A Brief History of the King's Royal Rifle Corps

The 60th Royal American Regiment was born from an audacious idea: recruit American colonists to fight the French and their Native American allies on terrain where British redcoats faltered. These woodsmen, expert marksmen schooled in irregular warfare, earned General Wolfe's legendary praise during the Quebec campaign, granting them the motto that would echo through two centuries: "Swift and Bold." Lt.-General Sir Edward Hutton, who would later become the first commander of the Australian Army, tells their story with the particular authority of a man who rose through these ranks. From the forests of colonial North America to Wellington's Peninsular divisions, from the Punjab to the Boer War, the regiment's evolution charts both tactical innovation and imperial ambition. The narrative, written as the First World War began, reads partly as tribute and partly as elegy for a military culture already passing into history. This is regimental history in the Edwardian mold: proud, panoramic, and unapologetically devoted to the men who gave their courage a name.