The Handbook of British Regiments (Routledge Revivals)

Christopher Chant

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134647316
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia del XX secolo

Since the creation of the standing army in 1661, when each regiment was known by the name of its current colonel, there have been many reforms and rationalizations of the British army. From 31 cavalry regiments and 113 infantry regiments in 1881, at the time of this title's first publication in 1988, the army had reduced to just 16 regiments of armour and 39 regiments of infantry through processes of absorption and amalgamation. The Handbook of British Regiments provides insight into the lineage and history of the approximately 85 regiments and corps which formed the British army towards the end of the 1980s. Comprehensive in coverage, each has a separate entry giving factual details in a layout standardized for easy comparison, including current title, colonel-in-chief, uniform and history, amongst others. A key title amongst Routledge reference reissues, this handbook provides an accessible guide to specialists as well as lay enthusiasts, and illustrates a sense of the continuity and inherited tradition of each regiment and corps.

HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY:
ORDER OF PRECEDENCE

1. The Life Guards

2. The Blues and Royals

HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY REGIMENTS 1

The Life Guards

Colonel-in-Chief

HM The Queen

Colonel

Major-General Lord Fitzalan Howard

Battle honours

Dettingen Peninsula Waterloo Tel-el-Kebir Egypt 1882 Relief of Kimberley Paardeberg South Africa 1899–1900 Mons Le Cateau Retreat from Mons Marne 1914 Aisne 1914 Messines 1914 Armentieres 1914 Ypres 1914, ′15, ′17 Langemarck 1914 Gheluvelt Nonne Boschen St Julien Frezenberg Somme 1916, ′18 Albert 1916 Arras 1916, ′18 Scarpe 1917, ′18 Broodseinde Poelcappelle Passchendaele Bapaume 1918 Hindenburg Line Selle France and Flanders 1914–18 Mont Pincon Souleuvre Noireau Crossing Amiens 1944 Brussels Neerpelt Nederrijn Nijmegen Lingen Bentheim North-West Europe 1944–45 Baghdad 1941 Iraq 1941 Palmyra Syria 1941 El Alamein North Africa 1942–43 Arezzo Advance to Florence Gothic Line Italy 1944

Regimental headquarters

RHQ Household Cavalry, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London.

Regimental museum

Household Cavalry Museum, Combermere Barracks, Windsor, Berkshire.

Regimental marches

(slow) Anonymous (attributed to the Duchess of Kent), and Men of Harlech (traditional) (quick) Milanollo (Val Hamm)

Regimental motto

Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense (Evil be to Him who Evil Thinks)

Nicknames

The Bangers, The Gallopers, The Tins, The Tin Bellies, The Patent Safeties, The Cheeses, The Cheesemongers

Uniform

Scarlet with blue velvet facings

Allied regiments

none

Regimental history

This is the senior regiment of the Household Cavalry, and can be traced to the body of noblemen and gentlemen who accompanied King Charles II on his exile in France and the Low Countries. In 1660 these were His Majesty's 1st, 2nd and 3rd Troops of Horse Guards (or Life Guards of Horse), and they escorted the king on his return to London after his restoration in that same year. In 1661 these troops became part of the new Standing Army, and were supplemented by the Scottish (or 4th) Troop of Horse Guards, which was raised in Edinburgh. The establishment was further increased in 1678, when three troops of Horse Grenadier Guards were raised, one being attached to each of the three troops of Horse Guards on the English establishment; a 4th (Scottish) Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards was raised in 1686 and attached to the 4th (Scottish) Troop of Horse Guards. A short-lived expansion was the Dutch Troop of Horse Guards (4th Troop of Horse Guards) which was raised in 1689 on the English establishment but disbanded in 1699. A reorganization was undertaken in 1709, when the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Troops of Horse Grenadier Guards were redesignated the 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards, and the 4th (Scottish) Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards became the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. Thereafter a measure of stability returned until 1746, when the 3rd and 4th Troops of Horse Guards were disbanded. A major alteration came in 1788, however, when the 1st Troop of Horse Guards and the 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards were amalgamated as the 1st Regiment of Life Guards, and the 2nd Troop of Horse Guards and the 2nd Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards were combined as the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards. There followed a period of some 130 years before the equilibrium was again disturbed in the aftermath of World War I, when the 1st and 2nd Regiments of Life Guards were amalgamated as The Life Guards (1st and 2nd), the regiment's title being changed to The Life Guards in 1928 and remaining unaltered thereafter to the present day. The nicknames given above were associated with The Life Guards in its older forms although they have never achieved any currency within the regiment or its predecessors.

