The Commonwealth Guards

Commonwealth Guard Regiments

After WW1 the British Army raises 4 more Guard Regiments in recognition of the part those nations or groups of nations played in the 1st world war in the same way that the Irish Guards were raised for the same sort of reason in 1900 following Irish Regiments services during the Boer war

These units become standing regiments of the British Army and part of the 'Brigade of Guards'

Canadian Guards

Australasian (ANZAC) Guards

African Guards

Indian Guards

The intention was also to provide a ‘core’ of commonwealth troops made up from long service volunteers to better allow for the build-up of commonwealth forces in another large war.

Does this work - are the unit names okay and what impact does this have on subsequent wars / conflicts
 
Probably not and in the improbable case only if the UK, Dominions, India and the Colonies spend more on their armies after 1919. In reverse order:
  1. The Indian Guards are not needed because there is already the Indian Army. IIRC there was already a Viceroy's Guard doing the same job for the Indian Army that the Foot Guards and Horse Guards did for the British Army;
  2. The African Guards are not needed either. The British Army proper already had the West India Regiment and the West African Regiment, then there was the West Africa Frontier Force and King's African Rifles belonging to the West African and East African colonies respectively. IOTL the West Africa and West India Regiments were both disbanded in the second half of the 1920s, while the KAR and WAFF were reduced;
  3. Guards regiments for the Dominions (Australia, Canada and New Zealand plus South Africa not mentioned in the OP) are possibilities. That is because IOTL they didn't maintain standing field armies until after the Second World War. They had equivalents to the British Territorial Army, plus a Permanent Force that provided instructors for the territorials and manned coast defences. In your TL each Dominion could form some infantry battalions in their permanent forces for Imperial Service. However, they probably won't have the word Guards in their names. E.g. Australia would probably call its regular infantry regiment the Royal Australian Regiment, like the one they formed after 1945 IOTL, with the battalions having subtitles derived from their recruiting areas.
 
The two big questions I'd have are:

  1. How will the dominions like the UK government setting up the ANZAC and Canadian guards?
  2. And, migh there be racial issues with African and Indian guards?
 
I have had second thoughts about this. The D.R.C. Reports of the 1930s identified that there was a shortage of about a dozen infantry battalions. These weren't formed for two reasons.

The first was financial, the Treasury limited defence spending over the period 1937-42 to £1.5 billion IIRC, which according to them was the maximum the UK could spend without damaging the economy, which it called the fourth arm of defence. Therefore priority was given to the needs of the RAF and Royal Navy in that order, with the British Army coming a poor third. Furthermore the money that was available to the army was concentrated on the anti-aircraft defences and modernising the equipment of existing units in the field army instead of forming new ones.

However, the second reason was that it would be difficult to find the necessary recruits. Therefore in a TL where the British had the money to expand their army its possible that they would go recruiting in the Empire and Commonwealth. It's also possible that new infantry regiments would be formed instead of forming the additional battalions within existing regiments.
 
Why not the Tank Guards :p

An early version of this
Before world war one there were two regiments of Life Guards, which were merged into one regiment in the early 1920s. One possibility in your TL is that one of the regiments becomes the 1st (Guards) Battalion of the Royal Tank Corps.

But IOTL the 2 Horse Guards regiments and the 2 most senior line cavalry regiments were the last horsed cavalry regiments to be mechanised.
 
From Vote A (Numbers) of the 1923-24 Army Estimates, these are the Regimental Establishments, Exclusive of India, for Colonial and Indian Corps:

443 Royal Malta Artillery - 3 batteries
599 Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Garrison Artillery
103 Non-Europeans of 2 Fortress Companies, Royal Engineers, at Jamaica and Hong Kong
733 West India Regiment - one battalion
15 R.A.M.C. (Native Personnel) for Jamaica and Sierra Leone
304 Egyptian Army Transport Corps
839 Native Indian Regiment at Hong Kong - one infantry battalion borrowed from the Indian Army
63 Miscellaneous Indian, Troops China
494 West African Regiment - one infantry battalion

3,593 Total, all ranks

The total for the 1914-15 Army Estimates was 8,771 all ranks. That included one West African Regiment battalion, two West India Regiment battalions and 5 infantry battalions borrowed from the Indian Army.
 
I have had second thoughts about this. The D.R.C. Reports of the 1930s identified that there was a shortage of about a dozen infantry battalions. These weren't formed for two reasons.

