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The Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment
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The presentation of colours to 1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Buffs, Royal Kent Regiment, 23 June 1962
Origins
This short-lived regiment was formed in March 1961 by merging the two county regiments of Kent, The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) and The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.
Its first and only colonel was Queen Elizabeth II’s aunt, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. She had held the same post for the West Kent Regiment.
Just four months after its formation, the unit deployed to Kenya during its run-up to independence. It returned to Britain in January 1962, where it was presented with its first set of Colours by King Frederick IX of Denmark, who it had inherited as colonel-in-chief from The Buffs.
The regiment’s remaining two overseas postings each lasted six months, to Hong Kong in December 1965, and to Borneo in June 1966 during the Indonesian Confrontation (1963-66).
Legacy
Since its formation, it had been one of the four regiments in the Home Counties Brigade, alongside The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment, The Royal Sussex Regiment and The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own).
In 1966, these four regiments merged to form The Queen’s Regiment. The Queen’s Own Buffs became the new unit’s 2nd Battalion until battalion subtitles were dropped in 1968.
Badge, Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, 1961
Regimental museums
The National Army Museum works with a network of Regimental and Corps Museums across the UK to help preserve and share the history and traditions of the Army and its soldiers.
Discover more about The Queen’s Own Buffs by visiting the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regimental Museum in Maidstone.
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