A battalion of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) advance along the Amiens–St. Quentin Road from Foucancourt in March 1917. During the conflict the Regiment expanded to 33 battalions, of which 20 served overseas.
Perhaps the most romantically named of England’s county regiments, the 45th Regiment of Foot was granted the title Sherwood Foresters in 1866 although the regimental records show that the name had an even earlier provenance. Serving in the army of Henry V at Agincourt in 1415 was a group of Nottinghamshire archers who fought under the name of ‘Sherwood Foresters’, carrying a banner that the Warwickshire-born poet Michael Drayton described in his long poem The Battaile of Agincourt (1627):
Olde Nottingham, an Archer clad in greene,
Under a Tree with his drawne Bowe that stood,
Which in a checkquer’d Flagge farre off was seene:
It was the Picture of olde Robin Hood.
The 45th’s origins can be traced back to 1741 when it enjoyed close links with the county of Nottinghamshire; but when the modern regiment known as The Sherwood Foresters came into being in 1881 as the result of amalgamating with the 95th Foot its county title was that of neighbouring Derbyshire and the depot was situated at Normanton Barracks in Derby. The buildings were demolished in 1981 and the land is now known as the Foresters’ Leisure Park; nearby, the old regimental garrison church of St Giles is still extant. Not until 1902 was Nottinghamshire added to the regiment’s title.
A battalion of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) advance along the Amiens–St. Quentin Road from Foucancourt in March 1917. During the conflict the Regiment expanded to 33 battalions, of which 20 served overseas.
In recognition of that county connection, the regiment’s original 3rd Battalion was called The Robin Hood Rifles and that name lived on after the founding of the Territorial Force in 1908 when it became the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion. Under that title it mobilised in Nottingham in August 1914 and formed part of 139th Forester Brigade, one of the first Territorial brigades to see active service in France. By the end of the following year the Robin Hoods had been involved in heavy fighting at the Hohenzollern Redoubt during the Battle of Loos, where Captain C. G. Vickers, a Nottingham man, was awarded the Victoria Cross for fending off a German attack even though he realised that in so doing he was in danger of cutting off his own means of escape. Vickers survived and after the war went on to enjoy a successful career as a prominent lawyer and social scientist. In his autobiography he described in starkly realistic terms his reasons for joining up: ‘In August Germany invaded Belgium, we had a treaty with Belgium, so we all stopped what we were doing and went off to war. It was as simple as that.’
Very different in his approach was another officer, Albert Ball, from Lenton in Nottingham, who joined The Robin Hood Battalion at the outbreak of war and after taking private flying lessons transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). He proved to be a naturally ruthless and skilful pilot and after joining his squadron on the Western Front he became a recognised ‘ace’ who enjoyed considerable fame in the British press. By the time of his death in May 1917 he was credited with forty-four victories, the fourth highest score in the history of the RFC. Ball was also highly decorated; he won the Victoria Cross posthumously, three Distinguished Service Orders and the Military Cross. He is commemorated by a memorial statue in the grounds of Nottingham Castle and by the creation of the Albert Ball Homes in his native Lenton to house the families of local servicemen killed in action.
Other notable Forester battalions in the First World War included the 16th (Chatsworth Rifles) and 17th (Welbeck Rangers), both of which experienced hard fighting during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Both represented distinctive communities: the Chatsworth Rifles were raised by the Duke of Devonshire and named after Chatsworth House, his family seat on the River Derwent in the Peak District, while the Welbeck Rangers owed their existence to the exertions of the Mayor of Nottingham and were named after the Welbeck estate, part of which sits in Sherwood Forest. It is still a thriving concern and at its heart is historic Welbeck Abbey, seat of the Duke of Portland. In 1917 Corporal Ernest Egerton of The Chatsworth Rifles was awarded the Victoria Cross for demonstrating exceptional bravery during the Third Battle of Ypres when in quick succession he shot dead three German soldiers and took the surrender of twenty-nine more. Afterwards Egerton explained that he had just received news of his soldier brother’s death and that he was ‘longing to get into action and pay back a debt’. During the First World War The Sherwood Foresters lost 11,409 soldiers killed in action and their sacrifice is commemorated in the city’s war memorial in Trent Park, which was unveiled on Armistice Day 1927.
Derbyshire’s contribution to the regiment is no less significant. When the 95th was formed in 1823 it was the sixth regiment to be given that number, which had previously been held by The Rifle Brigade. Two years later it was given the additional title of Derbyshire Regiment, thereby beginning a connection with the county which has lasted throughout its existence. During those fifty-eight years the regiment attracted a number of officers who enjoyed successful careers in the British Army. Among the most prominent was Horace Smith-Dorrien, who joined the 95th after leaving Sandhurst and narrowly missed being awarded the Victoria Cross during the Zulu War of 1879. Only because the nomination was passed through the wrong channels did he not get the award. Nothing daunted, Smith-Dorrien rose steadily up the promotion ladder, seeing service in the Sudan and South Africa where he caught the eye of Lord Kitchener. At the outbreak of the First World War he commanded II Corps in the British Expeditionary Force and led them with great skill during the rearguard action at Le Cateau at the end of August 1914. Despite that success he was sacked nine months later with the immortal words: ‘’Orace, you’re for ’ome!’ (The speaker was General Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, who had started his career in the ranks and allegedly dropped his aitches.)
