News that the infantry is to lose four battalions has led to speculation that at least one of them is likely to be from the Prince of Wales's Division, of which the locally recruited 1st Battalion The Royal Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Berkshire Regiment is one.

Other regiments in the division which all have a single regular battalion are: The Devon and Dorset Regiment, The Royal Regiment of Wales, The Royal Welch Fusiliers, the Cheshire Regiment and the Staffordshire Regiment, as well as the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters.

The Cheshires are based at Bulford and the Staffords are based at Tidworth. They both escaped amalgamation in 1994 when the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, itself formed from the Wiltshire and Berkshire county regiments, amalgamated with the Gloucestershire Regiment to become the RGBW.

The smart money says that the two regiments from Wales are likely to form a single regiment.

The remaining five will join in one big regiment.

This would be made up of three or four regular and one TA battalion and revive the ancient name of the Wessex Regiment.

The infantry has been given until October to consult and work out details for the implementation of the new structure.

The Army Board will then issue its final direction on the future of the infantry.

Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mike Jackson, wrote an open letter to the army.

"There will be some uncertainty for a while, I'm afraid that is unavoidable, and we'll get on with it as fast as we can," he said.

In the armoured regiments it now seem likely that seven Challenger 2 regiments, including the King's Royal Hussars based at Tidworth, are likely to lose one squadron of tanks each.

They will be replaced by an armoured reconnaissance squadron. This would give each armoured or mechanised brigade its own armoured recce element.