Campaigners have been praised for helping save the name of a centuries-old regiment.

Top-brass soldiers and MPs believe the groudswell of local support for the drive to retain the Duke of Wellington regiment has kept its name alive in the overhaul of the armed forces by Defence Minister Geoff Hoon.

He said the 302-year-old unit, which recruits in Bradford, will be merged into a new super Yorkshire Regiment.

High ranking soldiers feared The Dukes would be for the chop as Mr Hoon reduced the number of infantry battalions from 40 to 36.

Mr Hoon told Parliament: "The move to larger, multi-regiments that these changes bring about, is the only sustainable way in which to structure the infantry for the long term."

Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter, Colonel of the Regiment, said "Without the support of the campaigners I doubt if we would have been in this position.

"They have kept the regiment alive."

In October, campaigners travelled to the Houses of Parliament to hand Mr Hoon a 3,000-signature protest petition urging him not to disband the Dukes, which recruits in Bradford.

The new Yorkshire Regiment will be made up of three battalions including the Green Howards, the Prince of Wales Own regiment, and the Duke of Wellingtons.

Sir Evelyn said: "The name lives on and the battalion will be known colloquially as The Dukes.

"The news has come with considerable relief because there was a threat that the new regiment would be reduced to two battalions.

"We were sitting on the edge of our seats listening to Mr Hoon. When we knew there would be three, there was relief," he said.

MP Christine McCafferty, one of the campaign leaders, said "people power" had persuaded Army top-brass to retain the Dukes.

Ms McCafferty, Labour MP for Calder Valley, said: "I am over the moon. When the proposed cuts were announced back in July, it did not look very good.

"I really thought there was a chance the Dukes would be disbanded. But we've campaigned for it and the support of people have won the day. It really is the product of team-work. My optimism did increase over time and I am absolutely delighted about the announcement."

The Dukes will be known as the 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Duke of Wellington's).

Mr Hoon said in his statement yesterday that the changes were necessary to create a modern army.

He said: "The move to larger, multi-battalion regiments is the only sustainable way in which to structure the infantry for the long term."

Decisions about retaining regalia, such as cap badges, still have to be decided but the new Yorkshire Regiment would have a new cap badge.

Campaigners who listened to the announcement in the Volunteer Arms in Lawkholme Lane, Keighley, had a mixed reaction.

Former Duke soldier 86-year-old Dennis Bailey, from East Morton, who was at Dunkirk with the regiment in 1940, said: "I was very worried the regiment would go, but I'm happy they have kept the name."

But Mary Lister, of Keighley, who has been spearheading the campaign locally, said: "It is satisfying to know they appreciate our campaign and I thank the army for that."

But she was unhappy with the decision and said the campaign would continue to keep the regiment as an independent unit.

And Christine Roff-Dobson, 57, of Keighley, whose uncle Horace Roff, was killed, aged 19, in November 1917, serving with the Dukes, said the news was devastating.

"We will fight on - this is not over by a long way. Men have died for the Dukes - they fought and beat Napoleon - this is our history. What has happened is distasteful.

"They are being asked now to die for the regiment and at the same time the Government is killing it."