The Westminster Dragoons (WDs) 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

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 Gurkha ...

Army Reserve, located in

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

. Its lineage is continued by one of the Royal Yeomanry's six squadrons. Formed in the aftermath of

Second 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 So ...

as part of the

County of London Yeomanry A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, the WDs fought in the Battle of Gallipoli and led British forces onto the beaches during the

Normandy Invasion Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

in 1944. The squadron most recently saw action on

Operation Telic Operation Telic (Op TELIC) was the codename under which all of the United Kingdom's military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on ...

for which it was mobilised for the 2003 war in Iraq.

Precursors

The regiment was first recruited from wealthy merchants and bankers as the London and Westminster Light Horse in 1779. It was disbanded in 1783 but in 1793 the Prime Minister,

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ir ...

, proposed that the

English Counties The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibilit ...

to subdue any civil disorder within the country. So the regiment was reformed again the following year. The regiment was renamed the Westminster Volunteer Cavalry in 1797. and barracks were built to accommodate the regiment in

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...

in 1812. The regiment was disbanded again in 1829 and the barracks were decommissioned in 1830.

Imperial Yeomanry

Following a string of defeats during

Black Week Black Week refers to the week of 10–17 December 1899 during the Second Boer War, when the British Army suffered three devastating defeats by the Boer Republics at the battles of Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. In total, 2,776 British ...

in early December 1899, the British government realised that it would need more troops than just the

Regular Army A regular army is the official army of a state or country (the official armed forces), contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following: * a standin ...

to fight the

. On 13 December, the decision to allow volunteer forces to serve in South Africa was made, and a Royal Warrant was issued on 24 December. This officially created the

Imperial Yeomanry The Imperial Yeomanry was a volunteer mounted force of the British Army that mainly saw action during the Second Boer War. Created on 2 January 1900, the force was initially recruited from the middle classes and traditional yeomanry sources, but s ...

(IY). The force was organised as county service companies of approximately 115 men signed up for one year, and volunteers from the

Yeomanry Cavalry The Yeomanry Cavalry was the mounted component of the British Volunteer Corps, a military auxiliary established in the late 18th century amid fears of invasion and insurrection during the French Revolutionary Wars. A yeoman was a person of r ...

and civilians (usually middle and upper class) quickly filled the new force, which was equipped to operate as

Mounted infantry Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Mounted rifles are half cavalry, mounted infantry merely speciall ...

(see

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

). Second and third contingents were sent out in the following years.Dunlop, pp. 104–18. One such unit was the 24th (Metropolitan Mounted Rifles) Battalion, consisting of 94th, 95th, 96th and 97th (Metropolitan Mounted Rifles) Companies raised in London for the second contingent on 30 March 1901. Later in 1901 the 28th (Westminster Dragoons) Battalion, was raised, with 127th–130th (Westminster Dragoons) Companies. In 1901, 16 new IY regiments raised from veterans of the first IY contingent returning from South Africa were added to the existing Yeomanry Cavalry. The 2nd County of London Imperial Yeomanry was formed on 24 August 1901 with four squadrons and a machine gun section, perpetuating the 24th (Metropolitan Mounted Rifles) Battalion. Over 800 members of the regiment served in South Africa, and the regiment was awarded the

Battle Honour A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In European military t ...

South Africa 1902. On 2 August 1902 Westminster Council granted permission for the regiment to adopt the subtitle '(Westminster Dragoons)' (to perpetuate the 1779-1829 units) and to use the city's coat-of-arms as its cap badge. From the start it was smart regiment filled with wealthy gentlemen from the City and the West End. Their attitude and attire was such that, as they strutted across West London, members became known as the 'Piccadilly Peacocks'. Several of the unit's first officers were former officers of the

1st The Royal Dragoons The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) was a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgam ...

, forerunners of the

Blues and Royals The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) (RHG/D) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment. The Colonel of the Regiment is Anne, Princess Royal. It is the second-most senior regiment in ...

; one of the first troop leaders was Raj Rajendra Narayan, Maharaj Kumar (Prince) of

Cooch Behar Cooch Behar (), or Koch Bihar, is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Cooch Behar district. It is in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas at . Cooch Behar is the only planned city in ...

