Suffolk in parentheses

One of the really interesting things I have discovered whilst researching 142nd Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps, is that there there is absolutely no evidence that the Regiment ever used a country designation in parentheses to their official title after their conversion to armour.

Whilst they started life as 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, after becoming 142 RAC, they did not adopt a county title such as seen in the image seen here. It appears that in some memoranda to certain UK Commands during the war, that county titles for the RAC were encouraged to help keep the history and traditions of their previous units alive. However, some commands expressed forbade county titles as they felt that the newly formed Royal Armoured Corps should be a completely new organisation and should have a fresh start at building its own history.

One notable exception is 141 RAC who insisted on using the title of ‘The Buffs’ in brackets after their RAC title (and they too retained their old cap badges throughout). Certainly, there is no official documentation to suggest that 142 RAC ever adopted the designation of ‘Suffolk’ in their title and that it’s usage in present-day terminology, may have stemmed from publications such as that seen here which were printed in the 1960s to aid modellers with their colours schemes.

Certainly, the Regimental History never mentioned such nomenclature but here, the colour schemes are correct here and a couple of photographs of Mk. I, II and III Churchills of 142 RAC in Tunisia bear this out, but I cannot find the county title being used. Personally, I prefer the unofficial name given to the Regiment by the Canadians of the ‘Suffolk Tank Regiment’