British Army order of precedence

Order of precedence

In the British Army's Order of Precedence, the Household Cavalry is always listed first and always parades at the extreme right of the line. However, an exception is taken when the Royal Horse Artillery is with guns then it always is first to lead a parade.

Cavalry and infantry orders of precedence

Cavalry and infantry regiments of the British Army are listed in their own orders of precedence, which dates back to when regiments had numbers rather than names. The order comes from the start of the regiment's service under the Crown, up to 1881 and the "Cardwell Reforms", when the use of numbers was abolished in favour of linking with and using county names. The regiments of the Household Division are always listed first, as they are the most senior, followed by the line regiments. In today's army, which has many regiments formed through amalgamations of other regiments, the rank in the order of precedence is that of the more senior of the amalgamated units. It is for this reason that the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, one of the youngest in the army, is ranked second in the line infantry order – it is the direct descendant of the 2nd Regiment of Foot.

Cavalry and RTR order of precedence

The majority of line cavalry regiments in the British Army now form part of a wider administrative formation called the Royal Armoured Corps, along with the Royal Tank Regiment. The two cavalry guards regiments are part of a separate administrative formation called the Household Cavalry.

Cavalry – notes

^1 The 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, were originally termed Horse Guards and given precedence over the Cavalry regiments of the Line. The 1st Royal Dragoons was a line regiment.
^2 In the sequence for Cavalry of the Line, Cavalry, consisting of Dragoon Guards, come first in the order of precedence with their own numbering sequence. Light Cavalry, consisting of Dragoons, Hussars and Lancers, have their own (single) sequence, hence 1st Dragoons, 3rd Hussars, 5th Lancers, 6th Dragoons, 8th Hussars, 9th Lancers, etc.
^3 Although one of the antecedent regiments of the Royal Lancers was the 5th Lancers, this regiment was formed in the 1850s, resurrecting the number of an old regiment and thus ranked in precedence after the 17th Lancers.
^4 The RTR (which was formed during the First World War) takes final place in the RAC order.

Infantry order of precedence

The infantry is ranked in the order of Foot Guards, Line infantry⁵, Rifles. The Royal Marines, as the descendent of the old Army marine regiments of the 17th and 18th centuries, were included in the Order of Precedence after the descendent of the 49th Foot (the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry (RGBWLI)), which was the last line regiment of foot formed prior to the formation of the Royal Marines, when not on parade with the Royal Navy. On the completion of the infantry reorganisation in 2007, the RGBWLI, along with the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, the Light Infantry and the Royal Green Jackets, were absorbed in to what has become part of The Rifles, and moved last in the Order of Precedence. As of April 2008 the Royal Marines are considered to no longer be a separate arm of the Royal Navy, but rather an integral part of it. Therefore, they no longer have a place amongst the (Army) infantry regiments and now take their place as part of the Royal Navy and parade on the right of the line. Even if there is no other Naval contingent present they are the senior formation on ceremonial occasions. If other contingents of the Royal Navy are on parade, the Royal Marines take their place after them, but before all army regiments and corps. ("The Royal Marines are no longer in the Army order of precedence, but now assume precedence within the Royal Navy at all times.")

Infantry – notes

^5 The infantry order of precedence has several missing numbers, due to infantry regiments being disbanded:

^6 Up to 2006, five line infantry regiments had never been amalgamated in their entire history. In 2006 and 2007, these were amalgamated into large regiments under the planned reorganisation of the infantry:

^7 Although The Rifles is descended from many numbered regiments, it is last in the order of precedence because the unnumbered regiment The Rifle Brigade has served longest as a rifle regiment. The Royal Gurkha Rifles comes before The Rifles because one of its predecessors (the 2nd Gurkha Rifles) entered service before the Rifle Brigade ceased using its old number (95th). As both the Royal Gurkha Rifles and The Rifles are rifle regiments they come last in the order of precedence. This is why the Parachute Regiment, which is classed as a line infantry regiment, comes above both.

Precedence within the Army Reserve

1. The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia)
2. The Honourable Artillery Company
3. Royal Armoured Corps
4. The Royal Yeomanry
5. The Royal Wessex Yeomanry
6. The Queen's Own Yeomanry
7. The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry
8. Royal Regiment of Artillery
9. Corps of Royal Engineers
10. Royal Corps of Signals
11. Infantry
12. 52nd Lowland, 6th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
13. 51st Highland, 7th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland
14. 3rd Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires)
15. The London Regiment
16. 4th Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border)
17. 5th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
18. 3rd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment
19. 4th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th & 33rd/76th Foot)
20. 4th Battalion, The Mercian Regiment
21. 3rd Battalion, The Royal Welsh
22. 2nd Battalion, The Royal Irish Regiment (27th Inniskilling), 83rd, 87th & Ulster Defence Regiment
23. 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
24. 6th Battalion, The Rifles
25. 7th Battalion, The Rifles
26. Special Air Service
27. 21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists Rifles)
28. 23rd Special Air Service Regiment
29. Army Air Corps
30. The Royal Logistic Corps
31. Royal Army Medical Corps
32. Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
33. Adjutant General's Corps
34. Intelligence Corps

Precedence within the Colonial Forces

Not all imperial units had been considered part of the British Army and placed on the order of precedence. The Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery had numbered 10th and the Royal Malta Artillery had numbered 11th. Originally, the part-time reserve units in Bermuda, the Channel Islands and Malta had numbered collectively as 28th in order of precedence, but were ordered within that according to the order of their parent corps in the regular army. This meant, by example, that the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA), raised in 1895, as part of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, preceded the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), raised in 1894. Today, the Royal Bermuda Regiment, an amalgam of the BMA and BVRC, is ordered 28th.

1. (27th) The Royal Gibraltar Regiment (As a Colonial Force The Royal Gibraltar Regiment comes after the Army Reserve)
2. (28th) The Royal Bermuda Regiment