British Vehicle New Guinea

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Mike Cecil

Festberg (1972) shows that the 19th Infantry Battalion (The South Sydney Regiment) elected to 'go AIF' but he does not provide a GRO reference for the change, which is odd. It is the only reference I know of that claims the unit elected to 'go AIF', all others referring to it simply as 19 Inf Bn, including several date-specific references I have and the recently-published work of McKenzie-Smith on Australian units.

Getting far away from a bogged Matador, but interesting nevertheless.

Mike

The 19th Battalion still exists with a continuous lineage in the Army Reserve unit 1st/19th Bn, Royal New South Wales Regiment (1/19 RNSWR). 1/19 RNSWR is the current iteration of the amalagamated WW1 AIF 1st Battalion and the 19th AIF Bn. They are also the custodians of the battle honours of 2/1Bn AIF and 2/19 Bn AIF from WW2, but are not formed from those Bns.

Their History page states that while in Darwin, 19th Bn "was accepted into the AIF" and redesignated the "19th Aust Inf Bn AIF". This history also references Festberg as a source.