A proud history

WHEN pictures appeared in the Daily Mirror allegedly showing soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment torturing Iraqi prisoners, the reaction among most observers was, quite literally, disbelief.

Not only because the pictures contained so many inaccuracies as to make their veracity extremely dubious. But also because the regiment, despite some recent unsavoury incidents, has such a proud history of representing Britain's interests abroad with honour and bravery.

In that time its men have won 17 Victoria Crosses in battles as critical as Waterloo and the Somme.

It is the only regiment in any army throughout the world to have fought on every inhabited continent and it can count the Queen as its Colonel in Chief - also the only regiment in the country to do so.

The regiment's Lancashire roots are well-known - more than 90 per cent of its soldiers are recruited from within the county - but surprisingly, it has its origins in Yorkshire!

Its predecessor, known as Castleton's Regiment, was founded in March 1689 to fight for William of Orange against the French.

"In those days the regiments were named after their colonel - in this case Castleton," said Lieutenant Colonel John Downham, regimental secretary.

"He was given money by William to help suppress the Jacobites. But Castleton's regiment was actually raised largely in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire."

Not only that, but because of Lancashire's Jacobite sympathies - notably among powerful Catholic families like the de Hoghtons - one of the regiment's first tasks was to march across the Pennines to Preston to keep an eye on any trouble-makers. Fortunately, Castleton and his soldiers managed to keep the peace and the regiment liked the area so much that in 1782 it formally adopted the title The Lancashire Regiment.

Further reorganisation meant, in 1873, the regiment was divided into the East Lancashire Regiment, based in Burnley, the South Lancashire Regiment, based in Warrington, and the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, based in Preston.

In 1970 these merged once more to become the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, based in the barracks at Preston.

HONOUR AND GLORY:

WATERLOO - 1815

IT was 60,000 men against 80,000 - a bloody battle fought in Belgium.

Into this stand-off between Wellington and Napoleon stepped Edward Macready who, aged just 17, became commander of his battalion after joining the regiment the previous year as a volunteer.

In his journal, Macready wrote: "Four hundred cannon were belching forth fire and death on every side. The roaring and shouting were indistinguishably commixed - together they gave me the idea of a labouring volcano."

But against all odds and having seen three of his senior officers carried off the field wounded, Macready took part in an unlikely victory. He and the regiment endured six hours of artillery fire before routing Napoleon's Imperial Guard.

Macready recorded: "Their whole army was destroyed or dispersed. Those that escaped, with Napoleon at their head, owed their safety to their speed."

THE CRIMEAN WAR

IT was dawn on a foggy November day in 1854 when British troops, stationed at Sebastopol in the Crimea, found the Russians bearing down on them.

The Brits were trying to besiege a Russian naval base to undermine Russia's advancement into Afghanistan which, they thought, threatened their dominance in India. In the battle that followed, a 22-year-old private from the East Lancashire Regiment - a Glaswegian named John McDermond - distinguished himself and was awarded the regiment's first Victoria Cross for his bravery in the Battle of Inkerman.

As the army scrambled into action, it was the outposts who had to hold the line.

At one of them Colonel Haly charged at the Russians and cut three men down, before he was dehorsed.

Seeing his colonel injured and in need of assistance McDermond and two other men ran out into the midst of the battle and rescued him.

After the war, Private McDermond returned to Glasgow where he died in 1868. He lies in an unmarked grave in Paisley.

THE ACCRINGTON PALS

THE 11th Service Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, were friends from all over East Lancs who enlisted together in the early months of World War One.

The Accrington Pals - meant to signify the character and comradeship of the volunteer soldiers - is now indelibly associated with the tragedy of the Somme. In their first major action - an attack on the hilltop fortress of Serre on July 1, 1916 - the Pals suffered devastating losses. Out of the 720, 584 were killed, wounded or missing.

The men went over the top of their trenches after receiving orders to cross No Man's Land and met an horrific barrage of German artillery fire.

As colleagues fell, the soldiers, totalling 1,100 from the Accrington area, carried on walking into the abyss. On the first day of a four-month battle for a few metres of land, it took just 10 minutes for the Pals to be crushed by the Germans.

DUNKIRK

HAVING been told they could join the British troops being evacuated from Dunkirk, the three 1st Lancashire battalions (East, South and Loyal) were ordered back to the perimeter to hold off the German attack.

On June 1, 1940, a determined German attack was halted thanks to the bravery of the 1st East Lancashire batallions and former Stonyhurst College lad, Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews, won the VC.

The Lancashire battalions were on the last ship to leave Dunkirk on June 3. Captain Ervine-Andrews survived the war and left the army to become a farmer in Devon. He died eight years ago.

BOSNIA/OMAGH

IN 1996 the regiment's 1st Battalion was sent to war-torn Bosnia to take part in NATO's peacekeeping work.

There they helped rebuild the country and carried out hundreds of community projects.

In 1998 the regiment was stationed in Omagh when the Real IRA bomb went off, killing 28 people.

The soldiers provided medical support in the immediate aftermath of the bombing and security to the police at the scene, while the regiment's hangar was turned into a makeshift mortuary after the explosion.

Speaking at the time, QLR commanding officer Lt Col David James, said: "It is miraculous no one from the battalion was caught up in the blast."