The Regimental Collections.

The Shropshire Regimental Museum in Shrewsbury Castle was set up specifically to house the collections of the county's major military formations from 1755 to c. 1970 :

- the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, its ancestors and related units

- the Shropshire Yeomanry

- the Shropshire Royal Horse Artillery.


See the separate pages on this site for further details on each of these formations.

The 53rd Regiment of Foot.

The 53rd was raised as the 55th Regiment in 1755 and was renumbered as the 53rd in 1757.


It was designated "The Shropshire Regiment" in 1782.


In 1881, the 53rd amalgamated with the 85th Light Infantry to form the 1st Battalion of the new county regiment, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

The 85th Light Infantry.

The original 85th was raised as "the Royal Volontiers" in Shrewsbury Castle in 1759 and was disbanded in 1763.
It was the first full regiment of light infantry raised in the British Army.

A second regiment to bear the number was raised as "the Westminster Volunteers" in 1779 and disbanded in 1783 after service in the West Indies.

The third regiment to be numbered as the 85th was raised in 1793 as "the Bucks. Volunteers". Converted to Light Infantry in 1809, it was renamed "the Duke of Yorks Own Regiment of Light Infantry" in 1815, in honour of its services in the Peninsular War, and was again renamed as "the King's Light Infantry" in 1821 in token of its protection of George IV during riots in Brighton in that year.

The 85th King's Light Infantry amalgamated with the 53rd in 1881 to form the 2nd Battalion of the new county regiment, the King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

The King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

Formed in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment and the 85th (King's) Light Infantry, the KSLI was the county's Regular infantry regiment from 1881-1968.

New barracks were constructed at Copthorne in Shrewsbury (1877 - 81) to house the regiment. These today form the administrative centre of 5 Division and 143 Infantry Brigade, as well as local TA and Cadet units.

The KSLI ceased to exist as such in 1968 when it was absorbed as the 3rd Battalion into the new large regiment, The Light Infantry.

In Feb. 2007, this in turn was absorbed into a new large regiment, The Rifles.

The County Militia.

The Museum houses a small collection of badges, uniforms, medals etc. relating to the county's Militia - a part-time defence force.

The Militia became the 3rd Battalion of the KSLI in 1881 and in the 1908 reorganisation became the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, KSLI.

It effectively ceased to exist after WW1.

Shropshire Rifle Volunteers.

Volunteer units were raised in the county during the French Wars of 1793-1815, but none survived beyond the end of the wars in 1814-15.

The main body of Rifle Volunteers was formed in 1859-60 during the national Volunteer revival at a time when war with France seemed likely.
These part-time infantry soldiers were essentially a form of "home guard".

They became the 1st and 2nd Volunteer Battalions of the KSLI in 1888 and on the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908, they became the 4th (Territorial) Battalion, KSLI.

Territorials of the KSLI

The Rifle Volunteers became the 4th (Territorial) Battalion, KSLI, in 1908 on the formation of the Territorial Force. As such, they existed until 1967.

They were succeeded as the county's TA infantry unit by the 5th Light Infantry (Volunteers) until their own disbandment in 1999.

The TA infantry element in Shropshire is now represented by "E" Rifle Company, the West Midlands Regiment, TA, based at Copthorne Barracks.

The Shropshire Yeomanry.

The Shropshire Yeomanry - part time, volunteer cavalry - traces its existence to the mounted volunteer regiments raised in Shropshire for local defence duirng the French and Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815.
It takes its precedence from the raising of the Wellington Troop in April 1795.

Only three local Yeomanry regiments survived the reduction of these forces at the end of the wars - the Shrewsbury Yeomanry Cavalry, the North Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry and the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry.

The amalgamation of the Shrewsbury and South Shropshire in 1828 left only two - North Salopian and South Shropshire Regiments and these in turn were amalgamated in 1872 to form one county Yeomanry regiment, the Shropshire Yeomanry.

The Shropshire Yeomanry has undergone many amalgamations and changes since 1947 and now serves as 95 (Shropshire Yeomanry) Signal Squadron, based at Sundorne, Shrewsbury, and as one Squadron of the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry based at Dawley Bank in Telford.

The Shropshire Royal Horse Artillery.

The smallest element in the collections at Shrewsbury Castle is that of the Shropshire Royal Horse Artillery and its ancestors in the Artillery Volunteers.

Formed in 1859-60, along with the Rifle Volunteers, the Shropshire Artillery served as Garrison Artillery until 1908 when they were completely reorganised and retrained as Royal Horse Artillery.

Reverting to Garrison Artillery in 1920, they retained their honour title of "Royal Horse Artillery".

After many post-1945 changes, they were disbanded in 1967.

Modern Army Display.

The Museum maintains a Modern Army gallery which gives visitors some idea of the uniforms, equipment and weapons currently used by the British Army and an indication of its recent deployments and services.

The Lord Lieutenants' Display.

The East Tower of the Castle houses a small display of uniforms and other items relating to the Lords Lieutenant of Shropshire in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The History of the Castle.

In the lower "dungeon" of the East Tower the Borough Museums' Service has a display relating to the history of Shrewsbury Castle itself.

There is a fine model of the castle as it might have looked in its earth and timber phase c.1100.