As indicated in the article 'about the badges', the protection order covers all twelve badges, collectively know as 'The Fovant Badges', that were evident on the downs at the beginning of 2000. These include the eight military crests on Fovant Down, (which have been restored, and which are the subjects of the previous links) and also the 'Outline Map of Australia' on Compton Down, the YMCA emblem on Fovant Down and the two military crests on Sutton Down. The Society has not been able to undertake the restoration of these last four. In order to complete the Regimental History aspects, short notes follow regarding the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the 7th Battalion, The City of London Regiment.

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment

The Regiment is one of four raised in 1674 to serve the Dutch Government in their struggle against French and Spanish invaders. Eleven years later they returned to England to join the British Army as the 6th Foot. A hundred years later they were affiliated to the County of Warwickshire and became 'Royal' in 1832.

The Regiment's list of Battle Honours, earned in nearly every continent in the world, is as distinguished and widespread as any. In WW1 they raised 31 battalions and won six VCs, losing 11,445 dead and many more wounded in the struggle. In WW11, eleven battalions served with equal distinction in many war theatres. The Warwicks produced many fine soldiers, but their most distinguished must surely be Field Marshals Montgomery and Slim, both of whom achieved fame in WW11.

The famous Antelope Badge originates from the War of the Spanish Succession. A Moorish standard with that symbol, captured in battle, was presented to Queen Anne, who is thought to have authorised its use. To this day, the Regiment has kept an antelope as its mascot.

Perhaps appropriately, the Regiment now forms part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

The 7th Battalion,The City of London Regiment

'The Shiny Seventh'

How comes it, the reader may ask, that the three battalions from the City of London Regiment with Badges on Fovant Down, were 'Rifles' but the Badges at Sutton Down show the '7th' to have been 'Fusiliers'? The reason is that, with the formation of the Territorial Force in 1909, the volunteer units within the CLR needed training facilities. The 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th Battalions were affiliated to the Royal Fusiliers, and the others to the Green Jackets (5th Bn. to the Rifle Brigade, 6th and 8th Bns. to the 60th Rifles) and, as their Badge shows, this is how they went to war. Prior to this, however, the 7th Battalion's history dates back to the earliest days of the volunteer movement and even to the Elizabethan 'trained bands'.

They first saw action in the South African War and were at war again in 1914 - to lose 88 officers and 1430 others killed in the grim battles that followed. In WW11, they served on Home Defence as a Searchlight Regiment of AA Command, a role in which they still serve.