The Childers Reforms of 1881 restructured the infantry regiments of the British Army. The reforms were undertaken by Secretary of State for War Hugh Childers in 1881, and were a continuation of the earlier Cardwell Reforms.
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The reorganisation was brought into effect by General Order 41/1881, issued on 1 May 1881, amended by G.O. 70/1881 dated 1 July, which created a network of multi-battalion regiments. In England, Wales and Scotland, each regiment was to have two regular or "line" battalions and two militia battalions. In Ireland, there were to be two line and three militia battalions. This was done by renaming the numbered regiments of foot and county militia regiments. In addition the various corps of county rifle volunteers were to be designated as volunteer battalions. Each of these regiments was linked by headquarters location and territorial name to its local "Regimental District". The reforms came into effect on 1 July.
From 1881 regimental seniority numbers were officially abolished and battalions came to be known by their number within the regiment and the regimental district name. Unofficially, the regiments were still referred to by their numbers by their officers and men, as tradition and a point of pride, and several regiments such as "The Buffs", The Cameron Highlanders, and "The Black Watch", lobbied to keep their distinct names as part of their battalion titles.
In practice, it was not always possible to apply the scheme strictly: the Cameron Highlanders initially had only one regular battalion, while several regiments had more or fewer militia regiments than envisaged in the initial scheme. In addition, the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) had no local regimental districts, and their affiliated militia and volunteer battalions were selected not on a territorial basis, but due to their "rifle" traditions. This structure lasted until 1948, when every regiment of line infantry had its regular battalions cut to one, with only the three original Guards Division regiments retaining two regular battalions.
Standardisation of uniforms and colours
An attempt was made to have the facings of uniforms standardised: English and Welsh regiments would have white facings, Irish regiments would wear green facings, Scottish regiments would have yellow facings, and royal regiments would have dark blue facings. Officers' uniforms had lace in distinctive national patterns: rose pattern for England and Wales, thistle for Scotland and shamrock for Ireland. In the case of regular battalions the lace was gold, while that of the militia battalions was silver. There were also attempts to assimilate regimental insignia and remove "tribal" uniform distinctions. This was less successful, as regimental tribalism and tradition forced a national outcry. Two regiments that displayed fierce reaction were the 75th and the 92nd that were grudgingly joined together to become the Gordon Highlanders. The 75th went so far as commissioning a marble monument to themselves in Malta where they were based at the time. They had spent so long away from Scotland that they were effectively an English unit that had to relearn how to wear kilts. The 92nd, though they lost much less identity in the amalgamation, staged a mock funeral procession to themselves, complete with a full-size coffin with the number '92' on it.
In 1890, The Buffs succeeded in being allowed to resume the wearing of buff facings. Within a few years, a number of other regiments had replaced white facings with traditional colours. After 1935, the ruling on blue facings for royal regiments effectively lapsed. In that year, in celebration of his silver jubilee, King George V designated three regiments as royal. In each case, they were "permitted to retain their present facings". In 1939 The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who had worn blue facings since 1881, were issued buff regimental colours "by request and gracious permission". Again in 1946 three infantry regiments were designated as "royal" for services in World War II. Of these, only the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment replaced its (white) facings with blue.
Regiments created
* Berwickshire, Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire were transferred to the regimental district of the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1887
† Huntingdonshire was originally included in the regimental district of the Suffolk Regiment. There were no volunteer units recruited in the county from 1889 until 1900, when the 4th (Huntingdonshire) Volunteer Battalion, The Bedfordshire Regiment was formed. In 1908 it became part of the 5th Battalion of the Bedfords. In 1914 the Huntingdonshire companies were transferred to a newly formed Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, affiliated to The Northamptonshire Regiment. The successors to the cyclist unit continued to be part of the Northamptons.
‡ It was originally proposed to disband the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1922. However, the 2nd battalion of that regiment and of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were disbanded instead. In 1924 the two regiments formed a single "corps" sharing a depot and regimental district consisting of Counties Armagh, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. In 1937 the regiments were again separated each forming a second battalion in the following year.
Later changes
Between 1897 and 1900 the regular army was increased in size in response to a number of conflicts, especially the Second Boer War. The Cameron Highlanders raised a second battalion, while third and fourth regular battalions were added to the Northumberland Fusiliers, Warwickshire Regiment, Royal Fusiliers, King's (Liverpool Regiment), Lancashire Fusiliers, Worcestershire Regiment, Middlesex Regiment and the Manchester Regiment. The recruiting areas of each of these regiments included parts of large conurbations.
The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 reformed the reserve forces in 1908. A number of militia battalions were disbanded with the remainder being transferred to a new Special Reserve. At the same time the volunteer battalions became part of the new Territorial Force, and were redesignated as numbered battalions of the regiments.
The army was expanded for the duration of the First World War, with the territorial battalions being duplicated and numerous war-time service battalions being formed.
In 1921 - 1922 the system was somewhat recast: the special reserve battalions were placed in "suspended animation" and a number of Irish regiments were disbanded on the creation of the Irish Free State. All remaining regiments were reduced to two regular battalions.
During the Second World War regiments were again expanded, although not to the same extent as in the previous conflict.
Following the independence of India in 1947 regiments lost their second battalion, although some were temporarily reformed during the Korean War.
The system introduced in 1881 finally came to an end with the reforms introduced by the Defence White Paper of 1957. A number of pairs of regiments were amalgamated, while regimental depots were closed with recruiting and training being organised in multi-regiment brigades.