. They brought with them the Royals' pre-Waterloo cap badge, which was later adopted by

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

s and

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...

s of the staff, which is why, until a common Royal Yeomanry capbadge was adopted in 2006, young WD officers often found themselves amused at being saluted by officers of higher rank. The WD stable belt (worn in barracks) bears the Royal racing colours – the imperial hues of purple, gold and scarlet as a result of the personal friendship of its first commanding officer, Colonel Charles Rosedew Burn, with

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

, whose Aide-de-camp Burn had been when he was Prince of Wales.Chartrand. As an urban regiment, the yeomen were unable to supply their own horses, so the senior Westminster officers made use of their links to the highest ranks of Society to borrow mounts from the

Household Cavalry The Household Cavalry (HCav) is made up of the two most senior regiments of the British Army, the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons). These regiments are divided between the Household Cavalry Regiment sta ...

for summer training camps. Later horses were hired. Even at this time, the WDs were at the forefront of using new equipment, being the second unit in the British army after the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry to be equipped with mobile wireless. In 1910, Lord Howard de Walden presented two Marconi pack sets to the regiment. In 1907 the regimental headquarters (RHQ) was at 102 Victoria Street, but by 1914 it had moved to 1 Elverton Street, Westminster.''Monthly Army List'', various dates.

Territorial Force

When the IY were subsumed into the new

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry ...

(TF) under the

Haldane Reforms The Haldane Reforms were a series of far-ranging reforms of the British Army made from 1906 to 1912, and named after the Secretary of State for War, Richard Burdon Haldane. They were the first major reforms since the "Childers Reforms" of the e ...

of 1908, the regiment simply dropped 'Imperial' from its title. It was attached to the

London Mounted Brigade London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

for training, but was otherwise under the command of London District.

World War I

Mobilisation

The Westminster Dragoons' summer camp in 1914 was at Goring-on-Thames. It began on 25 July, but the regiment was recalled to Westminster when mobilisation orders arrived on 5 August. The regiment reorganised on the three-squadron basis used by the Regular cavalry and purchased horses. In accordance with the

Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 The Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 (''7 Edw. 7, c.9'') was an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the auxiliary forces of the British Army by transferring existing Volunteer ...

(''

7 Edw. 7 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion, mythology, s ...

, c.9''), which brought the

into being, the TF was intended to be a home defence force for service during wartime and members could not be compelled to serve outside the country. However, on the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914, many members volunteered for Imperial Service. Therefore, TF units were split in August and September 1914 into 1st Line (liable for overseas service) and 2nd Line (home service for those unable or unwilling to serve overseas) units. Later, a 3rd Line was formed to act as a reserve, providing trained replacements for the 1st and 2nd Line regiments.

1/2nd County of London Yeomanry

Egypt

The regiment sailed on 10 September for

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, thereby being one of the first

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 ...

regiments to go overseas on active service. It arrived at

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

on 25 September and went to relieve the

3rd Dragoon Guards The 3rd (Prince of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1751 and the 3rd (Prince of Wales's) ...

as the

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Garrison cavalry regiment. On 19 January 1915, it joined the 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry to form the

Yeomanry Mounted Brigade The Yeomanry Mounted Brigade was a formation of the Territorial Force of the British Army, raised in January 1915 during the First World War. After service in the Gallipoli Campaign and with the Western Frontier Force in World War I, it was bro ...

. The regiment carried out security and escort duties in Cairo and patrols on the fringe of the Sinai Desert to protect the Suez Canal. The brigade joined the

2nd Mounted Division The 2nd Mounted Division was a yeomanry ( Territorial Army cavalry) division that served in the First World War. At the outbreak of war it was assigned to defence of the Norfolk coast. In March 1915 it formed a 2nd Line duplicate of itself, ...

on 13 August and was redesignated as the 5th (Yeomanry) Mounted Brigade. It was dismounted to take part in the Gallipoli Campaign, leaving a squadron HQ and two

troop A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Tr ...

s (about 100 officers and men) in Egypt to look after the horses.

Gallipoli

The regiment sailed from

on 14 August, arriving at Mudros on 17 August. It landed at "A" Beach,

Suvla Bay View of Suvla from Battleship Hill Suvla () is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros. On 6 August 1915, it was the site for the Landing at Suvla Bay by the British IX Corps as par ...

the following day and moved into reserve positions at Lala Baba on the night of 20 August. On 21 August, it advanced to Chocolate Hill and was in reserve for the attacks on Scimitar Hill and Hill 112. Due to losses during the Battle of Scimitar Hill and

wastage {{Short pages monitor