{{Short description|Unit of the British Army Reserve}} {{About|the British regiment|the album by the indie group Piano Magic|Artists' Rifles (album){{!}}''Artists' Rifles'' (album)}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Infobox military unit |unit_name= The Artists Rifles |image= UK SAS (badge).svg |caption=Special Air Service Insignia worn by 21 SAS(R) |image_size=150px |dates=1859–1945<br /> 1947–present |country= {{flag|United Kingdom}} |allegiance= |branch= Army Reserve |type=Special forces |role= Special operations |size= |command_structure=United Kingdom Special Forces |garrison= Regent's Park Barracks, London, UK |garrison_label= |nickname= |motto= |colors= |colors_label= |march= |mascot= |equipment= |equipment_label= |battles= {{unbulleted list|Boer War|First World War|Malayan Emergency|War on terror<br/>{{*}}War in Afghanistan}} |anniversaries= |decorations=8 VCs, 56 DSOs, 893 MCs, 26 DFCs, 15 AFCs, 6 DCMs, 15 MMs, 14 MSMs, 564 MIDs (First World War) |disbanded= <!-- Commanders --> |commander1= |commander1_label= |commander2= |commander2_label= |commander3= |commander3_label= |notable_commanders=Henry Wyndham Phillips and Frederic Leighton <!-- Insignia --> |identification_symbol= |identification_symbol_label= }} [[File:Artists Rifles Memorial.jpg|thumb|Artists Rifles Memorial at Burlington House, London]]
The '''21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve)''', historically known as '''The Artists Rifles''',{{refn | group = "nb" | Originally the regiment was designated as '''The Artists' Rifles''' until the apostrophe was officially dropped from the full title in 1937, as it was so often misused.<ref name = "Website">{{cite web |title=Regiment page|publisher=Artists Rifles Association |date=2016| url=https://artistsriflesassociation.org/regiment/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405052252/http://artistsriflesassociation.org/regiment-artists-rifles.htm | archive-date=5 April 2023 | url-status=live}}</ref>}} is a regiment of the British Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to '''21 SAS(R)'''.
Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regiment saw active service during the Second Boer War and the First World War, earning a number of battle honours. During the Second World War, it was used as an officer training unit. The regiment was disbanded in 1945, but in 1947 it was re-established to resurrect the Special Air Service Regiment.<ref>Gregory, p. 297</ref> Together with 23 Special Air Service Regiment (Reserve) (23 SAS(R)), it forms the Special Air Service (Reserve) (SAS(R)) part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) directorate.<ref>{{cite web |title=21 & 23 Special Air Service (SAS) |url=https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/uk-special-forces-reserve/21-23-sas-r/ |website=British Army |access-date=26 August 2020}}</ref>
== History == ===Formation and 19th century=== [[File:London - Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteers' drill hall (former), Duke's Road, Holborn 2014-10-30 (15531820368).jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Place, 17 Duke's Road, Bloomsbury, built 1888 as the headquarters of the 20th Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteer Corps]] thumb|Former cap badge with profiles of Roman gods Mars and Minerva The regiment was established in 1859, part of the widespread volunteer movement which developed in the face of potential French invasion after Felice Orsini's attack on Napoleon III was linked to Britain.{{Sfn | Gregory | 2006|p=xvi}} The group was organised in London by Edward Sterling, an art student, and comprised various professional painters, musicians, actors, architects and others involved in creative endeavours; a profile it strove to maintain for some years. It was established on 28 February 1860 as the '''38th Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteer Corps''', with headquarters at Burlington House.<ref name = "Website" /> Its first commanders were the painters Henry Wyndham Phillips and Frederic Leighton. The unit's badge, designed by J. W. Wyon, shows the heads of the Roman gods Mars and Minerva in profile.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.artistsriflesassociation.org/images/Mars-Minerva.jpg | title = Mars-Minerva |format=JPEG | publisher = Artists Rifles Association}}</ref> Until 1914 the regimental full dress uniform was light grey with white facings, silver buttons and braid. This distinctive uniform dated from the regiment's foundation as a volunteer unit. After the First World War, standard khaki was the normal dress.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://artistsriflesassociation.org/regiment-artists-rifles.htm |title= Artists Rifles Association |access-date=30 December 2014}}</ref>
