32nd Signal Regiment | |
---|---|
Active | 1967–present |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Size | Regiment of 386 personnel [1] |
Part of | 1st (United Kingdom) Signal Brigade |
Regimental HQ | Glasgow |
Motto(s) | Certa Cito (“Swift and Sure”) |
Colors | Sky Blue, Navy and Green (Air, Sea and Land) |
March | Quick - Begone Dull Care Slow - HRH (Princess Royal) |
Mascot(s) | Mercury ("Jimmy") |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Lt Col Matt Johns MBE |
Insignia | |
Tactical Recognition Flash | |
Tartan (Red Grant, No. 15) |
The 32nd Signal Regiment is a British Army Reserve Regiment of the Royal Corps of Signals. The regiment forms part of 1st (United Kingdom) Signal Brigade, providing military communications for national operations.
1st Lanarkshire Voluntary Military Engineers was raised in Glasgow on 5 December 1859 as part of the Volunteer Force. [2] In 1894, the Telegraph Company, 2nd Lanarkshire Volunteer Military Engineers was assigned to the unit. [2]
As part of the 1908 Haldane Reforms, the unit became the Lowland Divisional Telegraph Company. [3] A Wireless, Cable and Airline unit was assigned to the unit and the regiment was established as a Field Company to support 51st (Highland) Division. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the regiment was sent as part of IV Corps and the British Expeditionary Force to France. [2]
During World War II, the regiment again saw active service, providing support to both 51st (Highland) Division and 52nd Lowland Divisions. In 1947, the regiment returned once again to Maryhill and was re-titled as the 51st/52nd (Scottish) Infantry Division Signal Regiment. [3] It was further re-titled 52nd Lowland Infantry Division Signal Regiment in 1948. [3]
As a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper, the 32nd (Scottish) Signal Regiment was formed on 1 April 1967. The new regiment composed of five squadrons, amalgamating the four signals regiments in Scotland. They were as follows: [4]
The regiment gained a sixth squadron in 1969, whereby a squadron of North Irish Horse became 69 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron. [4] From 2009 to 2014, 33 (Lancashire & Cheshire) Signal Squadron formed part of the regiment before it was transferred to 37th Signal Regiment under the Army 2020 reforms. [5]
In October 2010, 69 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron returned to the regiment as 40 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron. [6] Then under the Army 2020 re-organisation, 2 (City of Dundee and Highland) Signal Squadron was transferred from 38th (City of Sheffield) Signal Regiment. [7]
The regiment's current structure is as follows: [8]
The Royal Corps of Signals is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications and information systems essential to all operations. Royal Signals units provide the full telecommunications infrastructure for the Army wherever they operate in the world. The Corps has its own engineers, logistics experts and systems operators to run radio and area networks in the field. It is responsible for installing, maintaining and operating all types of telecommunications equipment and information systems, providing command support to commanders and their headquarters, and conducting electronic warfare against enemy communications.
Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War.
The 2003 Defence White Paper, titled Delivering Security in a Changing World, set out the future structure of the British military, and was preceded by the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and the 2002 SDR New Chapter, which responded to the immediate challenges to security in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Published under the then Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon, the report effectively introduced a series of cutbacks to core equipment and manpower and the scaling back of a series of future capital procurement projects. This was justified due to the implementation of a policy termed Network Enabled Capability. The review also outlined a major restructuring and consolidation of British Army Infantry regiments.
The 52nd Lowland Volunteers is a battalion in the British Army's Army Reserve or reserve force in the Scottish Lowlands, forming the 6th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as 6 SCOTS. Due to its erstwhile association with the 1st Regiment of Foot, it is the senior Reserve line infantry battalion in the British Army. It is one of two Reserve battalions in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, along with 51st Highland, a similar unit located in the Scottish Highlands.
The Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming is a British Army training establishment that provides instruction on Scottish pipe band music to military pipers and drummers.
105th Regiment Royal Artillery is part of the Army Reserve and has sub-units throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is currently equipped with the L118 Light Gun.
A Scottish regiment is any regiment that at some time in its history has or had a name that referred to Scotland or some part thereof, and adopted items of Scottish dress. These regiments were created after the Acts of Union in 1707 between England and Scotland, either directly serving Britain during its various wars, or as part of the military establishments of Commonwealth countries. Their "Scottishness" is no longer necessarily due to recruitment in Scotland nor any proportion of members of Scottish ancestry.
HQ 51st Infantry Brigade and Headquarters Scotland is a Regional Point of Command, Brigade of the British Army.
The 2nd Signal Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army composed of Royal Corps of Signals units. The brigade was first formed following the reorganisation of the old Territorial Army in 1967, and was disbanded in 2012 under the Army 2020 programme. However, later the 2nd Signal Group was formed continuing the lineage of the old brigade, before it was disbanded in 2018.
The Ayrshire Yeomanry was a Regiment of the British Yeomanry and is now an armoured Squadron of the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry (SNIY), part of the British Army Reserve. It is the Lowlands of Scotland's only Royal Armoured Corps Unit and has an unbroken history stretching back to the 1790s.
The Lothians and Border Horse was a Yeomanry regiment, part of the British Territorial Army. It was ranked 36th in the Yeomanry order of precedence and was based in the Scottish Lowland area, recruiting in the Lothians – East Lothian (Haddingtonshire), Midlothian (Edinburghshire), and West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) – and along the border with England, particularly Berwickshire. It amalgamated with the Lanarkshire Yeomanry and the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry to form the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956.
The Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army that can trace their formation back to 1796. It saw action in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. It amalgamated with the Lanarkshire Yeomanry and the 1st/2nd Lothians and Border Horse to form the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956. Its lineage was revived by B Squadron, the Scottish Yeomanry in 1992 until that unit was disbanded in 1999.
In September 1939, the British Army was in process of expanding their anti-aircraft and mobile assets. Among these new changes was the formation of Anti-Aircraft Command which was formed on 1 April 1939, and the 1st Armoured Division formed in 1937. The list below will include the British Army units, colonial units, and those units which were in the process of formation.
The 3rd Anti-Aircraft Division was an air defence formation of the Territorial Army, part of the British Army, created in the period of tension before the outbreak of the Second World War. It defended Scotland and Northern Ireland during the early part of the war.
71 Engineer Regiment is an Army Reserve regiment of the Royal Engineers, British Army. Its headquarters is at RAF Leuchars, Fife, and has units across Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland. Its regular army paired unit is 39 Engineer Regiment, at Kinloss, Moray.
The following is a hierarchical outline for the structure of the British Army in 1989. The most authoritative source for this type of information available is Ministry of Defence, Master Order of Battle, and United Kingdom Land Forces, HQ UKLF, UKLF ORBAT Review Action Plan, HQ UKLF, 1990.
The Structure of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force over the course of the First World War is shown below.
The 9th Special Communications Unit, later redesignated as the 92nd Signal Regiment, and from 1967 as 2 Signal Squadron is a communications unit of the British Army, belonging to the Royal Corps of Signals.