THE last post has sounded for the Kings Own Royal Border Regiment despite the best efforts of regimental chiefs, old soldiers and 30,000 people from across the historic unit's recruitment area.

At a meeting of Army colonels from across the North of England held in London, it was agreed that the KORBR and two other North West regiments would merge - but KOBRB's Colonel Mike Griffiths lost a vote on how many battalions the new North West super regiment' would contain, by five votes to one.

The reshuffle is part of a defence review announced by the Government in July, which will probably go ahead between 2006 and 2008.

Now only the intervention of the Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon can prevent the amalgamation from going ahead.

The decision to merge the 300-year-old KORBR with the other North West regiments comes after months of protest.

MPs within the regiment's recruiting area - Cumbria and north Lancashire - voiced their concerns and a petition with 30,000 signatures, asking that the regiment stayed as it was or at least kept its name, was presented to Downing Street.

The North West troops will now become part of a single regiment made up of just two battalions. In Yorkshire, three regiments would merge into one super regiment comprised of three battalions.

Another plan to merge all six of the northern regiments into groups of three battalions on each side of the Pennines was rejected by the colonels.

But Regimental Secretary Colonel Simon Strickland said that he felt let down by the outcome of the meeting.

He questioned why the two other North West regiments - the Queen's Lancashire Regiment of Manchester and the King's Regiment of Liverpool had voted to merge into only two battalions.

He said: "I feel very sad that the regiment is going to go as we know it. We also feel let down by the meeting. We thought that the regiments in the West would have voted together as a group as we had hoped, frankly I am at a loss to understand it."

He went on to say that a regiment made up of only two battalions would limit career opportunities for its soldiers because they would not have the same variety of duties as they would have in a regiment with more battalions.

It is not yet clear whether the KORBR will retain its name following the merger.

But Colonel Strickland said he would be fighting to keep the KORBR's identity at negotiations between the three North West regiments on Wednesday, October 20.

He added that he wanted to ensure that the defence reshuffle was shared out fairly throughout the UK and urged local MPs to make their opinions known.

"It is a vastly unhappy decision and we want to find that it is spread out equally throughout the army.

"The young soldiers want to get this sorted out as quickly as possible. The old soldiers will be extremely upset by the changes," he said.

KORBR Kendal branch chairman and secretary Brian Coulter, who served at the D-Day landings, said he too was saddened by the news.

"All the ex-servicemen will be very disappointed, it is sad that we are going by the wayside," he said.