The Royal Berkshire Regiment, with its Museum in Brock Barracks, Oxford Road, Reading, and The Wiltshire Regiment, whose Museum was in Le Marchant Barracks, London Road, Devizes, merged in 1959 to become the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire). However the two Museums continued on their separate sites for a number of years.
In the 1970s a new united site for both Regimental Headquarters and Museum
was sought in Salisbury. The Wardrobe, at first rejected on the grounds of the expense of conversion, was eventually selected and a 99 year lease was purchased from the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury Cathedral. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment Museum was officially opened by HRH Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment, on 29 July 1982. As part of a programme to widen the appeal of the Museum the name 'Redcoats in the Wardrobe' was adopted in 1991.
In 1994 the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment amalgamated with the Gloucestershire Regiment to form the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. The Museum changed its name to reflect this, becoming the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (Salisbury) Museum. The Museum was (and is) only concerned with the Berkshire and Wiltshire elements, the collection and archives of the Gloucestershire Regiment are housed in the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Custom House, Gloucester GL1 2HE.
In 2005 the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment became the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry as a prelude to yet further amalgamation. In February 2007 it merged with a number of other regiments to form The Rifles, with the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment becoming part of the 1st Battalion. The Museum therefore changed its name again to the present title of The Rifles (Berkshire and Wiltshire) Museum.
