Artists' Rifles

The Artists' Rifles was formed in 1859 as part of the great Volunteer Corps. The Corps was officially named "The 38th Middlesex (Artists) Rifle Volunteers", and its first effective Commanding Officers were artists Henry Wyndham Phillips and Fredrick Leighton who later, as Frederick, Lord Leighton, was President of the Royal Academy. It comprised various professional painters, sculptors, engravers, musicians, architects and actors raised to defend the British Isles from a French invasion. Other prominent people in those early days were John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, and William Morris. Amongst their latter-day successors were Noel Coward and Sir Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb. In 1937 when the Regiment was posted from the 2nd (London) Brigade to a new formation, 'The Officer Producing Group', the title was officially simplified to 'the Artists Rifles', the apostrophe was officially dropped from 'Artists' in that year.

In the 20th century, the Artists Rifles was a popular unit with volunteers and attracted recruits from public schools and universities. Over fifteen thousand men passed through the battalion during the two World Wars, with more than ten thousand becoming officers and serving in almost every unit of the British Army. The battalion fought in France in World War I, its battle honours include Passchendaele, the Somme 1918, Cambrai 1918, Pursuit to Mons, and suffered higher casualties than those of any other battalion. Members of the Regiment won eight Victoria Crosses, fifty-six Distinguished Service Orders and over eight hundred Military Cross medals. Other noted artists who were members included William Lee-Hankey, brothers John and Paul Nash, Eric Kennington and Cosmo Clark. When it was decided in 1947 to resurrect the Special Air Service as a territorial unit, 21 SAS was formed out of the Artists' Rifles. They, in turn, gave birth to the Regular 22 SAS that we know today.