Dates: 1841 - 1959
The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s) was an infantry regiment of the British Army.
was formed in 1685 as the Earl of Huntingdon’s Regiment of Foot, becoming the 13th Regiment of Foot upon the introduction of a numeral system.
It gained a county affiliation with Somerset in 1782, becoming the 13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot.
It became a light infantry regiment in 1822 and was retitled as the 13th (1st Somersetshire) Regiment (Light Infantry).
It 1841, HRH Prince Albert permitted his name to be used in the title of the regiment, becoming the 13th or Prince Albert’s Regiment of Light Infantry.
After Childers reforms, the numeral system was discarded and the regiment became the Prince Albert’s (Somersetshire Light Infantry) on 1 July 1881. As the county regiment of Somersetshire, it also gained the country’s militia and volunteer battalions which were integrated into the regiment as numbered battalions. The regiment’s name was changed to the Prince Albert’s (Somerset Light Infantry), being inverted in 1921 to the name of this article.
The regiment saw active service in the First World War, raising 20 battalions, seeing service on the Western Front, Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and Palestine. In the Second World War, the regiment fought in Italy, Burma and North-West European Campaign after the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944.
The 1st Battalion was the last British infantry battalion to leave India after its independence, departing on 28 February 1948. During the final ceremony, the regiment marched through Bombay (now Mumbai) and received a guard of honor from the newly formed Indian Army at the Gateway of India.
It later saw service during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. The regiment amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in 1959 to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry. This, in turn, amalgamated with the three other regiments of the Light Infantry Brigade to form The Light Infantry in 1968.
The Somerset Light Infantry name is maintained (as of 2005) by B (Somerset Light Infantry) Company, The Rifle Volunteers of the Territorial Army.
The regiments history is exhibited at the Somerset Military Museum which is a part of the Somerset County Museum at Taunton Castle.