In September 1880, the corps became the '''20th Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteer Corps''', with headquarters at Duke's Road, off Euston Road, London (now The Place, home of the Contemporary Dance Trust). The drill hall was designed by Robert William Edis, the commanding officer.<ref name=NHLE>{{NHLE|num=1342089|desc= The Place and attached railings, Camden}}</ref> It was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.<ref name=NHLE/>
It formed the 7th Volunteer Battalion of the Rifle Brigade from 1881 until 1891 and the 6th Volunteer Battalion from 1892 to 1908. During this period, The Artists' Rifles fought in the Second Boer War as part of the City Imperial Volunteers.{{Sfn | Gregory | 2006|p= 80}}
After the 1860s the voluntary recruitment basis of the regiment gradually broadened to include professions other than artistic ones. By 1893 lawyers and architects made up 24% of the unit, doctors followed with 10% and civil engineers 6%. Sculptors and painters totaled about 5%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://artistsriflesassociation.org/regiment-artists-rifles.htm|title=Artists Rifles Association|access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Nash, John (RA) - 'Over The Top'. 1st Artists' Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917 - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''Over The Top'', 1918, oil on canvas, by John Nash]]
===20th century=== thumb|Player's cigarette card showing a soldier of the Artists Rifles in the new field service dress Following the formation of the Territorial Force, the Artists' Rifles was one of 26 volunteer battalions in the London and Middlesex areas that combined to form the new London Regiment.{{refn | group = "nb" | The Honourable Artillery Company and The Inns of Court Regiment were intended to become the 26th and 27th Battalions of the London Regiment. They were not satisfied with their high numbers so ignored them.{{Sfn | Westlake | 1986|p= 233}}}} It became the '''28th (County of London) Battalion''' of The London Regiment on 1 April 1908.{{Sfn | Gregory | 2006|p= 96}} thumb|right|Terracotta doorway at the former Artists' Rifles HQ
thumb|left|King Nicholas I Petrovic of Montenegro and General Sir Douglas Haig inspecting the guard of honour, 28th London Regiment, Artists Rifles, Beauquesne, France, November 1916.
The Artists' Rifles was a popular unit for volunteers. It had been increased to twelve companies in 1900 and was formed into three sub-battalions in 1914, and recruitment was eventually restricted by recommendation from existing members of the battalion. It particularly attracted recruits from public schools and universities; on this basis, following the outbreak of the First World War, a number of enlisted members of The Artists' Rifles were selected to be officers in other units of the 7th Division.<ref name=Website/> This exercise was so successful that, early in 1915, selected Artists' officers and NCOs were transferred to run a separate Officers Training Corps, in which poet Wilfred Owen trained before posting to the Manchester Regiment,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29617 |supp=y|page=5726|date=6 June 1916}}</ref> the remainder being retained as a fighting unit. Over fifteen thousand men passed through the battalion during the war, more than ten thousand of them becoming officers.{{Sfn | Higham |2006|p= xviii}} The battalion eventually saw battle in France in 1917 and 1918. Casualties suffered by members of this battalion and amongst officers who had trained with The Artists' Rifles before being posted to other regiments were 2,003 killed, 3,250 wounded, 533 missing and 286 prisoners of war.<ref name=Website/> Ex-Members of the Regiment won eight Victoria Crosses (though none did so while serving with the Regiment), fifty-six DSOs and over a thousand other awards for gallantry.{{Sfn | Higham |2006|p= xviii}}
In the early 1920s, the unit was reconstituted as an infantry regiment within the Territorial Army, as the '''28th County of London Regiment'''. In 1937, this regiment became part of '''The Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade'''.{{Sfn | Gregory | 2006|p= 253}}
The regiment was not deployed during the Second World War, functioning again as an Officers Training Corps throughout the war.<ref name=Website/>
===History as 21 SAS (R)=== thumb|right|190px|A 21 SAS soldier after a night parachute drop exercise in Denmark, 1955 The unit was disbanded in 1945, but reformed in The Rifle Brigade in January 1947 and transferred to The Army Air Corps in July as the '''21st Special Air Service Regiment (Artists Rifles)'''.{{Sfn | Gregory | 2006|p=297}} The number 21 SAS was chosen to perpetuate two disbanded wartime regiments, 2 SAS and 1 SAS. The unit was active during the Malayan Emergency and in many subsequent conflicts. In 1952, members of The Artists Rifles who had been involved in special operations in Malaya formed 22 SAS Regiment, the regular special forces regiment – at the time, the only time a Territorial Army unit had been used to form a unit in the Regular Army.{{Sfn |Shortt |1994|pp=16–17}}
