British Army

British Army
Badge of the British Army[1] Logo since 2018[2]
Founded	1 April 1707; 318 years ago (1707-04-01)[3][4][note 1]
Country	Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1922–present)
Type	Army
Role	Land warfare
Size	73,847 regular forces personnel (January 2025)[6] 4,127 Gurkhas (January 2025)[6] 25,742 volunteer reserve personnel (January 2025)[6]
Part of	British Armed Forces
March	List of marches of the British Army
Equipment	List of equipment of the British Army
Website	www.army.mod.uk
Commanders
Head of the Armed Forces	King Charles III
Chief of the General Staff	General Sir Roland Walker
Deputy Chief of the General Staff	Lieutenant General David Eastman
Army Sergeant Major	Warrant Officer Class 1 John Miller[7]
Insignia
War flag
Non-ceremonial flag

British Army of the British Armed Forces
Components
Army (units and formations current regiments) Army Reserve
Administration
Army Headquarters
Overseas
British Army Germany British Forces Cyprus British Forces South Atlantic Islands British Forces Gibraltar British Forces Brunei
Personnel
Senior officers Officer insignia Other ranks insignia
Equipment
Current equipment
History
History Timeline Recruitment
Location
Installations
United Kingdom portal
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As of 1 January 2025,^[update] the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Gurkhas, 25,742 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,697 "other personnel", for a total of 108,413.^[8]

The British Army traces back to 1707 and the formation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain which joined the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into a single state and, with that, united the English Army and the Scots Army as the British Army.^[9][10] The English Bill of Rights 1689 and Scottish Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army.^[11] Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief.^[12] The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff.^[13]

At its inception, being composed primarily of cavalry and infantry, the British Army was one of two Regular Forces (there were also separate Reserve Forces) within the British military (those parts of the British Armed Forces tasked with land warfare, as opposed to the naval forces),^[14] with the other having been the Ordnance Military Corps (made up of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and the Royal Sappers and Miners) of the Board of Ordnance, which along with the originally civilian Commissariat Department, stores and supply departments, as well as barracks and other departments, were absorbed into the British Army when the Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855. Various other civilian departments of the board were absorbed into the War Office.^[15][16][17]

The British Army has seen action in major wars between the world's great powers, including the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the First and Second World Wars. Britain's victories in most of these decisive wars allowed it to influence world events and establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers.^[18][19] Since the end of the Cold War, the British Army has been deployed to a number of conflict zones, often as part of an expeditionary force, a coalition force or part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation.^[20]

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