Duke of Edinburgh ' s Royal Regiment The Duke of Edinburgh ' s Royal Regiment ( Berkshire and Wiltshire ) was an infantry regiment of the British Army . History . The regiment was formed on 9 June 1959 after defence cuts implemented in the late 1950s saw the amalgamation of the Royal Berkshire Regiment ( Princess Charlotte of Wales ' s ) and the Wiltshire Regiment ( Duke of Edinburgh ' s ) , forming the Duke of Edinburgh ' s Royal Regiment ( Berkshire and Wiltshire ) ( DERR ) . The amalgamation parade to create the new regiment took place at Albany Barracks , Isle of Wight , when it also received its first set of Colours , presented by its Colonel - in - Chief , HRH The Prince Philip , Duke of Edinburgh . Until the early 1980s , the regiment ' s administrative headquarters ( RHQ ) was at Brock Barracks , Reading , Berkshire , with a secondary or subsidiary headquarters at Le Marchant Barracks , Devizes , Wiltshire , but by 1982 a single RHQ had been permanently established in the Cathedral Close at Salisbury , Wiltshire , with the DERR regimental museum , - including the museum collections of the former Royal Berkshire Regiment and the Wiltshire Regiment - established on the ground floor of the same historic building , which had for several centuries been known locally as The Wardrobe , with the building certainly dating back to the 15th Century , but possibly to as early as 1254 . The regimental badge of the new regiment was a silver cross patee ( from the badge of the former Wiltshire Regiment ) , at the centre of which was a silver Chinese - style dragon ( from the badge of the former Royal Berkshire Regiment ) . The Chinese dragon was surrounded by a gilt / gold double coil of naval rope ( commemorating the service of the former regiments ' service as marines , especially that of the 49th Regiment of Foot at the battle of Copenhagen in 1801 ) . This rope coil was surmounted by the ducal coronet of the regiment ' s Colonel - in - Chief in gilt / gold . The badge was invariably set upon a piece of red material known as the Brandywine Flash ( commemorating the regiment ' s action at the battle of Brandywine Creek in 1777 , during the American War of Independence ) . This red backing was configured as a square ( with the red colour showing between the four arms of the cross patee ) where the badge was worn as a collar badge or on a peaked cap , but as an inverted triangle approximately 2 X 2 . 5 inches in size where it was worn on the beret . From 1959 until 1969 the regimental cap badge was the Wessex Wyvern insignia of the Wessex Brigade , of which it was a member . However , from November 1969 regimental cap badges were reintroduced for British army infantry regiments in place of brigade cap badges , at which time the regiment officially adopted as its cap badge the regimental insignia that was already in use as its collar badge . The first posting for the 1st Battalion ( 1 DERR ) in 1959 was in Tidworth , Wiltshire and it was from there in June 1960 that B Company arrived in the Bahamas to augment the in - place garrison unit in the Caribbean , the 1st Battalion the Royal Hampshire Regiment ( 1 R HAMPS ) . The following year , ethnic violence in British Guiana saw 1 DERR send a company to assist the re - establishment of order . In December 1962 the battalion arrived in Malta for a deployment that would last just over three years . While based there , 1 DERR deployed to Cyprus in February 1964 , a month before the establishment of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus ( UNIFICYP ) , returning to Malta in April , although subsequently the battalion did carry out further operational deployments to Cyprus . Malta became independent from Great Britain on 21 September 1964 and the battalion fulfilled a major role in the ceremonial parade and associated events staged for this occasion . In January 1966 , 1 DERR arrived in Minden , West Germany as part of the British Army of the Rhine ( BAOR ) for a three - year posting as a mechanized infantry battalion . In West Germany the battalion formed part of the 11th Infantry Brigade . From that location its soldiers trained in Libya , Norway , and France . The battalion moved to Catterick in June 1969 , and thereafter successive companies carried out deployments to the Central American colony of British Honduras . In addition , A Company trained in Malaysia in 1969 and the entire battalion trained in Canada in 1970 . In August 1969 C Company was sent to Derry to reinforce the 1st Battalion of the Queen ' s Regiment ( 1 QUEENS ) at the start of many years of violent turmoil that were in due course termed The Troubles . C Company remained in Northern Ireland until December . The following year , B Company was dispatched to Belfast to support 1st Battalion the Royal Scots ( 1 RS ) . In 1971 1 DERR deployed to Derry for its first tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a complete battalion . Between 1969 and 1993 the battalion saw extensive service in Northern Ireland , completing a number of operational tours of duty and , in the process , losing nine men ( including two while serving away from 1 DERR on detached duty ) . Returning briefly to Catterick after its 1971 tour in Northern Ireland , 1 DERR next moved to West Berlin , an enclave deep within and therefore entirely surrounded by Communist East Germany , where the battalion joined the British Berlin Brigade , serving alongside two other