Devonshire Regiment The Devonshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army which served under various titles from 1685 to 1958 . Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles . Origin and titles . In June , 1667 , Henry Somerset , Marquess of Worcester , was granted a commission to raise a regiment of foot , The Marquess of Worcester ' s Regiment of Foot . The regiment remained in existence for only a few months and was disbanded in the same year . It was re - raised in January 1673 and again disbanded in 1674 . In 1682 , Henry Somerset was created Duke of Beaufort , and in 1685 he was again commissioned to raise a regiment , The Duke of Beaufort ' s Regiment of Foot , or Beaufort Musketeers , to defend Bristol against the Duke of Monmouth ' s rebellion . The regiment served under the name of its various Colonel s until it was numbered as the 11th Regiment of Foot when the numerical system of regimental designation was adopted in 1751 . It was given the additional county title of 11th ( North Devonshire ) Regiment of Foot in 1782 . In 1881 , under the Childers Reforms it became the Devonshire Regiment , at the same time merging with the militia and rifle volunteer units of the county of Devon . History . Early years . The Regiment was not required to fight at the time of its formation since the Duke of Monmouth was drawn away from Bristol . Its first action came in Ireland in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne when it fought for William III against the deposed James II . It then joined the armies of the Duke of Marlborough in Holland in the War of Spanish Succession , and also fought in the Iberian Campaign , being captured by the French at Portalegre in 1704 and part of the British army defeated at the Battle of Almansa . Back in Britain , it helped put down the Jacobite Risings of 1715 , fighting the rebels at the inconclusive Battle of Sheriffmuir , and 1719 , fighting at the Battle of Glen Shiel ) . In the War of Austrian Succession , it took part in the battles of Dettingen , Fontenoy and Rocoux . In the Seven Years War , it fought at the battles of Warburg , Kloster Kampen , Villinghausen and Wilhelmstahl and took part in the inconclusive Iberian campaign . After the war , it garrisoned the island of Minorca . French and Napoleonic Wars . The 11th Regiment spent the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars serving as detachments in the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy . It acted as marines in the naval Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 and was part of the force that besieged Malta in 1798 and captured the island in 1800 . It also took part in an abortive raid on the port of Ostend in 1798 . From 1800 to 1806 , it was stationed in the West Indies , returning to Europe to fight in the Peninsular War and earning its nickname , " The Bloody Eleventh " , at the Battle of Salamanca . A 2nd Battalion was formed in 1809 and took part in the disastrous Walcheren Campaign before being disbanded in 1816 . Pax Britannica . Following the defeat of Napoleon , the regiment spent most of the 19th Century on garrison duty throughout the Empire . It took part in the Tirah Campaign in 1897 - 1898 and the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902 . The 2nd Battalion was re - formed in 1858 and fought in the Second Anglo - Afghan War , the Ashanti Wars and the Second Boer War . The Great War . In the Great War , a total of 25 battalions were raised , which fought on the Western Front , in Italy at the battles of the Piave and Vittorio Veneto , Macedonia , Egypt and Palestine , and Mesopotamia . The 9th ( Service ) Battalion was one of the few British units to reach its initial objectives on the first day of the Battle of the Somme , albeit at the cost of 463 dead or wounded of the 775 men who went ' over the top ' , with only one officer remaining unwounded . The 8th ( Service ) Battalion , part of 29th Brigade reserve , was committed within 3 hours of the beginning of the attack and suffered 208 casualties . The 2nd Battalion was awarded the French Croix de guerre for its gallant defence of Bois des Buttes on 27 May 1918 , the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne . Second World War . The 1st Battalion was in India when the Second World War broke out , and spent the entire war in India , Ceylon and Burma . The 2nd Battalion was part of 231st Infantry Brigade for the duration of the war , fighting in Malta , Sicily , and Italy . On D - Day , it was intended that the Battalion should land at Le Hamel , on Gold Beach , behind the 1st Hampshires . However , owing to adverse sea conditions and an unexpectedly high tidal surge , three of the four Companies were carried over a mile to the east before they could make landfall and had to make their way to their assigned assembly point on foot . Of the four Company commanders , two were wounded and one was killed . The Battalion continued to fight with the 231st Brigade throughout the Battle of Normandy and the liberation of North - West Europe . The 12th Battalion was part of the 6th Airlanding Brigade , 6th Airborne Division and landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944 in Operation Mallard . The battalion also fought in the Battle of Breville , the Battle of the Bulge and crossed the River Rhine in Operation Varsity . Post - war and amalgamation . The 2nd Battalion was disbanded in Exeter in 1948 . The remaining battalion was in Malaya from 1948 to 1951 at the time of the Malayan Emergency and in Kenya from 1953 to 1955 , during the Mau Mau Uprising . In 1958 , the regiment was amalgamated with the Dorset Regiment to form The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment . Since 2007 its lineage has been continued by The Rifles . Battle honours . The regiment was awarded the following battle honours : Victoria Crosses . The following members of the Regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross :