Sir, The four old English fusilier regiments (Northumberland, Warwickshire, Royal (City of London) and Lancashire) decided in the mid-1960s to become a large regiment in order to be ahead of the game and to provide the British Army with a forward-looking, flexible and highly professional part of the infantry’s order of battle.

In April 1968 the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was born. We had four battalions at that time. In 1969 our 4th battalion, along with other 4th battalions of large regiments, was disbanded. Over the next 25 years the regiment’s three regular battalions served operationally in Gibraltar, Northern Ireland, Germany, Cyprus, the Falklands (post 1982), Bermuda, Iraq (1990-91), Bosnia, Kosovo and, more recently, the second Iraq conflict.

Our foresight and willingness to modernise have now been thrown in our faces, and despite our excellent recruiting capabilities.

Within months of the completion of the first Gulf War we were told to axe our 3rd battalion which, at the time, was one of the most highly trained and combat-experienced battalions in the Army. Now we face losing another battalion to save Scottish cap badges (report, December 7).

This is not a criticism of Scottish soldiers or their capabilities, but the fact remains that they cannot recruit, and that England is being forced to bear the brunt of cuts in its infantry quite unfairly, and out of proportion to its overall contribution to the Army’s infantry strengths.

Yours faithfully,
SIMON CLEVELAND,
78a Newbridge Hill, Bath BA1 3QA.
simon@cleveland2005.freeserve.co.uk
December 7.

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