderers in 1887 † Huntingdonshire was originally included in the regimental district of the Suffolk Regiment . There were no volunteer units recruited in the county from 1889 until 1900 , when the 4th ( Huntingdonshire ) Volunteer Battalion , The Bedfordshire Regiment was formed . In 1908 it became part of the 5th Battalion of the Bedfords . In 1914 the Huntingdonshire companies were transferred to a newly formed Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion , affiliated to The Northamptonshire Regiment . The successors to the cyclist unit continued to be part of the Northamptons . ‡ It was originally proposed to disband the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1922 . However , the 2nd battalion of that regiment and of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were disbanded instead . In 1924 the two regiments formed a single " corps " sharing a depot and regimental district consisting of Counties Armagh , Fermanagh , Londonderry and Tyrone . In 1937 the regiments were again separated each forming a second battalion in the following year . Later changes . Between 1897 and 1900 the regular army was increased in size in response to a number of conflicts , especially the Second Boer War . The Cameron Highlanders raised a second battalion , while third and fourth regular battalions were added to the Northumberland Fusiliers , Warwickshire Regiment , Royal Fusiliers , King ' s ( Liverpool Regiment ) , Lancashire Fusiliers , Worcestershire Regiment , Middlesex Regiment and the Manchester Regiment . The recruiting areas of each of these regiments included parts of large conurbations . The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 reformed the reserve forces in 1908 . A number of militia battalions were disbanded with the remainder being transferred to a new Special Reserve . At the same time the volunteer battalions became part of the new Territorial Force , and were redesignated as numbered battalions of the regiments . The army was expanded for the duration of the First World War , with the territorial battalions being duplicated and numerous war - time service battalions being formed . In 1921 - 1922 the system was somewhat recast : the special reserve battalions were placed in " suspended animation " and a number of Irish regiments were disbanded on the creation of the Irish Free State . All remaining regiments were reduced to two regular battalions . During the Second World War regiments were again expanded , although not to the same extent as in the previous conflict . Following the independence of India in 1947 regiments lost their second battalion , although some were temporarily reformed during the Korean War . The system introduced in 1881 finally came to an end with the reforms introduced by the Defence White Paper of 1957 . A number of pairs of regiments were amalgamated , while regimental depots were closed with recruiting and training being organised in multi - regiment brigades .