British Army Order of Precedence

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For the purposes of parading, the regular army of the British Army is listed according to an order of precedence. This is the order in which the various corps of the army parade, from right to left, with the unit at the extreme right being highest. Under ordinary circumstances, the Household Cavalry parades at the extreme right of the line. However, when on parade with its guns, it is the Royal Horse Artillery (usually in the form of the King's Troop) that goes to the right. If non-regular forces were included, the Honourable Artillery Company and Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers would feature prominently, with the right-of-the-line honour falling to the HAC being senior to the Kings Troop and with guns as colours.

1 Usual Order of Precedence
2 Cavalry and Infantry Orders of Precedence
- 2.1 Cavalry Order of Precedence
  - 2.1.1 Cavalry - Notes
- 2.2 Infantry Order of Precedence
  - 2.2.1 Infantry - Notes
3 Precedence within the Territorial Army

[edit] Usual Order of Precedence

The usual order of precedence is:

[edit] Cavalry and Infantry Orders of Precedence

Cavalry and infantry regiments of the British Army are listed in their own orders of precedence, which dates back to when regiments had numbers rather than names. The order comes from the start of the regiment's service under the Crown, up to 1881 and the Cardwell Reforms, when the use of numbers was abolished in favour of county names. The regiments of the Household Division are always listed first, as they are the most senior, followed by the line regiments. In today's army, which has many regiments formed through amalgamations of other regiments, the rank in the order of precedence is that of the more senior of the amalgamated units. It is for this reason that the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, one of the youngest in the army, is ranked second in the line infantry order - it is the direct descendent of the 2nd Regiment of Foot.

[edit] Cavalry Order of Precedence

Household Cavalry¹
Modern Regiment	Formation	Antecedent Regiments
The Life Guards	1922	1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards
The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)	1969	Royal Horse Guards, 1st Dragoons
Cavalry of the Line²
Heavy Cavalry
1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards	1959	1st Dragoon Guards, 2nd Dragoon Guards
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys)	1971	3rd Dragoon Guards, 6th Dragoon Guards, 2nd Dragoons
Royal Dragoon Guards	1992	4th Dragoon Guards, 5th Dragoon Guards, 7th Dragoon Guards, 6th Dragoons
Light Cavalry
The Queen's Royal Hussars (Queen's Own and Royal Irish)	1993	3rd Hussars, 4th Hussars, 7th Hussars, 8th Hussars
9th/12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's)	1960	9th Lancers, 12th Lancers
The King's Royal Hussars	1992	10th Hussars, 11th Hussars, 14th Hussars, 20th Hussars
The Light Dragoons	1992	13th Hussars, 15th Hussars, 18th Hussars, 19th Hussars
The Queen's Royal Lancers³	1993	16th Lancers, 17th Lancers, 21st Lancers, 5th Lancers
Royal Tank Regiment⁴
1st Royal Tank Regiment	1993	1st Royal Tank Regiment, 4th Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Royal Tank Regiment
2nd Royal Tank Regiment	1992	2nd Royal Tank Regiment, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, 6th Royal Tank Regiment

[edit] Cavalry - Notes

Note 1: The 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, were originally termed Horse Guards and given precedence over the Cavalry regiments of the Line. The 1st Royal Dragoons was a line regiment.
Note 2: In the sequence of Line Cavalry, Dragoon Guards have always come first in the order of precedence, with their own numbering sequence, with other cavalry in a single sequence; it is therefore possible to have in the order of precendence 1st Hussars, followed by 2nd Lancers, followed by 3rd Dragoons, and so on.
Note 3: Although one of the antecedent regiments of the Queen's Royal Lancers was the 5th Lancers, this regiment was formed in the 1850s, resurrecting the number of an old regiment and thus ranked in precedence after the 17th Lancers.
Note 4: The two individual regiments that make up the Royal Tank Regiment are not included in the order of precedence separately; the RTR (which was formed during the First World War) takes final place in the cavalry/RAC order as a whole.

