THE Royal Green Jackets only have days left in existence before the regiment is merged, rebadged and renamed.
From tomorrow, the Green Jackets will be no more as they become part of the Army's largest infantry regiment, The Rifles.
The changes - announced last year - come as the Ministry of Defence begins its reorganisation of the infantry. One of the causes for change is to bring Territorial Army battalions more closely in line with the regular Army.
In Oxford, the Green Jackets' TA infantry battalion, the Royal Rifle Volunteers, will be marking the event with a ceremony at their headquarters at Slade Park Barracks on Saturday.
Officers and soldiers on parade will be presented with their new cap badges, belts and new rank slides. They will be one of two TA battalions included in The Rifles, along with the Rifle Volunteers.
Major Terry Roper, the unit's welfare officer, said: "It will be a sad day for the Royal Green Jackets - but we also have an exciting future ahead of us with the new regiment, especially because we will be called The Rifles, and this goes back to Napoleonic times. We can live with that.
"We will still be riflemen, will still wear our green jackets and black buttons and march at our customary double time, 144 paces to the minute.
"We will have lost very little and are just changing our name.
"We have always been a forward thinking regiment.
"We hope our strong links with the local community will continue."
Commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Damian Griffin said: "This has been a major reorganisation for all of us, but is one that will benefit the Army immensely, bringing the regular and TA battalions together as one regiment allowing us to create the very best regiment of infantry."
The new regiment will also include the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, the Light Infantry, and the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry.
Parades will be held throughout the country and overseas including Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last June, the Green Jackets marched through the centre Oxford for the final time to perform their last freedom of entry to the city.
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