In 1985, David Stirling, founder of the SAS, commented: "There is one often neglected factor which I would like to emphasize - the importance of the two SAS Territorial regiments. At the start of the Second World War, and during its early stages, it was the ideas and initiatives of these amateur soldiers which led to the creation of at least two units within the Special Forces and gave a particular elan to others. When, however, a specialist unit becomes part of the military establishment, it runs the risk of being stereotyped and conventionalized. Luckily the modern SAS looks safe from this danger; it is constantly experimenting with innovative techniques, many of which stem from its Territorial regiments, drawn as they are from every walk of civilian life."<ref>Seymour, Preface</ref>
For much of the Cold War, 21 SAS's role was to provide stay-behind parties in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of western Europe, forming (alongside 23 SAS) I Corps' Corps Patrol Unit.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Regiment: The True Story of the SAS|last=Asher|first=Michael|publisher=Penguin UK|year=2008|isbn=978-0141026527|location=London}}</ref> In the case of an invasion, this Special Air Service Group would have let themselves be bypassed and stay-behind in order to collect intelligence behind Warsaw Pact lines and conduct target acquisition, and thus try to slow the enemy's advance.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Eyes on target: 'Stay-behind' forces during the Cold War|first=Tamir|last=Sinai|date=8 December 2020|journal=War in History|volume=28|issue=3|pages=681–700|doi=10.1177/0968344520914345|doi-access=free}}</ref> Peter de la Billière, who later commanded 22 SAS and then became Director Special Forces, served as their adjutant for part of this period. He later wrote: "People began to see that the Territorial SAS were first class and enhanced the reputation of the whole Regiment in a special way of their own."<ref>de la Billiere, p. 161</ref>
In early 2003, a composite squadron of about 60 soldiers of 21 SAS, including soldiers from 23 SAS, were deployed to Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rayment|first1=Sean |title=Overstretched SAS calls up part-time troops for Afghanistan |work=The Sunday Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1450394/Overstretched-SAS-calls-up-part-time-troops-for-Afghanistan.html|location=London|date=28 December 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100323000712/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1450394/Overstretched-SAS-calls-up-part-time-troops-for-Afghanistan.html |archive-date=23 March 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Rayment |first=Sean |title=SAS reservists withdrawn from Afghan front line |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7575034/SAS-reservists-withdrawn-from-Afghan-front-line.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=11 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413194545/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7575034/SAS-reservists-withdrawn-from-Afghan-front-line.html |archive-date=13 April 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> There are conflicting accounts on the role of the squadron during this time with Rayment writing in 2003 that it was "long-range reconnaissance"{{sfn|Rayment|2003}} while in 2010 Rayment writes that it was to "establish a communications network across Afghanistan and also acted as liaison teams".{{sfn|Rayment|2010}} Neville writes that they were "instrumental in early efforts to unite various warlord factions" working with the SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] and that they also provided close protection for SIS officers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Neville |first=Leigh |others=Illustrated by Peter Dennis |title=The SAS 1983–2014 |series=Elite 211 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-1472814036}}</ref>
Three 21 SAS soldiers were awarded Military Crosses as a result of fighting in Nad-e Ali in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in 2008.<ref name="hollobone">{{cite web|url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-04-20/debates/D68CC774-5960-47AC-BF53-FCF1D27B99C5/Afghanistan |title=Question By Philip Hollobone MP and answer by James Heappey, MO Min AF| website=UK Parliament |series=Hansard Volume 692 |date=20 April 2021 |accessdate=21 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Sean |first=Rayment |title=Revealed: nearly half of Special Forces could go in deepest cuts in 50 years; Full details of the biggest cuts programme to Britain's Special Forces in almost half a century can be disclosed |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9904772/Revealed-nearly-half-of-Special-Forces-could-go-in-deepest-cuts-in-50-years.html |access-date=11 January 2025 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=3 March 2013 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> A 21 SAS soldier was awarded a Conspicuous Gallantry Cross at a later date for service in Afghanistan.<ref name="hollobone"/>
