British Army regimental structure

It has been brought to my attention that not everybody here knows, or understands, how the regimental structure of the British Army works. So I will attempt to explain it here.

The basic unit is the company. At full strength, a company has 100 men, plus three or four sergeants and a drummer - or bugler, for the Light Infantry and Rifles. A company is commanded by a captain, who has a lieutenant and an ensign to help.

Ten companies form a battalion. Most regiments have two battalions, of which the 1st Battalion is the senior, and usually does the fighting while the 2nd Battalion is responsible for recruiting and training men.

There are some regiments that have more than one battalion, such as the 60th, the 95th and the 27th. For regiments with more than one battalion they are distinguished as the 1/95th, 2/95th and 3/95th, i.e. the 1st Battalion 95th Regiment, 2nd Battalion 95th Regiment and 3rd Battalion 95th Regiment.

There are a very few regiments, like the 95th, that have three or more battalions. The 60th is one of these. We were originally raised in America in 1755, as the Royal American Regiment, and by 1797 there were four battalions, and in 1797 the 5th Battalion was raised as Riflemen, the first Rifle battalion of the British Army.

I trust so, Cotton.

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On a more sober note, presumably the company ensign carries the company flag, while there are battalion ensigns to carry the King's and Regimental colours. Which are senior? Or doesn't it matter, as they're all doomed anyway?

Strangely, it's the most junior two officers who carry the King's and Regimental Colours. As far as I can tell, the Company flags are merely for use in camp, to show where each company is bivouacked.

I thought it must be, since (according to Redcoat) the dead battalion ensigns were replaced in reverse order of seniority (most junior next, and so on) which means there was a pool of senior ensigns to be sent back to hold the flags. Probably company ensigns actually did more officering.

John Vickery wrote:Strangely, it's the most junior two officers who carry the King's and Regimental Colours. As far as I can tell, the Company flags are merely for use in camp, to show where each company is bivouacked.

Youngest Ensigns did indeed carry standards in British Army. Though an ensign of the 2nd/69th claimed that in action these were passed to covering Sergeants. (This might be to excuse the actions of himself and his college , the latter losing the King's colour and remaining uninjured). Clearly, however, this was not practice in units like 3rd Foot, 33rd and 52nd who have clear references to the ensigns carrying flags in action and sometimes dying or being maimed whilst carrying colours.
Company flags are indeed for marking out areas of camp and were not carried in action by the British army , though Sharpe TV episodes and familiarity with pennants carried by modern soldiers on TV broadcasts have muddied the issue for some re-enactors.