Victoria Rifles has been through many names changes and several milestones over the years:

NameDate
St George’s Volunteers1792
Duke of Cumberland’s Sharpshooters1803
Royal Victoria Rifle Club1835
Formal embodiment as a Rifle Club1852
Enrolled as a Rifle Regiment1853
1st (Victoria Rifle Club) Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps1859
1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps1860
Formally attached to the King’s Royal Rifle Corps1881
1st Middlesex (Victoria and St. George’s) VRC
&
1st Volunteer Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps
1892
Regimental Centenary – Private Inspection at Buckingham Palace by King Edward VII1903
9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s)1908
Creation of the second and third battalions
2/9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s)
3/9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s)
1914
3/9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s) redesignated as:
9th (Reserve) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s)
1916
2nd and 3rd/Reserve Battalion demobilised1919
9th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles)1920
9th London Regiment (Queen Victoria’s Rifles)1922
Queen Victoria’s Rifles, Kings Royal Rifle Corps1937
Reformation of 2nd Bttn1939
Retitled
7th Battalion (Queen Victoria’s Rifles) Kings Royal Rifle Corps
8th Battalion (Queen Victoria’s Rifles) Kings Royal Rifle Corps
1941
7th Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps, (Queen Victoria’s Rifles)
Formation of
Queen Victoria’s Rifles Cadet Corps
1942
Queen Victoria’s Rifles Cadet Corps reformed and retitled:
2nd Cadet Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps
1945
Merger of
1st & 2nd Cadet Battalions, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps
1951
Merged with 11th Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps (Queen’s Westminsters) Regiment to create
Queen’s Royal Rifles
1961
4th Battalion, The Royal Green Jackets1967
7th Battalion, The Rifles2007

Regimental Nicknames & Titles

More infomally the Regiment was known in the 19th Century as “The Victorias” and in the first half of the 20th Century at the “Queen Vics” or simply “the Vics“. Given the Forces’ affection for TLAs1 the Regiment’s name was normally shortened to QVR.

The British Press has bestowed a range of sobriquets upon the Regiment including “the Father of the Territorial Force” (the West London Gazette, Oct 24 1914),

Origins

The history of the Rifle Volunteer movement stems from the need and desire to raise and train volunteers to counter the threat from Napoleon.

The Crimea, the Orsini Incident and the Imperial calls on the Army led to further formalisation, until in 1860 the 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps was formalised as Second in the Order of Precedence of the Volunteer Corps behind the Exeter and South Devon Volunteer Rifle Corps.

This evolution ends in 1961 with their merger with the Queen’s Westminsters as the Queen’s Royal Rifles and the passing of the Victoria Rifles name into history.

Today the traditions of the Regiment are embodied in the 7th Battalion, the Rifles.

Regimental History


  1. Three Letter Abbreviations