The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s)

Origins

In 1959, the North Staffordshire Regiment and South Staffordshire Regiment amalgamated to form a single one-battalion regiment. Both regiments were stationed in Germany at the time of the merger and the new unit remained there until 1962.

Its next posting was to east Africa in 1962-64. There, it was involved in suppressing a mutiny within the Uganda military following that country's independence. Then, in December 1964, it was the final British regiment to leave Kenya.

Deployments

In 1968, the regiment moved to West Berlin, before returning to Britain in 1970. The following year, it was stationed in Sharjah, one of several British protectorates in the Persian Gulf. Britain had already decided to end their protectorate status, so the Staffordshires were the last British unit to leave when Sharjah joined the United Arab Emirates in December 1971.

In 1972, the regiment was deployed to Northern Ireland, the first of eight such postings over the following 24 years. It spent five years in Germany from 1986, broken only by a second deployment to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm in 1990. There, it fought in armoured personnel carriers as part of 7th Armoured Brigade.

Final years

In 1996, it was one of the last regiments to garrison Hong Kong before its handover to China. In 2000, the regiment joined the United Nations peacekeeping force on Cyprus. And, in 2002, it was sent to Kosovo.

Its final independent deployments came in the form of two postings to Iraq during Operation Telic (2003-11) in 2005 and 2006-07. 

Legacy

In 2007, it merged with The Cheshire Regiment and The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment to form The Mercian Regiment.