On 1 September 2014, 21 and 23 SAS were moved from United Kingdom Special Forces and placed under the command of 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade.<ref>Janes International Defence Review, May 2014, p. 4</ref><ref>Army Briefing Note 120/14, NEWLY FORMED FORCE TROOPS COMMAND SPECIALIST BRIGADES, Quote . It commands all of the Army's Intelligence, Surveillance and EW assets, and is made up of units specifically from the former 1 MI Bde and 1 Arty Bde, as well as 14 Sig Regt, 21 and 23 SAS(R).</ref> The units then left that brigade before the end of 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.army.mod.uk/umbraco/Surface/Download/Get/10550|title=Force Troops Command Handbook|publisher=Ministry of Defence|access-date=11 January 2021}}</ref> Today, the two reserve regiments, 21 SAS and 23 SAS are back under the operational command of the Director Special Forces, as an integrated part of United Kingdom Special Forces.<ref>{{Cite web|title=21 & 23 SAS (Reserve)|url=https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/uk-special-forces-reserve/21-23-sas-r/|access-date=2020-12-29|website=www.army.mod.uk|language=en-GB}}</ref>
== Organisation == 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve) currently consists of:<ref name="ARQ">{{cite magazine |title=The Artists Rifles - From Pre-Raphaelites to Passchendaele |magazine=ARQ Army Reserve Quarterly |date=Autumn 2014 |page=21 |url=http://www.army.mod.uk/documents/general/ADR004124_ARQ_Autumn_2014_web.pdf |publisher=Army Media & Communication |location=Andover |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214202107/http://www.army.mod.uk/documents/general/ADR004124_ARQ_Autumn_2014_web.pdf| archive-date=14 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> * 'Cap' (Capability) Squadron (Regent's Park) * 'A' Squadron (Regent's Park) * 'C' Squadron (Basingstoke/Cambridge/Hitchin) * 'E' Squadron (Newport/Exeter)
Unlike other reserve units, 21 and 23 SAS routinely deploy on their own missions as formed units, sub-units or as small teams. Both units require attachments from various arms and services, including the Royal Corps of Signals, Intelligence Corps, Royal Logistic Corps, Adjutant General's Corps, Royal Army Medical Service and Royal Army Chaplains' Department.<ref name="auto">{{cite web | title= Who Dares Wins | url=https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=SOLDIER&pubid=1a92be17-44b0-4dd4-b740-89057cd9a275 | website=Soldier Magazine | page=34 | date=October 2025}}</ref>
==Recruitment and training== To join, personnel must be phase-two trained in another reserve or regular unit. They must first undergo the UKSF briefing course and, if successful, are mobilised to undertake a six-month, full-time selection course which runs twice a year. Those who pass routinely progress onto mission-specific training and operations. Applications to join SAS(R) are accepted from men and women, across all three services.<ref name="auto"/> Applicants with no previous military experience can apply but will first be sponsored out to a recommended local Army Reserve unit to complete basic training before being allowed to attempt selection.<ref>{{cite web | title=SAS Reserve - British Army Elite Infantry Role | Army Jobs | url=https://jobs.army.mod.uk/roles/infantry/sas-reserve/}}</ref>
==Commanding officers== * 1869–1883 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederic Leighton<ref name=LG25251>{{London Gazette|issue=25251|date=17 July 1883|page=3588}}</ref> * 1883–1902 Colonel Robert William Edis, CB<ref name=LG25251 /><ref name=LG27508>{{London Gazette| issue=27508|page=8848| date=23 December 1902}}</ref> * 1902–? Colonel W. C. Horsley<ref name=LG27508 /> * 1962-65 Sir William Macpherson<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bootland |first1=Morag |title=The Macpherson clan chief believes in family |url=https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/the-macpherson-clan-chief-believes-in-family/ |access-date=19 June 2020 |work=Scottish Field |date=14 December 2018}}</ref>
===Honorary colonels=== * 1883–1896 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederic Leighton<ref name=LG25251 /> * 1902–1927 Colonel Sir Robert William Edis, KBE, CB<ref name=LG27508 /><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28287|date=10 September 1909|page=6815}}</ref>
== Battle honours == * Second Boer War * The Great War (3 battalions): Ypres 1917, Passchendaele, Somme 1918, St. Quentin, Bapaume 1918, Arras 1918, Ancre 1918, Albert 1918, Drocourt-Quéant, Hindenburg Line, Canal du Nord, Cambrai 1918, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1914–18.<ref name=Website/>
