4th Battalion (Australia) - Lineage

Lineage

Like many Australian infantry units, the 4th Battalion has a convoluted lineage and can trace its origins back to two separate units of the New South Wales colonial forces. The first of these units is the Newtown Volunteer Rifle Regiment which was formed in 1862, while the second is the Ashfield Volunteer Reserve Corps, which was raised in 1885. In 1914 these units—which had evolved through a series of reorganisations and redesignations into the 29th Infantry (Australian Rifles) and the 37th and 38th Infantry Regiments—were the basis upon which the 4th Battalion, AIF, was raised, although these units continued to exist throughout the war. In 1918 these units were redesignated as the 2nd Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, and the 5th Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment.

In 1919 the 4th Battalion, AIF, was disbanded and in 1921 the two militia units were amalgamated and re-raised as the 4th Battalion (Australian Rifles), perpetuating the battle honours of the AIF unit. After that the battalion existed as a distinct entity (except for a period in the 1930s when it was amalgamated with the 3rd Battalion) up until 1946 when it was disbanded. Following the war the unit was not re-raised until 1957, however, when it was it was raised from the 7th/21st Australian Horse Regiment and the 56th Battalion (Riverina Regiment), which had been formed in 1948 and 1956 respectively as part of the Citizens Military Force, and thus further confusing the unit's lineage. The battalion also inherited the battle honours of the 2/4th Battalion, which had been raised from volunteers for overseas service from the 4th Battalion during the Second World War. Between 1960 and 1965 the battalion was subsumed into the 3rd Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment, a Pentropic battalion that is distinct to the 3rd Battalion itself, before being re-raised in its own right in 1965 as the 4th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment.