Global InformationBritish Army information
| British Army | |
|---|---|
 Badge of the British Army  Logo since 2018 | |
| Founded | 1 January 1660[1][2][note 1] |
| Country |
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| Type | Army |
| Role | Land warfare |
| Size |
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| Part of | British Armed Forces |
| March | List of marches of the British Army |
| Equipment | List of equipment of the British Army |
| Website | army |
| Commanders | |
| Commander-in-Chief | King Charles III |
| Chief of the General Staff | General Sir Patrick Sanders[5] |
| Deputy Chief of the General Staff | Lieutenant General Dame Sharon Nesmith[6] |
| Army Sergeant Major | Warrant Officer Class 1 Paul Carney |
| Insignia | |
| War flag |  |
| Non-ceremonial flag |  |
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| British Army of the British Armed Forces |
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| Components |
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| Administration |
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| Overseas |
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| Personnel |
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| Equipment |
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| History |
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| Location |
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| 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 January 2024,[update] the British Army comprises 75,166 regular full-time personnel, 4,062 Gurkhas, 26,244 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,557 "other personnel", for a total of 110,029.[7]
The modern British Army traces back to 1707, with antecedents in the English Army and Scots Army that were created during the Restoration in 1660. The term British Army was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland.[8][9] Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief,[10] but the Bill of Rights of 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army.[11] Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff.[12]
The British Army, composed primarily of cavalry and infantry, was originally one of two Regular 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]
- ^ Clifford Walton (1894). History of the British Standing Army. A.D. 1660 to 1700. Harrison and Sons. pp. 1–2.
- ^ Noel T. St. John Williams (1994). Redcoats and courtesans: the birth of the British Army (1660–1690). Brassey's. p. 16. ISBN 9781857530971.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Chandler2003was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 January 2024". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- ^ "Chief of the General Staff – General Sir Patrick Sanders KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen". gov.uk. June 2022.
- ^ "Lieutenant General Sharon Nesmith becomes Deputy Chief of the General Staff". GOV.UK. Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
- ^ "Quarterly service personnel statistics 1 January 2024". gov.uk. 12 March 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Walton, Clifford (1 January 1894). History of the British Standing Army. A.D. 1660 to 1700. Harrison and Sons. p. 16.
- ^ "Commanding Officers Guide. Manual of Service Law (JSP 830, Volume 1, Chapter 18)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 October 2015.
- ^ "Bill of Rights 1689". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ cgsmediacomma-amc-dig-shared@mod.uk, The British Army. "The British Army – Higher Command". army.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ "NAVAL AND MILITARY PENSIONS AND GRANTS". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 12 February 1917.
- ^ "Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance – Regiment History, War & Military Records & Archives". forces-war-records.co.uk.
- ^ "Board of Ordnance – Naval History Archive". navalhistoryarchive.org.
- ^ Leslie, J. H. (1925). "THE HONORABLE THE BOARD OF ORDNANCE. 1299—1855". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 4 (17): 100–104. JSTOR 44220102 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Louis, William Roger; Low, Alaine M.; Porter, Andrew (1 January 2001). The Oxford History of the British Empire: The nineteenth century. Oxford University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-19-924678-6.
- ^ Johnston, Douglas; Reisman, W. Michael (26 December 2007). The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena. BRILL. p. 508. ISBN 978-90-474-2393-5.
- ^ cgsmediacomma-amc-dig-shared@mod.uk, The British Army. "The British Army – Operations and Deployments". army.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).