A Short History of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment

PART III - BETWEEN THE WARS

In August 1919 1st Battalion was re-formed at Liverpool.  In January of the next year it was hurriedly sent over to Ireland and was stationed at Athlone.  When the British Army was withdrawn from the newly formed Irish Free State in 1922, 1st Battalion’s next station was Aldershot where it remained until January 1925.  From here it went to Moascar, Egypt, then to Alexandria.  In 1927 it went to India.

After the war 2nd Battalion was re-formed and embarked for India in July 1919.  In October 1923 it moved to the Sudan, where it took part in suppressing the mutiny of 1924, and in 1925 was back in Colchester.  In the autumn of 1927 the Battalion moved to the Rhine and was stationed at Konigstein.  It came back in 1929 to Catterick Camp and went to Londonderry in 1932.  In December 1936 the Battalion was at Aldershot and moved to Palestine in 1938.

In 1920 the Territorial Force was renamed the Territorial Army, the Regiment still having its  4th and 5th Battalions.  In 1936 the 4th Battalion was rerolled to searchlights as 44th (The Leicestershire Regt) Anti-Aircraft Battalion Royal Engineers.  It later became a Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery, in which role it was to be employed throughout the impending World War, including in North West Europe 1944-45.

In 1928 the Regimental District at Glen Parva Barracks was renamed the Regimental Depot.