Queen's Lancashire Regiment

The details below are from the official records held at RHQ ... many thanks to Jane (RHQ) and Neil Whittaker
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The 1st Battalion, The Queen's Lancashire Regiment is one of the most operationally effective units in the British Army.
It consistently figures as one of the top two or three best recruited and best manned infantry battalions in the Army, and is particularly proud of the fact that over 97% of its soldiers come from the Regiment's traditional recruiting area in Lancashire and the Isle of Man.

The Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum, the largest Regimental archive and the premier centre for military historical research in the North West of England ... to enter click here

More information about QLR from Wikipedia click here

Pte Stephen Keating died 3 March 1972.
He was shot and killed at the corner of Manor Street and Annalee Street, in North Belfast. The gunman had fired a burst from a high velocity weapon.
He came from Wythenshawe in Manchester aged 18 and was single.

Pte Michael John Murtagh died 6 February 1973.
He died in an IRA RPG attack on his Saracen armoured car in Servia Street, Lower Falls area. He was the gunner inside the vehicle and was the first soldier to die from such a weapon. The rocket hit the turret of the Saracen and he suffered severe head injuries and died 45 minutes later. Other soldiers in the Saracen suffered shrapnel wounds and hearing damage. The driver of the Saracen although injured himself drove the vehicle to the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital. He came from Blackburn, aged 23 and had been married for only 2 months.

Pte Edwin Paul Weston died 14 February 1973.
He died in hospital after being shot by an IRA gunman in the Raglan Street/Cyprus Street area of the Falls Road. A Lance Corporal from the same patrol was also injured in the foot during this attack. The patrol had returned fire but no hits were recorded. He was single, aged 21 and came from Preston.

Pte Gary Barlow died 5 March 1973.
He became separated from his patrol in the Lower Falls area during a disturbance. A crowd had gathered and his SLR was grabbed from him.
Some women in the crowd were apparently trying to get him to safety whilst others had summoned an IRA gunman who had pushed his way through this crowd and into the garage on McDonnell Street, where Pte Barlow was trapped, and shot him twice. The British Press wrongly reported at the time that the women had attacked him and this was later discovered not to have been the case. He was single, aged 19 and came from Lowton in Lancashire.

Pte John Green died 8 March 1973.
He was shot and killed by an IRA gunman whilst at a polling station at St Joseph's School in Slate Street, West Belfast. The gunman fired five shots in total.
The polling at the time was a referendum whether or not Northern Ireland should remain in the UK. He was 21, single and came from Atherton in Lancashire.

Lance Corporal William Maurice Riddell died 6 January 1976.
He was killed when a Saracen that he was commanding slid off the road and overturned during a search operation. He was single, aged 25 and the funeral was held in Durham.

Pte Iain James O'Connor died 30 March 1987.
He was killed when two blast bombs were dropped from a walkway in Divis Flats on to the Landrover vehicle that he was in. He was 23, single and came from Preston in Lancashire.

Pte Joseph Leach died 4 June 1987.
He was shot and killed by an IRA gunman whilst standing in the back of a Landrover on patrol in Shaw's Road in the Andersonstown district of Belfast.
He was 21, single and came from Preston in Lancashire.

Major Anthony Robert Hornby MBE died 2 June 1994.

He was killed in the Mull of Kintyre Chinook Helicopter crash with 28 other Security Service, Army, RAF and RUC personnel.. He was serving with 3 Infantry Brigade in Northern Ireland at the time. He was 38. Married and came from Bolton.

AMALGAMATION
On 1 July 2006 the inexorable process of contraction and consolidation reached another inevitable milestone when The Queen's Lancashire Regiment was amalgamated with the other two remaining North West England infantry regiments, the Kings Own Royal Border and Kings Regiments, to form The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

All three regiments have equally proud and noble histories and traditions, all of which will be cherished and sustained by the two regular and one Territorial Army battalions of the new regiment.