London Pride is an academic research project into the military, social, literary, and cultural aspects of the London Regiment and London Territorial Force (TF) from its formation in 1908, through its service in the Great War, to its disembodiment in 1921.
Volume 1 of the publication was released in December 2025. This book focuses on the origins and early mobilisation of the London TF. It places the force within London’s amateur military tradition and traces its transition from peacetime society to wartime service, including the social, economic and administrative challenges involved.
Volume 2, due later this year, will examine operational experience across multiple theatres, adaptation to modern warfare and the post-war legacy of the force.
Why the project?
Charles Fair, Richard Hendry and Dr. Tom Thorpe manage the project. They all have a deep interest in the London Regiment as a result of relatives serving in constituent battalions during the Great War.
The name London Pride comes from a flower, Saxifraga × urbium, seen growing on graves of London Regiment soldiers in The London Cemetery, facing High Wood. As Terry Norman observed in his 1984 classic, The Hell They Called High Wood, ‘Whoever chose [this flower] had chosen well.’
Why the London Regiment and London Territorial Force?
The London Regiment is a formation that has received scant scholarly attention even though it raised a record 88 infantry battalions during the Great War, the highest number for any corps during that conflict.[1] It was also distinctive in certain respects.
Each battalion was regarded as a regiment having distinct badges, uniforms, and traditions reflecting their very different lineages from their predecessor volunteer battalions. The London Regiment was an integral part of metropolitan London’s history and involvement in the Great War, as 80% of the Regiment’s men were London residents.[2] Units also recruited men from distinct areas of London, occupational groups (for example, the Civil Service, the General Post Office, and artists), social classes, and ethnic minorities (notably Scottish and Irish).
The London Regiment cannot be considered independently from the formations and Territorial Force Associations (TFA) of which it was a part. The County of London TFA was the largest TFA in the country, and the City of London TFA was probably the next largest. Together they were responsible for two of the 14 pre-war TF divisions, or roughly one territorial soldier in seven nationwide.
Contact
For more information on the project contact londonpride@kensingtons.org.uk
Updated: 19.1.2026
NOTES
[1] E.A. James, British Regiments 1914-1918 (Dallington, 1974), Table C.
[2] A. Gregory, ‘Lost generations: the impact of military casualties in Paris, London, and Berlin’, in J. Winter & J. Robert (eds), Capital Cities at War (London, 1997), p.63.