The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry was a

yeomanry Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army Reserve, descended from volunteer cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of different military roles. History Origins In the 1790s, f ...

regiment of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

's Territorial Army. It served in the armoured replacement role, providing replacement tank crews for regular armoured regiments.

History

The regiment was formed in November 1992 by the amalgamation of The

Queen's Own Mercian Yeomanry The Queen's Own Mercian Yeomanry was a cavalry regiment of the Territorial Army, formed in 1971 by the reconstitution of squadrons from the Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry, the Staffordshire Yeomanry and the Shropshire Yeom ...

and The

Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (DLOY) was a yeomanry unit of the British Army from 1798 to 1992. Originally raised as part-time cavalry for home defence and internal security, the regiment sent mounted infantry to serve in the Second Boer ...

as part of the

Options for Change Options for Change was a restructuring of the British Armed Forces in summer 1990 after the end of the Cold War. Until this point, UK military strategy had been almost entirely focused on defending Western Europe against the Soviet Armed Forces, ...

. In 1999, it absorbed a squadron from The

Queen's Own Yeomanry The Queen's Own Yeomanry (QOY) is one of the Army Reserve light armoured reconnaissance regiments. History The Queens Own Yeomanry was initially formed on 1 April 1971 as the 2nd Armoured Car Regiment from five of the yeomanry units across the No ...

, bringing it to a strength of four squadrons plus the headquarters squadron.The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry
regiments.org In October 2006, the RMLY became a single cap badge regiment, when the individual cap badges of each squadron were replaced by the newly designed RMLY cap badge. This incorporated the Mercian Eagle from the Queen's Own Mercian Yeomanry with the Red Rose from the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry. This was also the point at which H-Det joined the regiment, to provide a Recce troop. H-Detachment was renamed Manoeuvre and Support Squadron in 2011, when it was given Squadron status; it still consisted of the Recce troop, but now also housed the "hoop" (communications for the squadron). In July 2013, it was announced that the RMLY would be restructured under the

Army 2020 Army 2020, was the name given to the restructuring of the British Army, in light of the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. Background The British Government gave an indication of its proposals for the future structure of the Army in ea ...

plan. A Squadron and B Squadron resubordinated to The

Royal Yeomanry The Royal Yeomanry (RY) is the senior reserve light cavalry regiment of the British Army. Equipped with Supacat Jackal variants, their role is to conduct mounted and dismounted formation reconnaissance. The Regimental Headquarters is located in ...

, while C Squadron and D Squadron resubordinated to The

. The regiment was disbanded in April 2014.

Organisation

The RMLY consisted of a Recce Troop, a Command Troop (within the detachment based in Hereford) and four sabre squadrons. Each of the sabre squadrons perpetuates a historic Yeomanry regiment, which is reflected in their subtitles: *A ( Staffordshire,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

and Worcestershire Yeomanry) Squadron *B (

Shropshire Yeomanry The Shropshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1795, which served as a cavalry and dismounted infantry regiment in the First World War and as a cavalry and an artillery regiment in the Second World War. It ...

) Squadron *C (

Cheshire Yeomanry The Cheshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment that can trace its history back to 1797 when Sir John Leicester of Tabley raised a county regiment of light cavalry in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France. Its lineag ...

) Squadron *D (

) Squadron * Manoeuvre and Support Squadron ( Hereford) - The Herefordshire (Light Infantry) Squadron

Lineage

, - style="text-align: center; background: #F08080;" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="5", Lineage to 1992 , - style="text-align:center;" , rowspan="14" style="width:20%; ", The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry
(1992) , rowspan="4" style="width:20%; ", The Mercian Yeomanry
(1971)
''renamed''
The

(1973) , rowspan="2" style="width:20%; ", The

Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry The Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry (QOWWY) was a regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps, forming part of the Territorial Army (TA). Following reductions in 1969 and 1971 respectively the regiment was reduced to two and late ...

(1956) , colspan="2" style="width:20%; ", The

Warwickshire Yeomanry The Warwickshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794, which served as cavalry and machine gunners in the First World War and as a cavalry and an armoured regiment in the Second World War, before being amalg ...

(1794) , - , colspan="2" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The

Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars The Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. First raised in 1794, it participated in the Second Boer War and World War I as horsed cavalry before being converted to an anti-tank regiment of the Royal Artill ...

(1831) , - , colspan="3" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) (1794) , - , style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The

(1872) , colspan="2" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", North Salopian Yeomanry (1795)
South Salopian Yeomanry (1795) , - , rowspan="3" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The

(Royal Tank Regiment) (1967)
''renamed''
The

(1971) , colspan="3" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The

(1797) , - , rowspan="2" style="width:20%; text-align:center;", The 40th/41st Royal Tank Regiment (1956) , style="width:20%; text-align:center;", 15th Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps (1860)
4th Volunteer Battalion,

The King's (Liverpool Regiment) The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 and numbered as the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot in 1751. Unlike most British Army infantry regiments, which were ...

(1888)
7th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment) (1908)
40th (The King's) Royal Tank Regiment (1938) , - , style="width:20%; text-align:center;", 22nd Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps (1882)
6th Volunteer Battalion, The

Manchester Regiment The Manchester Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1958. The regiment was created during the 1881 Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and the 96th ...

(1888)
10th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment (1908)
41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment (1938) , -

Order of precedence

For the purposes of parading, the Regiments of the British Army are listed according to an order of precedence. This is the order in which the various corps of the army parade, from right to left, with the unit at the extreme right being the most senior.

References

External links

Official site
{{Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps Regiments Yeomanry regiments of the British Army Military units and formations established in 1992 Royal Armoured Corps