British infantry battalions and the allied US and French troops who together bore responsibility for the defence of West Berlin throughout the Cold War period . One of the battalion ' s duties included guarding the last remaining prisoner at Spandau Prison , Adolf Hitler ' s former deputy Rudolf Hess . From West Berlin the battalion carried out annual training deployments to West Germany and southern France . From Berlin , 1 DERR returned yet again to Northern Ireland in mid - 1973 . In 1975 , following its eighteen - month posting to Ballykinler , Northern Ireland , 1 DERR moved to Shoeburyness , Essex . In August that year the battalion deployed to Cyprus on an Emergency Tour , returning in February 1976 . Subsequently , it assumed a new role as the Infantry Demonstration Battalion , based at Warminster , Wiltshire . In August 1978 the battalion moved to Osnabrück , West Germany , again joining BAOR , this time as a mechanized battalion of the 12th Armoured Brigade of the 1st British Corps . There it remained until 1983 , when it moved back to the United Kingdom and barracks in Canterbury , Kent . However , while in Osnabrück , it did carry out a further operational tour in Northern Ireland in 1979 . In addition , a few months after its arrival at Canterbury , 1 DERR began an operational tour in South Armagh , Northern Ireland , from June to October 1983 . In 1984 the battalion was presented with new Queen ' s and Regimental Colours by its Colonel - in - Chief , the Duke of Edinburgh . That December it joined UNFICYP in Cyprus , returning home again in June 1985 . In February 1988 , following another lengthy tour of duty based at Aldergrove in Northern Ireland 1985 - 1988 , 1 DERR was posted to Hong Kong for two years , joining the colony ' s military garrison as the single non - Gurkha infantry battalion within the 48th Gurkha Infantry Brigade . Based at Stanley Fort on Hong Kong island , the battalion carried out a wide range of internal security duties , which included patrolling the border with the People ' s Republic of China to deter and prevent illegal immigration into Hong Kong . From Hong Kong , 1 DERR returned to the United Kingdom and Catterick in July 1990 , where it joined the 24th Airmobile Brigade . Another operational tour in County Fermanagh , Northern Ireland followed from December 1990 to May 1991 , after which the battalion was able to complete the specialist conversion training required for its airmobile role . In that role it subsequently exercised in the United Kingdom , Germany and the United States . On 23 July 1991 , it was announced that ( together with a number of other regiments ) the Duke of Edinburgh ' s Royal Regiment would be required to amalgamate with another infantry regiment , in accordance with government decisions taken to expedite the Options for Change reductions in the army consequent upon the end of the Cold War . In 1 DERR ' s case it was required in due course to amalgamate with the 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment ( 1 GLOSTERS ) , at which time both of these regiments would cease to exist as individual regiments or battalions . The last tour of duty carried out by 1 DERR in Northern Ireland was from March 1993 , during which 1 DERR lost two men before the battalion finally returned to Catterick in September . The wider regiment , but specifically its 1st Battalion ( 1 DERR ) , ceased to exist on 27 July 1994 , when 1 DERR amalgamated with 1 GLOSTERS , to form the 1st Battalion the Royal Gloucestershire , Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment ( 1 RGBW ) . Since then , that regiment has itself been amalgamated , merging with the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment ( D and D ) , the Light Infantry ( LI ) and the Royal Green Jackets ( RGJ ) to form The Rifles ( RIFLES ) . In practice , 1 RGBW and 1 D and D formed 1st Battalion the Rifles ( 1 RIFLES ) when that large regiment was created in 2007 , and today 1 RIFLES takes precedence over other battalions within The Rifles due to the seniority of the former Devonshire Regiment , which was originally formed as the 11th Regiment of Foot . 1 RIFLES is currently part of the 3rd Commando Brigade . In 1998 an authorized history of the Duke of Edinburgh ' s Royal Regiment ( Berkshire and Wiltshire ) was published , this work having been commissioned by the regimental committee a few years earlier , in the wake of the 1994 amalgamation . This comprehensive account of the regiment focuses extensively upon 1 DERR , describing all aspects of its life and times , and its numerous operational , peacetime and training activities and tours of duty about the world , as well as placing these subjects within wider military / political contexts of the period 1959 - 1994 , especially those involved with aspects of the Cold War . The work also includes details of regimental insignia , uniforms , battle honours , the Queen ' s and Regimental Colours , the origins and development of the RHQ and museum , the regimental march , regimental traditions and officers ' mess customs , and listings of the Colonels of the Regiment , and the Commanding Officers and Regimental Sergeant Majors of 1 DERR . There is also a regimental Roll of Honour showing details of the nine soldiers who fell while serving with 1 DERR on operations between 1973 and 1993 , or while serving with other units elsewhere . Other information . Nickname ' The Farmers Boys '