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The 1st Battalion of The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was the first of the regiment's battalions in the thick of the fray, when it clashed with the 12th Brandenburg Grenadiers at Tertre, north of the Mons Canal causing heavy losses upon the Prussians, then notably as the epic stand at Neuve Chapelle.

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It was at this time the Regiment was undergoing great expansion with the 6th, 7th and 8th service Battalions being raised. It was at Hill 60 that the 1st Battalion's B Company stormed the mound at the charge sounded on the bugle, which may be seen today in the regimental Museum in Maidstone. It was the latter part of that same year that three new service Battalions arrived on the western front. the 8th, like so many new Battalions, suffered terribly at Loos in September 1915, losing all but one of its Officers and 550 other ranks.

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The next notable engagement was the great offensive on the Somme in July 1916, with the 1st, 6th, 7th,8th and new 10th and 11th Battalions involved. Sadly the blackest day in the history of the British Army, for by nightfall it had suffered 60,000 casualties. 1917 started with the audacious daylight raid by the 1st Battalion in February, known there after as The Royal West Kent Givenchy Raid, and considered to be the way a raid should be carried out from then on!

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In July 1917 the 10th Battalion, at the point of the bayonet, charged the German positions on the Messines Ridge, which was reminiscent of the old 50th (West Kent) in the Peninsular war some 100 years before! This was followed closely by the 11th Battalion who dealt ruthlessly with a German machine gun during their attack. Later that same month the Regiment was to witness the horrors of the 3rd Battle of Ypres forever known as Passchendaele. None of the Battalions fared well and by October 1917, the 1st Battalion was standing at only 290 men. The 7th Battalion suffered heavily during the fighting at Poelecapelle. Meanwhile the Regiment was fighting in other theatres including the unsuccessful assault on the Dardanelles where the 2 and 4th made a landing at Suvla Bay, before moving on to Egypt and then Palestine. Other notable actions including Nasiriya and Kut-al-Amara. The 2nd Regular Battalions spent its time out in the Middle East hotly contesting ground against the constant Arab attacks.

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The last year of the war, 1918, saw the Regiment gain 3 Victoria Crosses. for the 1st, 10th and 11th Battalions a brief trip to italy to bolster the Italian front. During the Kaisers Battle of March 1918 the 7th Battalion, after being re-constituted after the early heavy losses, was to suffer in total the loss of 40 Officers and 1,000 men! This not without giving a good account of themselves with one of the Lewis GUn teams emptying no less than 20 magazines into the attacking Germans!

 

The Great War was to end on 11th November 1918 but not before the Regiment had immortalised itself in the annals of the British military history, with great sadness the Regiment lost 6,866 Officers and other ranks.

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Lastly to quote General Sir H. Smith-Dorrien: "I am perfectly certain there is not other Battalion that has made such a name for itself as The Royal West Kent's, everyone is talking about you, they say : Give then a job, they will do it; they never leave the trenches!

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QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT

(Where Right And Glory Lead)