The 2nd Cavalry Brigade was a

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Br ...

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 ...

. It served in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

(2nd Union Cavalry Brigade), the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

and in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when it was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. Prior to World War I the brigade was based at

Tidworth Camp Tidworth Camp is a military installation at Tidworth in Wiltshire, England. It forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison. History The Camp was established when the War Office acquired a 19th-century mansion – Tedw ...

in England; and originally consisted of three

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...

regiments and a

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

signal troop. After the declaration of war in August 1914, the brigade was deployed to the Western Front in France, where an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fac ...

joined the brigade the following September and a Machine Gun Squadron in February 1916.

History

Napoleonic Wars

From June 1809,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

organized his cavalry into one, later two, cavalry divisions ( 1st and

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit ...

) for the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. These performed a purely administrative, rather than tactical, role; the normal tactical headquarters were provided by brigades commanding two, later usually three, regiments. The cavalry brigades were named for the commanding officer, rather than numbered. For the Hundred Days Campaign, he numbered his British cavalry brigades in a single sequence, 1st to 7th. The 2nd Cavalry Brigade consisted of: * 1st (Royal) Regiment of Dragoons * 2nd Regiment of Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) *

6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons The 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1689 as Sir Albert Cunningham's Regiment of Dragoons. One of the regiment's most notable battles was the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. It became th ...

As the brigade consisted of regiments from England (1st Dragoons), Scotland (2nd Dragoons) and Ireland (6th Dragoons), it was known as the 2nd (Union) Cavalry Brigade.

Boer War

The brigade was reformed for the

. During the

Battle of Paardeberg The Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg ("Horse Mountain") was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near ''Paardeberg Drift'' on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley. Lord Methuen adv ...

, the brigade commanded: * 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiners) * 2nd Dragoons (Royal Scots Greys) *

*New Zealanders *Australians * G and P Batteries,

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link ...

World War I

4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers. It was renamed as the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in 17 ...

9th (Queen’s Royal) Lancers The 9th Queen's Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First and Second World Wars. The regiment survived the immediate post-war reduction in forces, but w ...

* 18th (Queen Mary’s Own) Hussars * 2nd Signal Troop, Royal Engineers *

H Battery, Royal Horse Artillery H Battery (Ramsay's Troop) Royal Horse Artillery is a Artillery battery, battery of 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, part of the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army. As of 2015, it is based at Albemarle Barracks, England, Albemarle Barr ...

''from 28 September 1914'' *2nd Cavalry Brigade Machine Gun Squadron

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front in the First World War. The Heavy Branch of the MGC was the first to use tank ...

Commanders

The commanders of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade during the First World War were: *Brigadier-General H. de B. de Lisle (At mobilization) *Brigadier-General R. L. Mullens (12 October 1914) *Brigadier-General D. J. E. Beale-Browne (26 October 1915) *Brigadier-General A. Lawson (16 April 1918)

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

* *{{cite web, url=http://www.warpath.orbat.com/cav/1_cav_div.htm , title=1st Cavalry Division on ''The Regimental Warpath 1914 - 1918'' by PB Chappell , access-date=2013-08-02 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108093653/http://www.warpath.orbat.com/cav/1_cav_div.htm , archive-date=8 January 2008 , df=dmy Cavalry brigades of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1815 Military units and formations disestablished in 1815 Military units and formations established in 1899 Military units and formations disestablished in 1902 Military units and formations established in 1914 Military units and formations disestablished in 1919