Cheshire Yeomanry
The Cheshire Yeomanry | |
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First World War
Second World War
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Battle honours | See battle honours below |
Commanders | |
Honorary Colonel | Major Peter M. Cooper, TD[1] |
Notable commanders | Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster |
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 lineage is maintained by C (Cheshire Yeomanry) Squadron, the Queen's Own Yeomanry.
History
Formation and early history
The regiment was founded in 1797 when
Peterloo Massacre
The
Second Boer War
The Yeomanry was not intended to serve overseas, but due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December 1899, the British government realized they were going to need more troops than just the regular army. A Royal Warrant was issued on 24 December 1899 to allow volunteer forces to serve in the Second Boer War. The Royal Warrant asked standing Yeomanry regiments to provide service companies of approximately 115 men each for the Imperial Yeomanry (IY), equipped as Mounted infantry.[4] The regiment provided the 21st (Cheshire) and 22nd (Cheshire) Companies for the 2nd Battalion, IY, in 1900.[5] The mounted infantry experiment was considered a success and the existing yomenary regiments were converted to IY in 1901, the regiment becoming Cheshire Imperial Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's); the word 'Imperial' was dropped in 1908 when the yeomanry were transferred to the Territorial Force (TF). The regiment had its headquarters at Old Bank Buildings in Foregate Street at this time.[6]
First World War
Welsh Border Mounted Brigade |
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Organisation on 4 August 1914 |
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In accordance with the
1/1st Cheshire Yeomanry
The 1/1st Cheshire Yeomanry was mobilised with the
The regiment was posted with the brigade to Egypt in March 1916. On 20 March, the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade was absorbed into the
The brigade was with the Suez Canal Defences when, on 14 January 1917,
Between January and March 1917 the small Yeomanry regiments were amalgamated and numbered as battalions of infantry regiments recruiting from the same districts.
On 23 February, the
It took part in the
In May 1918, the battalion landed at
On 14 July 1918, the Yeomanry Division went into the line for the first time, near
With the end of the war, the troops of 74th Division were engaged in railway repair work and education was undertaken while demobilisation began. The division and its subformations were disbanded on 10 July 1919.[17]
2/1st Cheshire Yeomanry
The 2nd Line regiment was formed in 1914. It joined the
In April 1916, it moved with its brigade to East Anglia where it joined the 1st Mounted Division; it replaced its 1st Line which had departed (dismounted) for Egypt.[10] By July, it had left with its brigade for the Morpeth, Northumberland area.[18]
In July 1916, there was a major reorganization of 2nd Line yeomanry units in the United Kingdom. All but 12 regiments were converted to cyclists[11] and as a consequence the regiment was dismounted and the brigade converted to 10th Cyclist Brigade. Further reorganization in October and November 1916 saw the brigade redesignated as 6th Cyclist Brigade in November, still in the Morpeth area.[21] In July 1917, the regiment moved to Acklington.[18]
Early in 1918, the brigade moved to Ireland and was stationed at the Curragh.[21] There were no further changes before the end of the war.[22]
3/1st Cheshire Yeomanry
The 3rd Line regiment was formed in 1915 and in the summer was affiliated to a Reserve Cavalry Regiment at The Curragh. In the summer of 1916, it was attached to the 3rd Line Groups of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division as its 1st Line was serving as infantry. The regiment was disbanded in early 1917 with personnel transferring to the 2nd Line or to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment at Oswestry.[18]
Between the wars
Post war, a commission was set up to consider the shape of the Territorial Force (
Second World War
During the Second World War, the regiment was part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and remained mounted until 1942, seeing action in Palestine, Syria and the Lebanon. As one of the last regiments of the British Army to fight on horseback, the Cheshire Yeomanry found it particularly painful to lose its mounts and to re-role as a Signals Regiment, when its title changed in 1942 to the 5th Line of Communications Signals Regiment. After leaving the Middle East, the regiment was redesignated the 17th Line of Communication Signals Regiment (Cheshire Yeomanry) for service in North-West Europe.[27]
Post war
On
The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry
The RMLY's mission was to provide Challenger 2 (CR2) War Establishment Reserves (WER) to the Regular Army. To fulfil this commitment, the RMLY soldiers trained as Challenger 2 loaders and gunners. In 2014 C (Cheshire Yeomanry) Squadron, which is based in Chester, re-joined the Queen's Own Yeomanry.[28]
33 (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment
A second squadron continues in service as 80th (Cheshire Yeomanry) Signal Squadron (V), part of 33 Signal Regiment,
Regimental museum
The Cheshire Military Museum is based at Chester Castle.[29]
Battle honours
The Cheshire Yeomanry was awarded the following
Second Boer War | South Africa 1900–01
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First World War | Palestine 1917–18
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Second World War | Syria 1941
Honorary Distinction: Badge of the Royal Corps of Signals with year-date "1945" and scroll "North-West Europe "
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Uniforms
The full dress uniform of the Cheshire Yeomanry, worn prior to World War I, closely resembled that of the regular hussar regiments of the British Army. Chest braiding and piping on the dark blue tunic was however white (rather than the yellow of regulars). In an unusual combination collar facings were red while overall (tight cavalry trousers) stripes were white. Peaked caps were normally worn although fur busbies were borrowed for the 1911 Coronation.[31]
The plain khaki service dress of the regular cavalry was worn from about 1907 onwards, replacing the blue uniform for nearly all occasions after 1914. The service dress was in turn replaced by battle dress, or other standard British Army uniforms, following the dismounting of the regiment in 1942.[32]
See also
- Imperial Yeomanry
- List of Yeomanry Regiments 1908
- Yeomanry
- Yeomanry order of precedence
- British yeomanry during the First World War
- Second line yeomanry regiments of the British Army
Notes
- ^ The 74th (Yeomanry) Division commanded 12 infantry battalions formed from 18 yeomanry regiments.[13]
- Lieutenant-Colonel. Artillery brigades were redesignated as regiments in 1938.