== War memorial == The unit's war memorial in the entrance portico of the Royal Academy at Burlington House commemorates the 2,003 men who gave their lives in the Great War, with a second plaque dedicated to those who died in the Second World War.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/artists-rifles-war-memorial|title= Artists Rifles War Memorial|publisher=London remembers|access-date=28 May 2017}}</ref>
== Victoria Cross == Although no-one was awarded the VC while serving with the Artists Rifles, the following have been awarded the Victoria Cross before or after serving in the regiment:
* 2nd Lt Rupert Price Hallowes, 4th Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) * 2nd Lt Arthur James Terence Fleming-Sandes, 2nd Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment * Capt The Rev Edward Noel Mellish, Royal Army Chaplains' Department * Lt Geoffrey St George Shillington Cather, 9th Battalion, The Royal Irish Fusiliers * Lt Eugene Paul Bennett, 2nd Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment * 2nd Lt George Edward Cates, 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) * Lt Donald John Dean, 8th Battalion, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment * Lt Col Bernard William Vann, 1/8th Bn, Sherwood Foresters * Lt Col Augustus Charles Newman, No. 2 Commando
== See also == :''See also :Category:Artists' Rifles officers and :Category:Artists' Rifles soldiers''
* Army Reserve * Volunteer Force (Great Britain) * Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade
== Notes == {{Reflist|group="nb"}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == * {{Cite book |author-link= Michael Asher (explorer) | last = Asher | first = Michael | year = 2007 | title = The Regiment: The Real Story of the SAS | publisher = Viking | isbn = 978-0-67091-633-7 |quote=(republished in 2018 as ''The Regiment: The Definitive Story of the SAS'')}} * {{Cite book | last = Ballinger | first = Adam | year = 1992 | title = The Quiet Soldier | publisher = Chapmans | isbn = 978-1-85592-606-6 }} * {{Cite book | last = de la Billiere | first = Peter | year = 1995 | title = Looking for Trouble: SAS to Gulf Command| publisher = HarperCollins}} * {{Cite book | last = Farrell | first = Theo| year = 2017 | title = Unwinnable: Britain's War in Afghanistan, 2001–2014 | publisher = Bodley Head | isbn = 978-1847923462}} * {{Cite book | last = Gregory | first = Barry | year = 2006 | title = A History of The Artists Rifles 1859–1947 | publisher = Pen & Sword Books | place = Barnsley | isbn = 978-1-84415-503-3 }} * {{Cite book | last = Hacking | first = Juliet | year = 2000 | title = Princes of Victorian Bohemia | publisher = National Portrait Gallery}} * {{Cite book | last = Higham | first = S Stagoll | orig-year = 1922, Howlett & Son | title = Artists Rifles: Regimental Roll of Honour and War Record 1914–1919 | edition = 3rd | place = London | year = 2006 | publisher = Naval & Military Press | isbn = 978-1-84734-129-7 }} * {{Cite book|title=Midnight in some burning town: British Special Forces: Operations from Belgrade to Baghdad|first=Christian|last= Jennings|publisher=Cassell|year=2005|isbn=0-3043-6708-7}} * {{Cite book | last = Seymour | first = William | year = 1985 | title = British Special Forces: The Story of Britain's Undercover Soldiers| publisher = Pen and Sword}} * {{Cite book |last=Shortt |first=James G. |title=The Special Air Service |url=https://archive.org/details/specialairservic0000shor |url-access=registration |series= Men-at-Arms-Series, 116 |year=1994 |publisher=Osprey |location=London |isbn=9780850453966 }} * {{Cite book | last = Westlake | first = Ray | year = 1986 | title = The Territorial Battalions: A Pictorial History, 1859–1985 | publisher = Spellmount | place = Tunbridge Wells }} * {{Cite journal | last = Winter | first = JM | year = 1977 | title = Britain's 'Lost Generation' of the First World War | journal = Population Studies | volume = 31 | number = 3 | page = 459| doi = 10.1080/00324728.1977.10412760 | pmid = 11630506 }}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * [https://jobs.army.mod.uk/roles/infantry/sas-reserve/?role=res 21 & 23 SAS British Army Website] * {{Cite web |url=http://www.artistsriflesassociation.org/ |title=Artists Rifles Association}}
{{LondonRegiment}} {{United Kingdom Special Forces}} {{Authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
Category:British art Category:Military special forces regiments Category:Special Air Service Category:Army Reserve (United Kingdom) Category:Military units and formations established in 1859 Category:Regiments of the British Army in World War I Category:Military units and formations in London Category:Battalions of the London Regiment (1908–1938) Category:1859 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:Army reconnaissance units and formations