The first was financial, the Treasury limited defence spending over the period 1937-42 to £1.5 billion IIRC, which according to them was the maximum the UK could spend without damaging the economy, which it called the fourth arm of defence. Therefore priority was given to the needs of the RAF and Royal Navy in that order, with the British Army coming a poor third. Furthermore the money that was available to the army was concentrated on the anti-aircraft defences and modernising the equipment of existing units in the field army instead of forming new ones.

However, the second reason was that it would be difficult to find the necessary recruits. Therefore in a TL where the British had the money to expand their army its possible that they would go recruiting in the Empire and Commonwealth. It's also possible that new infantry regiments would be formed instead of forming the additional battalions within existing regiments.

With the exception of the Indian Guards I would expect given the prevailing attitudes of the day (and not my own lets be crystal clear) that the 'new guard' Rgts would be from 'White British' Canadians, Australians New Zealanders, South Africans, Kenyans etc and not Natives.

Why not the Tank Guards :p

An early version of this

Tanks would come later - given the more technical able 'regular Guard units' relative to the mostly newly raised commonwealth army units I would imagine that like the Guards Armoured Division and Guards Infantry tank Brigade of WW2 the 'commonwealth' Guard units would do the same.

Before world war one there were two regiments of Life Guards, which were merged into one regiment in the early 1920s. One possibility in your TL is that one of the regiments becomes the 1st (Guards) Battalion of the Royal Tank Corps.

But IOTL the 2 Horse Guards regiments and the 2 most senior line cavalry regiments were the last horsed cavalry regiments to be mechanised.

Thats an excellent idea - I'm trying to fit this idea into my earlier post regarding the Experimental combined arms Mechanized force of 1928-1930 being maintained into the 30s and the Standing Commonwealth Guard regiments each stood up an armoured battalion and a mechanized battalion in time for an ATL BEF in 1940.
 
With the exception of the Indian Guards I would expect given the prevailing attitudes of the day (and not my own lets be crystal clear) that the 'new guard' Rgts would be from 'White British' Canadians, Australians New Zealanders, South Africans, Kenyans etc and not Natives.
The British Army of 1914 had 160 infantry battalions made up of 9 Guards Battalions (3 Grenadier, 3 Coldstream, 2 Scotts and one Irish), 148 line infantry battalions, 2 West India Regiment battalions and one battalion of the West African Regiment. There were also 5 infantry battalions borrowed from the Indian Army. During the course of the 1920s this was reduced to 138 battalions through:
  1. Disbanding 5 Irish infantry regiments (each with 2 battalions) after the Irish Free State was created;
  2. Reducing the 64 remaining line infantry regiments to 2 battalions each;
  3. Disbanding the West India Regiment and the West African Regiment;
  4. Furthermore only one infantry battalion was borrowed from the Indian Army for most of 1918-39.
If the British Government had the money and public support to maintain a larger Regular Army, then any extra infantry battalions would be found by not disbanding some of the above or by borrowing more units from the Indian Army. They would not form new regiments.
 
If the British Government had the money and public support to maintain a larger Regular Army, then any extra infantry battalions would be found by not disbanding some of the above or by borrowing more units from the Indian Army. They would not form new regiments.

Guards regiments for the Dominions (Australia, Canada and New Zealand plus South Africa not mentioned in the OP) are possibilities. That is because IOTL they didn't maintain standing field armies until after the Second World War. They had equivalents to the British Territorial Army, plus a Permanent Force that provided instructors for the territorials and manned coast defences. In your TL each Dominion could form some infantry battalions in their permanent forces for Imperial Service. However, they probably won't have the word Guards in their names. E.g. Australia would probably call its regular infantry regiment the Royal Australian Regiment, like the one they formed after 1945 IOTL, with the battalions having subtitles derived from their recruiting areas.

I think the only way for a Dominions guards battalion(s) is if its paid for jointly (or mostly by dominions) by them as a joint GB/Dom force that's really just given 'guard' as an honorary title but even then Royal Australian Regiment is more likely than Australian Guards Regiment. Maybe as a UK based training force combining all the dominions Empire Guards? But unlikely :-( .
 
Good point jsb,
Given Britain's exhaustion after WW1, Commonwealth Guards regiments would need to be funded by colonies. In return the colony earns the "prestige" of guarding the Royal Family.
One of the challenges would be maintaining (Canadian) ration quality - while serving in Britain - in a Great Britain that was struggling to feed itself.

Maintaining colonial Guards regiments in GB would be doubly difficult during the Great Depression.