[edit] Infantry Order of Precedence

The infantry is ranked in the order of Foot Guards, Line Infantry⁵, Rifles:

Foot Guards
Modern Regiment	Formation	Antecendent Regiments
Grenadier Guards	1665	King's Royal Regt of Guards, Wentworth's Regt
Coldstream Guards	1650
Scots Guards	1661	Marquis of Argyll's Royal Regiment
Irish Guards	1900
Welsh Guards	1915
Line Infantry⁶
The Royal Regiment of Scotland	2006	1st, 21st, 25th, 42nd, 71st, 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 78th, 79th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd Regts of Foot
The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires)	1992	2nd, 3rd, 31st, 35th, 37th, 50th, 57th, 67th, 70th, 77th, 97th, 107th Regts of Foot
The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's, Lancashire and Border)	2006	4th, 8th, 30th, 34th, 40th, 47th, 55th, 59th, 63rd, 81st, 82nd, 96th Regts of Foot
The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers	1968	5th, 6th, 7th, 20th Regts of Foot
The Royal Anglian Regiment	1964	9th, 10th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 44th, 48th, 56th, 58th Regts of Foot
The Royal Marines⁷	1802	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Regts of Marines (44th-53rd Foot)
The Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th and 33rd/76th Foot)	2006	14th, 15th, 19th, 33rd, 76th Regts of Foot
The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment	1688
The Royal Welsh	2006	23rd, 24th, 41st, 69th Regts of Foot
The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling) 83rd and 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment)	1992	27th, 83rd, 86th, 87th, 89th, 108th Regts of Foot, Ulster Defence Regiment
The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (29th/45th Foot)	1970	29th, 36th, 45th, 95th Regts of Foot
The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's)	1959	38th, 64th, 80th, 98th Regts of Foot
The Parachute Regiment	1942	Army Commandos
Rifles⁸
The Royal Gurkha Rifles	1994	2nd, 6th, 7th, 10th Gurkha Rifles
The Rifles	2007	11th, 13th, 28th, 32nd, 39th, 43rd, 46th, 49th, 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 60th, 61st, 62nd, 66th, 68th, 85th, 99th, 105th, 106th Regts of Foot, The Rifle Brigade
Others
The Special Air Service	1944

[edit] Infantry - Notes

Note 5: The infantry order of precedence has several missing numbers, due to infantry regiments being disbanded:

The Royal Irish Regiment (disbanded 1922) - 18th Regt of Foot
The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) (suspended animation 1968; disbanded 1987) - 26th, 90th Regts of Foot
The York and Lancaster Regiment (suspended animation 1968; disbanded 1987) - 65th, 84th Regts of Foot
The Connaught Rangers (disbanded 1922) - 88th, 94th Regts of Foot
The Prince of Wales's Own Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (disbanded 1922) - 100th, 109th Regts of Foot
The Royal Munster Fusiliers (disbanded 1922) - 101st, 104th Regts of Foot
The Royal Dublin Fusiliers (disbanded 1922) - 102nd, 103rd Regts of Foot

Note 6: There is currently only a single regiment of line infantry that has never been amalgamated in its entire history:

The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment - 22nd Regt of Foot

Until 2006, there were four other regiments that had also never been amalgamated:

The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) - 1st Regt of Foot
The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment) - 19th Regt of Foot
The Royal Welch Fusiliers - 23rd Regt of Foot
The King's Own Scottish Borderers - 25th Regt of Foot

In 2006, these were amalgamated into large regiments under the planned reorganisation of the infantry. The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment will be the last to amalgamate in 2007.
Note 7: The Royal Marines, as the descendent of the old Army marine regiments of the 17th and 18th centuries, was included in the Order of Precedence after the descendent of the 49th Foot (the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry), which was the last regiment formed prior to the formation of the Royal Marines, when not on parade with the Royal Navy. On the completion of the infantry reorganisation in 2007, the RGBWLI became part of The Rifles, and moved last in the Order of Precedence. The Royal Marines will thus move behind the descendent of the 48th Foot (the Royal Anglian Regiment). When naval contingents are present, Royal Marine units parade as part of the Naval Service, to the right of all regiments of the Army.
Note 8: Although The Rifles is descended from many numbered regiments, it is last in the order of precedence because the unnumbered regiment The Rifle Brigade has served longest as a rifle regiment. The Royal Gurkha Rifles comes before The Rifles because one of its predecessors (the 2nd Gurkhas) entered service before the Rifle Brigade ceased using its old number (95th). As both the Royal Gurkha Rifles and The Rifles are rifle regiments they come last in the order of precedence, with only the SAS after them (the SAS does not fall into any of the other categories). This is why the Parachute Regiment, which is classed as a line infantry regiment, comes above both.