English: Stained glass window, Warriors' Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent. ( Buffs Chapel (The Queen’s Own Buffs), the chapel is also the resting place of the old colours of the regiment dating back to 1848 together with the colours of the Canadian Buffs, the last colours of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and more recently those of The Queen’s Own Buffs and the 2nd Battalion The Queen’s Regiment. The Buffs can trace their history back to 1572 (during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I) when 300 men, who had volunteered for service in Holland to assist in a struggle against the Spanish, were armed as pikemen and dressed in buff-coloured leather jerkins. They were officially linked to East Kent in 1782 and their first “depot” in Canterbury was in 1817. The regiment has taken part in nearly all of the major conflicts and in 1958 began their last operational tour in Aden.

The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and was one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, being third in order of precedence (ranked as the 3rd Regiment of the line). The regiment provided distinguished service over a period of almost four hundred years accumulating one hundred and sixteen battle honours. In 1881, under the Childers Reforms, it was known as the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and later, on 3 June 1935, was renamed the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

In 1961, it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form the Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, which was later merged, on 31 December 1966, with the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment, the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) to form the Queen's Regiment. This regiment was, in turn, amalgamated with the Royal Hampshire Regiment, in September 1992, to create the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires).

On June 23rd 1962 the Colonel-in-Chief, King IX Frederick of Denmark, presented new colours to the battalion.

Colonels-in-Chief The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)

The Colonels-in-Chief were as follows:

• 1689–1708 Prince George of Denmark KG (husband of Queen Anne)
• 1906–1914 HM King Frederick VIII of Denmark, KG, GCB, GCVO
• 1914–1947 HM King Christian X of Denmark, KG, GCB, GCVO
• 1947–1961 HM King Frederick IX of Denmark, KG, GCB, GCVO

Colonels

The Colonels were as follows:

The Holland Regiment

• 1665–1668 Col. Robert Sidney
• 1668–1673 Maj-Gen. Sir Walter Vane
• 1673–1682 Lt-Gen. the Duke of Buckingham
• 1682–1684 Col. Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield
• 1684–1685 Lt-Gen. the Duke of Buckingham
• 1685–1688 Brig-Gen. Sir Theophilus Oglethorpe

Prince George of Denmark's Regiment (1689-1708)

• 1688–1707 Gen. Charles Churchill
• 1707–1708 F.M. John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll

Named after the current Colonel or The Buffs (1708-1751)

• 1708-1711 FM the Duke of Argyll
• 1711–1713 Col. John Selwyn
• 1713–1715 Brig-Gen. Archibald Douglas, 2nd Earl of Forfar
• 1716–1725 Gen. Sir Charles Wills, KB (also 1st Guards, 30th Foot)
• 1726–1729 Col. Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry
• 1729–1737 Lt-Gen. William Tatton
• 1737–1749 Lt-Gen. Thomas Howard
• 1749–1751 F.M. Sir George Howard, KB

3rd Regiment of Foot, or The Buffs - (1751)

• 1751–1763 FM Sir George Howard
• 1763–1764 Col. John Craufurd
• 1764–1768 Maj-Gen. Ralph Burton
• 1768–1779 F.M. Sir Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, KB
• 1779–1782 Lt-Gen. William Style

3rd (the East Kent) Regiment of Foot - (1782)

• 1782–1786 Lt-Gen. William Style
• 1786–1809 Gen. Thomas Hall
• 1809–1815 Gen. Charles Leigh
• 1815–1829 Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, GCB, GCH
• 1829–1832 Gen. Sir George Don, GCB, GCH
• 1832–1845 Gen. Kenneth Alexander Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham, GCB
• 1845–1854 Gen. Sir Henry King, CB, KCH, KC
• 1854–1857 Lt-Gen. Sir Nathaniel Thorn, KCB, KH
• 1857 Lt-Gen. John Wharton Frith/ 1857 Lt-Gen. Nicholas Wodehouse
• 1857 Maj-Gen. Sir Henry Havelock, KCB [died at Lucknow]
• 1857–1860 Lt-Gen. Berkeley Drummond
• 1860–1863 Gen. The Hon. Charles Grey
• 1863–1864 Lt-Gen. John Wharton Frith
• 1864–1870 Lt-Gen. Day Hort Macdowall
• 1870–1874 Lt-Gen. The Hon. Sir James Lindsay, KCMG
• 1874–1882 Gen. William Craig Emilius Napier

The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) - (1881)

• 1882–1909 Gen. Sir Julius Augustus Robert Raines, GCB
• 1909 Maj-Gen. Frederick Taylor Hobson
• 1909–1914 Maj-Gen. Robert George Kekewich^[1]
• 1914–1928 Gen. Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget, GCB, KCVO
• 1928–1937 Maj-Gen. Sir Arthur Lynden Lynden-Bell, KCB, KCMG

The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) - (1935)

• 1937–1943 Maj-Gen. Sir John Kennedy, GBE, CB, CMG, DSO
• 1943–1953 Maj-Gen. The Hon. Percy Gerald Scarlett, CB, MC
• 1953–1961 Maj-Gen. Valentine Boucher, CB, CBE [later Dep. Col. Queen's Own Buffs]

Coats of arms depicted

5 lancet windows, left to right:

• 1: top: Arms of Canterbury; 3rd: Howard, Earl of Norfolk; 4: Wodehouse, Earl of Kimberley; 5: Arms of Lindsay, Earl of Crawford (Quarterly, 1 & 4 gules, a fess chequy argent and azure (for Lindsay); 2 & 3 or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure, debruised of a ribbon in bend sable (for Abernethy));
• 2: 3:Coat of Arms of Prince George of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Cumberland (1653-1708), consort of Queen Anne; 4: Arms of Grey, Earl Grey; 5 (bottom): arms of w:Francis Napier, 6th Lord Napier (c. 1702–1773) or his descendants, Napier quartering Scott of Buccleuch;
• 3: top: arms of w:Thomas Pitt, 2nd Earl of Londonderry (1717-1734), Pitt quartering Ridgeway.
• 4: top: Howard; 2nd: Clinton; 3rd: King Frederic IX of Danemark (1899-1972), reigned 1947-1972; 4: Drummond (Or, three bars wavy gules quartering Or, a lion's head erased within a double tressure flory counter-flory gules (coat of augmentation for Drummond))
• 5: bottom: Bell (?).