HOUSEHOLD CAVALRY REGIMENTS 2

The Blues and Royals

Colonel-in-Chief

HM The Queen

Colonel

General Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick

Battle honours

Tangier 1662–80 Dettingen Warburg Beaumont Willems Fuentes d'Onor Peninsula Waterloo Balaklava Sevastopol Tel-el-Kebir Egypt 1882 Relief of Kimberley Paardeberg Relief of Ladysmith South Africa 1899–1902 Mons Le Cateau Retreat from Mons Marne 1914 Aisne 1914 Messines 1914 Armentieres 1914 Ypres 1914, ‘15, ‘17 Langemarck 1914 Gheluvelt Nonne Bosschen St Julien Frezenberg Loos Arras 1917 Scarpe 1917 Broodseinde Poelcappelle Passchendaele Somme 1918 Amiens Hindenburg Line Cambrai 1918 Sambre Pursuit to Mons France and Flanders 1914–18 Mont Pincon Souleuvre Noireau Crossing Amiens 1944 Brussels Neerpelt Nederrijn Nijmegen Rhine Lingen Bentheim North-West Europe 1944–45 Baghdad Iraq 1941 Palmyra Syria 1941 Knightsbridge El Alamein Advance on Tripoli North Africa 1941–43 Sicily 1943 Arezzo Advance to Florence Gothic Line Italy 1943–44 Falkland Islands 1982

Regimental headquarters

Horse Guards, Whitehall, London.

Regimental museum

Household Cavalry Museum, Combermere Barracks, Windsor, Berkshire.

Regimental marches

(slow) Anonymous (attributed to the Duchess of Kent) (quick) Grand March from Aida (Verdi), and Regimental March of the Royal Dragoons (Blankenburg, quick version)

Regimental motto

Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense (Evil be to Him who Evil Thinks)

Nicknames

see below

Uniform

Blue with scarlet facings

Allied regiments

The Royal Canadian Dragoons

The Governor General's Horse Guards (Canada)

Regimental history

This second component of the Household Cavalry was formed in March 1969 by the amalgamation of two historic regiments, namely the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) and The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons). The Royal Horse Guards date to 1661, when Colonel Unton Crook's Regiment of Horse in the disbanded parliamentary army was taken into the royal service under the command of the Earl of Oxford, whose blue livery was used by the new regiment, known initially as The Royal Regiment of Horse or the Earl of Oxford's Regiment of Horse. In 1685 the title changed to the Royal Regiment of Horse (Guards), this being modified slightly in 1714 to the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards. The regiment continued unaltered until 1875, when it became the Royal Horse Guards. In 1891 it became the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), the regiment's long-lasting nickname finally being incorporated into the official title. The regiment's long and. notable history is reflected by the battle honours it brought into the amalga- mated regiment in 1969:

Dettingen Warburg Beaumont Willems Peninsula Waterloo Tel-el-Kebir Egypt 1882 Relief of Kimberley Paardeberg South Africa 1899–1902 Mons Le Cateau Retreat from Mons Marne 1914 Aisne 1914 Messines 1914 Armentieres 1914 Ypres 1914, ‘15, ‘17 Langemarck 1914 Gheluvelt Nonne Bosschen St Julien Frezenberg Loos Arras 1917 Scarpe 1917 Broodseinde Poelcappelle Passchendaele Somme 1918 Amiens Hindenburg Line Cambrai 1918 Sambre France and Flanders 1914–18 Mont Pincon Souleuvre Noireau Crossing Amiens 1944 Brussels Neerpelt Nederrijn Nijmegen Lingen Bentheim North-West Europe 1944–45 Baghdad Iraq 1941 Palmyra Syria 1941 El Alamein North Africa 1942–43 Arezzo Advance to Florence Gothic Line Italy 1943–44

The motto of the regiment was ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense’ (Evil be to Him who Evil Thinks), and the regimental marches were ‘Anonymous’ (attributed to the Duchess of Kent) and the ‘Grand March from Aida’ (Verdi). The uniform was blue with scarlet facings, and the nicknames associated with The Royal Horse Guards were ‘The Oxford Blues’ and ‘The Blues’.

The other component of The Blues and Royals was The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons), whose history runs back to 1661, when The Tangier Horse was raised by the Earl of Peterborough as the cavalry within the garrison of Tangier. The regiment returned to England in 1684 and, with the expansion provided by two new troops of dragoons, became The King's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, this title being modified during 1690 to The Royal Regiment of Dragoons. Some 60 years later, in 1751, the regiment became the 1st (Royal) Dragoons, and this title remained current for almo...