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Queens Royal Regiment
Also known
as Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) The 1st
Battalion QRR did not see action until 1942 against the
Imperial Japanese Army. The 1st Queens fought in the Burma
Campaign throughout the war as part of the 33rd Indian
Infantry Brigade 7th Indian Infantry Division of the British
Fourteenth Army under Lieutenant General William "Bill"
Slim. The 2nd Battalion QRR spent the early
years of the war in the Middle East and Syria before also
going out to the Far East. They were part of the 16th
Brigade, 6th Infantry Division which was later redesignated
as the 70th Infantry Division and were involved in Operation
Thursday, the second Chindits campaign. Robert W Friend
has no medals for war action in Burma and neither does his
service record place him there. Simple as that.
If he fought with QRR how did he manage to court Marie
Friend and marry her on 29th April 1944 in London, since during
this period his regiment was in the Far East. Marianne
knew her Dad suffered a bad foot injury which is most likely
why he was repatriated to UK i from Iraq in July 1943.
Myself and Marianne also learnt when having a Sunday pre
lunch drink with Bob that he had visited South Africa and
also New York. This is most likely when he was on route to
UK in 1943 since the voyage from Iraq would have been via
convoys running from Middle East to USA via The Cape then to
UK.
Arriving back in UK the Royal Fusiliers had all its
regiments fighting in Italy until the end of the war so he
was assigned to a Holding Regiment (common practice at the
time) -
No 13 Holding Battalion.
Between May 1945 and Dec 1946 6458484
R W Friend spent time with the Courts Martials Office of Q.R.R.
Obviously at wars end the Royal Fusilier regiments would
have drafted home and eventually end 1946 he would be back
with the 1st batallion. That's all. The QRR had garrison at Maidstone where was
stationed the Indian Army Holding Company, No 13 Infantry
Training Centre!! Because of his Indian training from a boy
soldier onwards in India and the RF attachment to Indian
Army perhaps this was the reason he was placed in No 13
Holding Battalion on return to UK without his regiment. I
shall continue to investigate. In fact I
have learnt the reason 6458484
R W Friend was repatriated to UK in 1943 was due to Army
Regulations that a soldier was owed time home after
completing 4 years active service overseas.
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