The Regiment was first formed in 1688, in Devon as the Peyton's Regiment of Foot, named after the commanding colonel Sir Richard Peyton.Lancashire Fusiliers during WW1. The Regiment raised 30 Battalions and was awarded 63 Battle Honours and 6 Victoria Crosses losing 13,640 men during the course of the war. From 1915 to October 1916 the famous author J. R. R. Tolkien served as a second leutenant in the 11th Battalion of the Regiment until he contracted ‘trench fever’ during the Battle of the Somme.