Short History of Fighting Cheshire & the Cheshire Pals

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​The men of Cheshire have always been martially inclined. Richard II had a body guard of Cheshire archers, which he formed in 1390.
The county of Cheshire was known as a palatinate earldom, and was directly controlled by the Crown. When there was a Prince of Wales this earldom was part of his lands and titles (and this may have confused the confusion over Welsh Archers at Agincourt, which persists to this day) In 1397 Richard ordered the Sheriff of the county to collect 2,000 archers for royal service. This huge company of men was mostly allowed to go home after the king had bullied parliament, but some were kept back as his personal bodyguard, being paid 6d a day.
Some of these archers fought and died at the Battle of Shrewsbury, some were pardoned by Henry IV.
In 1689 the Duke of Norfolk raised a regiment on the Roodee, which then served in Ireland. In 1702 the regiment served in Jamaica, 1726 Minorca, and by 1751 was known as the 22nd Foot. In 1758/9 they served in Canada, and then to America in 1775.
This now brings us to the Great War, in which our Home Guard men served.
The Regiment raised 38 Battalions and awarded 75 Battle Honours and 2 Victoria Crosses losing 8,413 men during the course of the First World War. As 2014 marked 100 years since the outbreak of the Great War – the “War to end all wars” we have a small detachment representing WW1 Tommies.  On 24th August 1914 the 1st battalion suffered over 700 casualties during the final stages of the battle of Mons. That battalion was re manned, and served all through the War on the Western Front, they won 35 battle honours. Other battalions of the Cheshires served at Gallipoli and Palestine.