The British Army is a very singular institution. Born in 1661 in the shadow of Cromwell's hated and discredited 'New Model', it survived many years of political prejudice, parliamentary suspicion, and public hostility, and by its resolution in action and its patience in adversity sustained an often careless people. Not until this century has it achieved acceptance as an indispensable and highly professional instrument of national security, founded on the principle of voluntary service and on a uniquely British regimental system. Here, for the first time in a single volume, is presented a record of this remarkable institution, a vade-mecum to its curious origins and complex development from the first Standing Regiments of Charles II's 'Guards and Garrisons' to the present day. A Companion to the British Army is not a history. It is a wide-ranging work of reference which provides in absorbing detail (and with often surprising asides) the essential facts about an elusive but fascinating quarry. It is a book for both military buffs and the general reader, at once entertaining and instructive; for the British Army is its own best historian...