| O Group Green Jackets Brigade | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1946–1966 |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Type | Administrative |
| Garrison/HQ | Upper Barracks, Winchester |
| Commanders | |
| Representative Colonel | FM Sir Francis Festing (from 1963) |
The Green Jackets Brigade (known as O Group until 1948) was an administrative brigade of the British Army from 1946 to 1966 , that administered the English rifle regiments.
After the Second World War the British Army had fourteen infantry depots, each bearing a letter. Infantry Depot O at Upper Barracks, Winchester was the headquarters for the two rifle regiments and the Middlesex Regiment. [1]
In 1948, the depots adopted names and this depot became the Green Jackets Brigade. At the same time the Middlesex Regiment was transferred to the Home Counties Brigade, with the remaining regiments each being reduced to a single battalion. The Brigade combined the depots of: [2]
Under the Defence Review announced in July 1957, the infantry of the line was reorganised, and on 1 April 1958, the 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was transferred from the Light Infantry Brigade to the Green Jackets Brigade. The regiment was subsequently renamed as the 1st Green Jackets (43rd and 52nd) on 7 November 1958. [3] The remaining two regiments were also renamed as the 2nd and 3rd Green Jackets on 7 November, so that the Brigade contained three battalions:
On 1 January 1966, the three regiments were amalgamated into a single three battalion "large regiment" called the Royal Green Jackets. [4] In 1968, the Green Jackets Brigade was merged with the Light Infantry Brigade to form the Light Division. [5]
Throughout its existence, the brigade was made up of the following units: [6]
Regular battalions
| Territorial battalions
|
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United States as 'The French and Indian War.' Subsequently numbered the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire. In 1958, the regiment joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and the Rifle Brigade in the Green Jackets Brigade and in 1966 the three regiments were formally amalgamated to become the Royal Green Jackets. The KRRC became the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets. On the disbandment of the 1st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets in 1992, the RGJ's KRRC battalion was redesignated as the 1st Battalion, Royal Green Jackets, eventually becoming 2nd Battalion, The Rifles in 2007.
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