3rd Regiment of Foot

Also known as The Buffs

Chronology

• 1572 raised as Thomas Morgan's Company of Foot
• 1665 known as the 4th (The Holland Maritime) Regiment
• 1668 known as the 4th (The Holland) Regiment
• 1688 known as the 4th The Lord Admiral's Regiment
• 1737 renamed the 3rd (Howard's) Regiment of Foot
• 1743 became 3rd Regiment of Foot, "Howard's Buffs"
• 1751 became 3rd (Kent) Regiment of Foot, "The Buffs"
• 1881 became The Buffs, (East Kent Regiment)
• 1935 became The Buffs, (Royal East Kent Regiment)
• 1961 amalgamated with 50th/97th The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form 3rd/50th/97th The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment
• 1966 merged and became 2nd Battalion (Queen's Own Buffs), The Queen's Regiment
• 1992 amalgamated with The Royal Hampshire Regiment to form The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment

Regimental journal

The Dragon. East Kent Chronicle A paper for the men of the Buffs. The British Library catalogue lists '[New Series.] no. 1-135. Nov. 1, 1886,-Feb 1961'.

"My maternal grandfather was in "G" Coy, 1st Bn [c 1900] and I tracked his movements - and involvement in sporting competitions - around the various cantonments in India, then Burma, via the accounts published in the regimental magazine, The Dragon"

There is a range of editions available online, see below.

FIBIS resources

• "Boy Soldier to Lancer: John Arnfield in the Anglo -Sikh Wars" by Ainslie Sharpe FIBIS Journal Number 26 Autumn 2011, pages 31-40 For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals

John Arnfield was born at sea in 1819. His father Hugh was in the 59th Foot which was in India 1820-1829. When that regiment returned to England in 1829, Hugh Arnfield transferred to the 3rd Regiment of Foot. John Arnfield enlisted in the Buffs, in India, as a Boy 16 November 1833 aged 14. He remained with the regiment in India, until he transferred to the 16th Lancers 1 April 1840.

External links

• Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) Wikipedia
• Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment Wikipedia
  
• Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment Wikipedia
• Photo of War Memorial to East Kent Regiment in Canterbury Cathedral Flickr.com. This commemorates the men of the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) who died 1895 to 1898 – when the regiment was engaged in the Chitral Campaign and Punjab Frontier.
• The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion Regiments.org, an archived site.
• The Buffs (The Royal East Kent Regiment) British Armed Forces & National Service
• The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment (PWRR) The Regimental Association. Includes a category 'Dragon Magazine' with online editions, an ongoing project.
• North West Kent Family History Society
• Thread from Victorian Wars Forum regarding the 1st Battalion in Burma 1900-1902, with photograph. 'This shortish period in Burma never seems to be mentioned in published histories of the regiment'.
• The Buffs 1801-1900 East Kent Regiment “Historic Canterbury”

• With the Buffs to Ireland and India (ww1.crayfordhistory.co.uk, now archived). Private William White arrived in India in January 1914 and was with B Company, 2 /Buffs which left India on 16 November 1914. Images 3 and 8 shows the Regiment in India.
• Listen to the 1977 interview with William John Hopkins, British NCO served with 1st Battalion. East Kent Regiment in India and Burma, 1927-1938. Imperial War Museums

Historical books online

• Historical Records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot) formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment. Vol I 1572-1704 by Capt H R Knight 1905.

Volumes 2-4 , published 1935-1951 are available at the British Library

• Historical record of the Third Regiment of Foot or the Buffs formerly designated The Holland Regiment containing an account of its origins in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and of its subsequent services to 1838 Google Books 1839. Indian Service commences page 241 in 1827
• Recollections of thirty-nine years in the Army : Gwalior and the Battle of Maharajpore, 1843, the gold coast of Africa, 1847-48, the Indian mutiny, 1857-58, the expedition to China, 1860-61, the siege of Paris, 1870-71, etc. by Sir Charles Alexander Gordon, Surgeon- General 1898 Archive.org. The author was initially surgeon in the 3rd Regiment of Foot.
• India page 39 A Wreath of Memories: George Joachim Goschen (Viscount) 1917. "Sept. 1914 he was commissioned in 1/5th Bn. East Kent Regt. (TF) & sailed with the regt. for India soon after. At the end of 1915 it was transferred to Mesopotamia". He died 19 January 1916 of wounds received 7 January at the battle of Sheikh Saad.
• A selection of online editions of Dragon Magazine is available from the Regimental Association The Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment (PWRR). Select Dragon Magazines. This is an ongoing project and currently (2019/12) there is a broken range of editions from 1886. The Dragon was not generally published during WW1.