The 95th’s finest hour came during the Crimean War where they played a conspicuous part in all the major land battles. At the Battle of the Alma the regiment suffered heavy losses and it was left to Private James Keenan to carry the Regimental Colour in the final stages of the battle. So fierce was the fighting that, according to a letter written by Private Bloomfield, some Russian soldiers ‘even got up trees so that they could get a good shot at us, but we saw them and brought them off their perch. Some of these when falling from the trees … would catch their feet or clothes in some part of the tree and hang there for hours.’ In the subsequent Battle of Inkerman, there were not enough officers to carry the Colours and they were brought on to the field by two non-commissioned officers - the Queens Colour, carried by Sergeant William McIntyre, and the Regimental Colour, carried by Sergeant John Gooding. So heavy were the casualties that only a hundred effectives remained at the end of the fighting and it was said of the regiment: ‘There may be few of the 95th left, but those are as hard as nails.’ This led to the 95th being nicknamed ‘The Nails’. Four years later, following service during the Indian Mutiny, the 95th began the tradition of having a ram as a regimental mascot. Always known as ‘Private Derby’, the creature is on the strength of the regiment and it has become the tradition for the Duke of Devonshire to select a Swaledale ram from his Chatsworth Park flock and present it to the regiment and its successors.
Men of a battalion of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) make the best of the conditions in the trenches on the Western Front.
Almost a hundred years after its creation, in 1970 The Sherwood Foresters lost its separate existence when it amalgamated with The Worcestershire Regiment (29th/36th) to form The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters. In August 2007 it became the 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment.
Carried on the Regimental Colour
Louisburg, Rolica, Vimiera, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse, Peninsula, Ava, Alma, Inkerman, Sevastopol, Central India, South Africa 1846–47, Egypt, 1882, Tirah, South Africa 1899–1902
Those in bold carried on the Queen’s Colour
Aisne 1914, 18, Armentieres 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Hooge 1915, Loos, Somme 1916, 18, Albert 1916, 18, Bazentin, Delville Wood, Pozieres, Ginchy, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, Thiepval, Le Transloy, Ancre Heights, Ancre 1916, Arras 1917, 18, Vimy 1917, Scarpe 1917, 18, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, 18, Pilckem, Langemarck 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Cambrai 1917, 18, St Quentin, Bapaume 1917, Rosieres, Villers Brettaneux, Lys, Bailleul, Kemmel, Scherpenberg, Amiens, Drocourt-Queant, Hindenburg Line, Epehy, Canal du Nord, St Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Courtrai, Selle, Sambre, France and Flanders 1914–18, Piavé, Italy 1917–18, Suvla, Landing at Suvla, Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli 1915, Egypt 1916
Those in bold carried on the Queen’s Colour
Norway 1940, St Omer-La Bassee, Ypres-Comines Canal, Dunkirk 1940, North-West Europe 1940, Gazala, El Alamein, Djebel Guerba, Tamera, Medejez Plain, Tunis, North Africa 1942–43, Salerno, Volturno Crossing, Monte Camino, Anzio, Campoleone, Advance to Tiber, Gothic Line, Coriano, Cosina Canal Crossing, Monte Ceco, Italy 1943–45, Singapore Island, Malaya 1942
Private Bernard McQuirt, 95th Regiment, Indian Mutiny, 1858
Lieutenant (later Captain) Henry Singleton Pennell, 2nd Battalion, Tirah Campaign, 1897
Private (later Corporal) William Bees, 1st Battalion, Second Boer War, 1901
Corporal (later Captain) Harry Churchill Beet, 1st Battalion, Second Boer War, 1901
Private Jacob Rivers, 1st Battalion, First World War, 1915
Corporal James Upton, 1st Battalion, First World War, 1915
Captain (Acting Lieutenant Colonel) Bernard William Vann, 1/6th Battalion, First World War, 1918
Second Lieutenant (Temporary Captain, later Colonel) Charles Geoffrey Vickers, 7th Battalion, First World War, 1915
Corporal (later Sergeant) Ernest Albert Egerton, 16th Battalion, First World War, 1917
Acting Corporal (later Sergeant) Fred Greaves, 9th Battalion, First World War, 1917
Captain (Temporary Lieutenant Colonel, later Major General) Charles Edward Hudson, 2nd Battalion, First World War, 1918
Sergeant William Henry Johnson, 1/5th Battalion, First World War, 1918