References
- ^ "No. 63516". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 November 2021. p. 19472.
- ^ a b c d "C Squadron, The Cheshire (Earl of Chester's) Yeomanry". Ministry of Defence. Archived from the original on 2 February 2007. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
- ^ Reid (1989), p. 88
- ^ Mileham 1994, p. 27
- ^ "Imperial Yeomanry [UK]". Archived from the original on 29 May 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
- ^ "Chester". The Drill Hall Project. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
- ^ Conrad, Mark (1996). "The British Army, 1914".
- ^ Rinaldi 2008, p. 35
- ^ Rinaldi 2008, p. 60
- ^ a b Becke 1936, p. 6
- ^ a b c James 1978, p. 36
- ^ a b c Becke 1937, p. 121
- ^ a b Becke 1937, p. 118
- ^ Baker, Chris. "The Shropshire Yeomanry". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ Baker, Chris. "The Cheshire Yeomanry". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ Baker, Chris. "The King's (Shropshire Light Infantry)". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- ^ a b c Becke 1937, p. 122
- ^ a b c d e James 1978, p. 17
- ^ James 1978, p. 27
- ^ Becke 1937, p. 51
- ^ a b James 1978, pp. 17, 27
- ^ James 1978, pp. 17–19, 27
- ^ "The Royal Artillery". Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom). Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
- ^ Baker, Chris. "What was an artillery brigade?". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
- ^ Mileham 1994, pp. 48–51
- ^ Mileham 1994, p. 73
- ^ Lord & Watson (2003), p. 181
- ^ "Queen's Own Yeomanry: contact details". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
- ^ Cheshire Military Museum, Army Museums Ogilby Trust, archived from the original on 17 June 2011, retrieved 18 February 2011
- ^ "The Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's) [UK]". Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ISBN 0-948251-26-3.
- ^ "Uniforms of the British Yeomanry Regiments 1895-1900". Uniformology. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
Bibliography
- Becke, Major A.F. (1936). Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2A. The Territorial Force Mounted Divisions and the 1st-Line Territorial Force Divisions (42–56). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 1-871167-12-4.
- Becke, Major A.F. (1937). Order of Battle of Divisions Part 2B. The 2nd-Line Territorial Force Divisions (57th–69th) with The Home-Service Divisions (71st–73rd) and 74th and 75th Divisions. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. ISBN 1-871167-00-0.
- James, Brigadier E.A. (1978). British Regiments 1914–18. London: Samson Books Limited. ISBN 0-906304-03-2.
- Lord, Cliff; Watson, Graham (2003). The Royal Corps of Signals : unit histories of the Corps (1920-2001) and its antecedents. Solihull, West Midlands, England: Helion & Company. ProQuest 5774170.
- Mileham, Patrick (1994). The Yeomanry Regiments; 200 Years of Tradition. Edinburgh: Canongate Academic. ISBN 1-898410-36-4.
- Reid, Robert (1989), The Peterloo Massacre, William Heinemann, ISBN 978-0-434-62901-5
- Rinaldi, Richard A (2008). Order of Battle of the British Army 1914. Ravi Rikhye. ISBN 978-0-9776072-8-0.
External links
- Baker, Chris. "The Cheshire Yeomanry". The Long, Long Trail. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
- The Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's) at regiments.org by T.F.Mills at the Wayback Machine (archived 15 July 2007)
- "Yeomanry lineage". Archived from the original on 11 February 2012.