National Memorial Arboretum 2024 - Durham Light Infantry

 The Durham Light Infantry memorial features a larger-than-life bronze statue of a DLI bugler symbolising  the moment of the ceasefire in Korea in 1953. It was unveiled in July 2012 together with a twin memorial in front of the Town Hall in the city of Durham. 

Durham Light Infantry Memorial

The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) was formed in 1881 with the amalgamation of the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the 106th Regiment of Foot (Bombay Light Infantry). 

During the First World War the 22 Battalions of the DLI saw active service on the Western Front (at Ypres, Loos, Arras, Messines, Cambrai, the Somme and Passchendaele), in Italy, Egypt, Salonika and India. They were awarded 29 battle honours and won six Victoria Crosses. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 13,290 DLI  officers and men lost during the conflict. 

In the Second World War 10 DLI battalions saw active service overseas in France, Burma, North Africa, Italy, and France and Germany. In May 1940 in Belgium, Richard Annand of the 2nd Battalion DLI became the first soldier of the Second World War to win the Victoria Cross. Another would be awarded to Adam Wakenshaw for his actions at Mersa Matruh, Egypt, in June 1942. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 3,094 DLI  officers and men lost during the conflict. 

Those losses included Private Matthew Stephenson, 8th Battalion DLI,  who was lost as a POW when the SS Scillin was torpedoed in November 1942. 

Field Marshall Montgomery wrote of the Durham Light Infantry;

Of all the infantry regiments in the British Army, the DLI was one most closely associated with myself during the war. The DLI Brigade [151st Brigade] fought under my command from Alameim to Germany ...It is a magnificent regiment. Steady as a rock in battle and absolutely reliable on all occasions. The fighting men of Durham are splendid soldiers; they excel in the hard-fought battle and they always stick it out to the end; they have gained their objectives and held their positions even when all their officers have been killed and condition were almost unendurable.

The The Durham Light Infantry memorial bears an inscription of a quote by Montgomery of Alamein;

There maybe some Regiments as good but I know of none better.

Durham Light Infantry Memorial
Montgomery Inscription

Durham Light Infantry Memorial
WW1 and WW2 Battle Honours

The DLI would see active service in Korea in 1952-1953. Twenty-four soldiers were killed or died of wounds and three men were missing, presumed killed in action, as their bodies were never found. 

The Durham Light Infantry were on active service in 1958 during the Cyprus Emergency and from 1965 to 1966 in Borneo. On 26 February 1966 the D.L.I. suffered its last combat fatality when Private Thomas Griffiths was killed. 

In 1968 the Durham Light Infantry amalgamated with three other country light infantry regiments to form the Light Infantry. 

Durham Light Infantry Memorial IJ