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In contrast to the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force the British Army does not include royal in its title, because of its roots as a collection of disparate units.
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After the civil war, parliament assumed control of the Army, and standing companies based on Cromwells New Model Army formed the concept of the first regiments. Cromwell's companies did not yet assume the unique names that came later to be associated with British Army Regiments, instead they would name their companies after psalms or biblical phrases, or were often identified with the gentleman who had raised the company, eg Monck's Regiment of Foot. This particular unit is notable because after the end of the civil war it was barracked in London, and was involved in defending parliment when it voted for the restoration, this unit is now known as the Coldstream Guards.
With the Restoration of Charles II the concept of standing regiments found favour with the King. As well as retaining some existing loyal standing units, he raised his own, one of the first being the First or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards, nowadays shortened to Grenadier Guards[?]. On Jan 26th 1661 Charles II issued the warrant that officially founded the British Army.
The oldest surviving regiment in the British Army is the Honourable Artillery Company (given a royal charter in 1537), now a Territorial Army[?] unit. It is not considered the most senior, however, because it fought on the side of Parliament in the Civil War and so didn't have unbroken service to the crown. This honour instead goes to the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers[?], which was founded in 1539. The oldest surviving regular unit is the Royal Scots[?], founded in 1633.
Since 1962, when the last period of conscription (National Service) ended, the army has been a wholly professional force of volunteers. About one quarter of the Army is provided by the part-time members of the Territorial Army.
The standard issue individual weapon is the SA80, with the variant LSW providing extra firepower.
See:
Land units of the British Armed Forces which are not part of the British Army include;
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump