The 25th Dragoons was a cavalry

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

from 1941 to 1947. Previous regiments bearing the number have been: * De La Bouchetiere's Regiment of Dragoons was re-formed in 1716 as the 25th Dragoons and disbanded in 1718. * 25th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons was raised for service in India by Colonel Francis Edward Gwyn on 9 March 1794 and renumbered the 22nd Regiment of (Light) Dragoons later that year. The 1941 regiment was raised in

Sialkot Sialkot ( ur, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Sialkot District and the 13th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined with Jammu (the winter capital of Indian administered Jammu and Ka ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, in February 1941 from a cadre of personnel taken from the

3rd Carabiniers The 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in 1922 as part of a reduction in the army's cavalry by the amalgamation of the 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales's) and the Carab ...

along with volunteers from infantry regiments. It was initially assigned to the 4th Indian Armoured Brigade (which later became 254th Indian Armoured Brigade and, still later, the 254th Indian Tank Brigade). In 1943, it was reassigned to the Indian XV Corps and transported in great secrecy to

Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...

prior to taking part in the Battle of the Admin Box, in which its M3 Lee tanks proved decisive. The 25th Dragoons was the home of British communist, painter, and former International Brigadeer Clive Branson, who was killed by the Japanese at the Battle of the Admin Box. It spent the remainder of the war in India and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. It was part of the 50th Indian Tank Brigade and based in Madras and

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

prior to being disbanded in 1947.

References

* Cavalry regiments of the British Army Dragoons Dragoon regiments of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1947 Dragoons 025 R {{UK-mil-unit-stub