Yorkshire Regiment

Yorkshire Regiment

The Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th and 33rd/76th Foot) (abbreviated YORKS) is one of the largest infantry regiments of the British Army. The regiment is currently the only line infantry or rifles unit to represent a single geographical county in the new infantry structure, serving as the county regiment of Yorkshire. It is set to lose one Battalion as part of the Army 2020 defence review.

The regiment's recruitment area today covers almost all the historic county (the three ridings of the county: East Riding of Yorkshire, North Riding of Yorkshire and West Riding of Yorkshire) except for the eastern half of South Yorkshire and the southeast of West Yorkshire, which is a recruitment area for The Rifles, and the part of the West Riding that is now in Greater Manchester. The recruitment area covers all of the present-day ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire (which extends to the northern border of historic Yorkshire — the River Tees) and East Riding of Yorkshire. Recruitment however is open to those from outside the formal recruitment area, with the regiment in particular recruiting from North East England and the Commonwealth.

The regiment's antecedent units also recruited in areas that are now part of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cumbria, Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The 3rd Battalion (Duke of Wellington's) (formerly the Duke of Wellington's Regiment) was given the Freedom of Mossley in Tameside, Greater Manchester on 8 July 1967 when Mossley was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire.