Guest fairlight Posted 25 December , 2003 Share Posted 25 December , 2003 Does anyone know who the 'Buffs' were? Grandad only ever referred to his regiment/unit as this. I think they were part of the 47th Division. Any help much appreciated. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 25 December , 2003 Share Posted 25 December , 2003 Hello fairlight, welcome to the forum. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) was a regiment of the British Army. It had a number of battalions (all listed with summary histories, on this page of the Long, Long Trail website. None of the Battalions of the Buffs served with 47th (London) Division. The structure ("order of battle") of the Division is shown on this page. Hope that helps for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted 25 December , 2003 Share Posted 25 December , 2003 Are you sure it wasn't the 74th Division, in which case he would be 10th Bn (previously East Kent Mounted Rifles) ? Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorts Posted 27 December , 2003 Share Posted 27 December , 2003 FYI It was standard practise at one stage in the British Army's history to refer to regiments by the name of the commanding officer. This was all well and good until more than regiment happend to be commanded by officer's with the same surname. This fate befell the 3rd Regiment of Foot (later the East Kent Regiment) and the 19th Regiment of Foot (later the Princess of Wales' own Regiment of Yorkshire), who at one stage were both commanded by officers named Howard. In order to distinguish which 'Howard's Regiment' was which, the colour of the regiment's facings was used. The 3rd Foot had Buff facings, the 19th Regiment Green facings. Thus the 3rd Regiment of Foot became the 'Buff Howard's' and the 19th the 'Green Howard's'. The former later became abbreviated to just 'the Buffs'. As has been the practise with British Regiments, the colloquialism was often adopted as part of the title. Thus your grandfather would have referred to his regiment as the Buffs. Unfortunately the E. Kents have long since been amalgamated, but the Green Howard's still live on. Hope this goes some way to explain your grand-dad's terminology, Have a Happy New Year, Alex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fairlight Posted 27 December , 2003 Share Posted 27 December , 2003 Many thanks to Michael, Chris and Alex for the information. I've found a photo showing a cap badge. If I could just upload it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 27 December , 2003 Share Posted 27 December , 2003 Nice photo. He is indeed wearing the cap badge of the Buffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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