British Army

Not to be confused with English Army or Scots Army.

British Army

Badge of the British Army[1]

Logo since 2018[2]
Founded1 April 1707; 317 years ago (1707-04-01)[3][4][note 1]
Country
TypeArmy
RoleLand warfare
Size
Part ofBritish Armed Forces
MarchList of marches of the British Army
EquipmentList of equipment of the British Army
Websitearmy.mod.uk Edit this at Wikidata
Commanders
Head of the Armed ForcesKing Charles III
Chief of the General StaffGeneral Sir Roland Walker
Deputy Chief of the General StaffLieutenant General David Eastman
Army Sergeant MajorWarrant Officer Class 1 Paul Carney
Insignia
War flag
Non-ceremonial flag
Flag of the British Army
British Army
of the British Armed Forces
Components
Administration
Overseas
Personnel
Equipment
History
Location
United Kingdom portal

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Naval Service and the Royal Air Force. As of 1 July 2024, the British Army comprises 74,296 regular full-time personnel, 4,244 Gurkhas, 25,934 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,612 "other personnel", for a total of 109,086.[7]

The British Army traces back to 1707 and the formation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain which joined the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into a single state and, with that, united the English Army and the Scots Army as the British Army.[8][9] Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief,[10] since both the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and Scottish Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army.[11]

The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff.[12]

At its inception, being composed primarily of cavalry and infantry, the British Army was one of two Regular Forces (there were also separate Reserve Forces) within the British military (those parts of the British Armed Forces tasked with land warfare, as opposed to the naval forces),[13] with the other having been the Ordnance Military Corps (made up of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the Royal Sappers and Miners) of the Board of Ordnance, which along with the originally civilian Commissariat Department, stores and supply departments, as well as barracks and other departments, were absorbed into the British Army when the Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855. Various other civilian departments of the board were absorbed into the War Office.[14][15][16]

The British Army has seen action in major wars between the world's great powers, including the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First and Second World Wars. Britain's victories in most of these decisive wars allowed it to influence world events and establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers.[17][18] Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones, often as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation.[19]

  1. ^ "The official Army badge". www.defenceimagery.mod.uk. Ministry of Defense. 31 December 2007. Archived from the original on 23 September 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  2. ^ "Army Briefing Note 19/18: The Army Brand" (PDF). armysportcontrolboard.com. British Army. 9 February 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2024.
  3. ^ Clifford Walton (1894). History of the British Standing Army. A.D. 1660 to 1700. Harrison and Sons. pp. 1–2.
  4. ^ Noel T. St. John Williams (1994). Redcoats and courtesans: the birth of the British Army (1660–1690). Brassey's. p. 16. ISBN 9781857530971.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chandler2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 July 2024". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
  7. ^ "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 July 2024". gov.uk. 21 October 2024.
  8. ^ Williams, Noel T. St John (1 January 1994). Redcoats and courtesans: the birth of the British Army (1660–1690). Brassey's (UK). pp. 1–2. ISBN 9781857530971.
  9. ^ Walton, Clifford (1 January 1894). History of the British Standing Army. A.D. 1660 to 1700. Harrison and Sons. p. 16.
  10. ^ "Commanding Officers Guide. Manual of Service Law (JSP 830, Volume 1, Chapter 18)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Bill of Rights 1689". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  12. ^ [email protected], The British Army. "The British Army – Higher Command". army.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  13. ^ "Naval and Military Pensions and Grants". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 12 February 1917.
  14. ^ "Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance – Regiment History, War & Military Records & Archives". forces-war-records.co.uk.
  15. ^ "Board of Ordnance – Naval History Archive". navalhistoryarchive.org.[permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ Leslie, J. H. (1925). "The Honourable the Board of Ordnance. 1299—1855". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 4 (17): 100–104. JSTOR 44220102.
  17. ^ Louis, William Roger; Low, Alaine M.; Porter, Andrew (2001). The Oxford History of the British Empire: The nineteenth century. Oxford University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-19-924678-6.
  18. ^ Johnston, Douglas; Reisman, W. Michael (2007). The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena. Brill. p. 508. ISBN 978-90-474-2393-5.
  19. ^ [email protected], The British Army. "The British Army – Operations and Deployments". army.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.


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