Lamenting the loss of our county regiments

SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, November 27) laments that there are only five battalions of Foot Guards.

At least the Guards, however, have been able to keep their identity and traditions. Our English county regiments, with their equally long and glorious histories, have not been so lucky.

Since the Sixties these regiments have been disbanded or amalgamated; famous corps such as The Buffs, Glorious Glosters, Green Howards, Middlesex Diehards and Faithfull Durhams have been airbrushed out of our cultural history.

The Tories started the process and it has continued, with the help of Labour and the Liberal Democrats, to this day.

John M Dunkin

London W11

A drum of the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, used by a re-enactment group