OTL after WW2, the Canadian Grenadier Guards and Governor General's Foot Guards were reduced to part-time, reserve regiments. During summer months the ranks of ceremonial guards (Parliament Hill in Ottawa) are filled out with high-school and university students on (short-term) summer contracts.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
How about a 'Commonwealth Guards' as the thread POD suggested to me when I first read it? Members from all Commonwealth nations (and former parts of the Commonwealth) could serve within the regiment.
 
How about a 'Commonwealth Guards' as the thread POD suggested to me when I first read it? Members from all Commonwealth nations (and former parts of the Commonwealth) could serve within the regiment.
A special regiment isn't needed unless its for P.R. reasons, i.e. foster imperial unity. Men from the Commonwealth and Empire could and did enlist in the armed forces of the United Kingdom anyway. I don't have the statistics to back it up, but I suspect that more people from Southern Ireland served in the British armed forces than the Irish Armed forces up to the end of the 1970s.

IOTL the Regular Army lost 9 cavalry regiments and 22 infantry battalions when it was reconstituted after the First World War. Meanwhile the Territorial Army which had about 55 Yeomanry Regiments and IIRC 204 infantry battalions was reconstituted with only 16 Yeomanry regiments with horses, 8 yeomanry regiments converted to armoured car companies and 168 infantry battalions.

If there was more money for the army, then the above would have been retained. However, because of the casualties sustained in World War One it might not be possible to recruit sufficient men from the British Isles. In that case the Army might try to recruit more men from the Empire and Commonwealth.
 
The intention was also to provide a ‘core’ of commonwealth troops made up from long service volunteers to better allow for the build-up of commonwealth forces in another large war.
The best way to do that would be to keep the OTL armies of the BEC up to date between 1919 and 1934. Then the British Army of 1934 would have consisted of an Expeditionary Force of one mechanised cavalry/armoured division and 5 motorised infantry division, with the required backing of corps, army and LoC troops. Backing it up would have been a Territorial Army of 14 mechanised cavalry/armoured brigades and 14 motorised infantry divisions, with the required backing of corps, army and LoC troops.

The above also means that there would have been a much bigger arms industry in 1934 too.
 
As I did the early 1920s, these are the Regimental Establishments, Exclusive of India, for Colonial and Indian Corps from Vote A (Numbers) of the 1914-15 Army Estimates:

201 Indian Natives with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) Mountain Battery, Egypt
443 Royal Malta Artillery - Three coast artillery companies
83 Local Artillery for Sierra Leone (Natives), The African Artillery is stationed at Sierra Leone - i.e. one coast artillery company, RGA
607 Local Artillery for Eastern Stations. This was the Hong Kong, Singapore Battalion, RGA (3 Coys at Hong Kong, 1 Coy at Singapore and 1 Coy at Mauritius) - total 5 coast artillery companies.
95 Non-Europeans of Fortress Companies, Royal Engineers, at Sierra Leone and Hong Kong One - total 2 fortress companies
1,156 West India Regiment One battalion for Sierra Leone and one for Jamaica - Total 2 infantry battalions
23 R.A.M.C for Jamaica and Sierra Leone
4,635 Native Indian Regiments. India supplies battalions at the cost of the Imperial Government, for garrison duty at Ceylon (1), Singapore (1), Hong Kong (2) and North China (1). There were additional battalions and one mountain battery temporarily empoyed in China which were not shown on Regimental Establishment.
29 Miscellaneous Indian Troops, North China
1,499 West African Regiment (includes 50 signallers) - one infantry battalion

8,771 Total, Colonial and Indian Corps. Summary of Units:

8 infantry battalions (5 Indian, 2 West Indian and one West African)
1 RGA mountain battery (Indian)
6 RGA coast artillery companies (1 African and 5 HK-S Battalion)
3 RMA coast artillery companies
2 RE fortress companies (1 Sierra Leone and 1 Hong Kong)

AFAIK the personnel of the Hong Kong, Singapore Battalion, RGA and the RE company in Hong Kong were recruited in India. There had been an Eastern Battalion, R.E. composed of Indians and a Chinese Regiment, but the former was reduced to the company at Hong Kong and the latter disbanded completely in the Haldane Reforms that followed the Boer War.
 
I thought you had something completely different in mind when I read the title...
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What about a British Foreign Legion with a British Adjutant department to run the admin, experienced British Warrant Officers to do the training and the Officers and Men recruited exclusively from the Empire. It provides a core of experienced men who can go on to become the Officers and senior NCOs of national regiments when a war comes.
 
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