Border Regiment - Inter War Period

Inter War Period

By 1919 all the war-formed battalions had been disbanded and the system of rotating the two regular battalions had resumed. The 1st Battalion moved to the North West Frontier of India, where they were engaged in the Waziristan campaigns of 1919-1920 and 1921-1924. In 1924 they moved to Aden, returning to England in the following year. Apart from a brief spell in Shanghai in 1927 they remained in the United Kingdom until 1936. In that year they moved to Palestine to suppress the Arab revolt. They returned to England in the following year, and were based at Catterick Garrison when the Second World War broke out.

The 2nd Battalion were in Italy at the end of the First World War remaining there until 1919. In that year they moved to Ireland, where the War of Independence had broken out. Based in County Mayo, the battalion had few casualties, and returned to England at the end of the conflict in 1922. In the next few years the 2nd Battalion was on garrison duty at various locations: Malta, The Sudan, Tientsin in China aand Rawalpindi in India. The Battalion was part of the forces that suppressed the Afridi and Red Shirt Rebellions of 1930 - 1931. The Battalion remained in India, and on the outbreak of World War Two was stationed in Calcutta.

The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was placed in "suspended animation" following the war, and was never embodied again. It was formally disbanded in 1953.

The two territorial battalions were reformed in 1920 as part of the renamed Territorial Army (TA). In April 1939, when it seemed clear war was likely to break out with Germany, the TA was doubled in size, with each existing unit forming a duplicate. When war broke out in September 1939 the four TA battalions were as follows:

• 4th (Westmorland and Cumberland) Battalion
• 5th (Cumberland) Battalion
• 6th (East Cumberland) Battalion
• 7th (Cumberland) Battalion