Yorks’ Freedom goes on in Warminster (From This Is Wiltshire)

Warminster Town Council is to update the Freedom of the Town awarded to soldiers from 3 Yorks, so the honour continues to apply to the regiment when it is re-named under an Army re-organisation.

The Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced last week that soldiers from 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment are to become the regiment’s 1st Battalion.

The name change is the result of a merger between the two battalions, with the new 1st Battalion expected to contain most of the personnel from 3 Yorks in a 650-strong battalion at Battlesbury Barracks in Warminster.

Following the regiment’s return from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, during which it suffered casualties including the loss of six men in one incident, Warminster town councillors voted unanimously in Septem-ber to award the 3rd Battalion the Freedom of the Town.

It allows 3 Yorks to parade ‘with colours flying, bayonets fixed and bands playing’. The council will hold a special meeting on Monday at which it is expected to agree to amend the Freedom Scroll so it will now read: “The Freedom of Entry into the Town of Warminster be granted to 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment (Duke of Wellington’s) to continue when it becomes the 1st Battalion.”

A flag lowering and raising ceremony to mark the change of name from 3 Yorks to 1 Yorks will take place this summer. The regiment’s 2nd Battalion, which had been expected to replace 3 Yorks at Battlesbury Barracks, will now move from Munster to Cyprus.