Cap badge of the 16th Lancers, c1900. NAM. 1964-04-83-23Introduction
The regiment was the British Army's second-ever light cavalry regiment, raised in imitation of the European light cavalry regiments Britain had fought against and alongside early in the 18th century.
It was raised in southern England on 4 August 1759 by John Burgoyne, a cavalry officer and society figure. He commanded the regiment for the next 16 years and later became famous for his campaigns in the American Revolutionary War.
Two years after its formation it was used for raiding parties on the French coast, but its first major foreign deployment came in 1762, when it was sent to aid Britain's Portuguese allies against France and Spain. Its conduct there won it the name 'The Queen's' after George III's wife and consort Queen Charlotte as well as the privilege of using her cypher as part of its own badge.
Its next engagement was in Canada and north America from 1776 to 1779, where it and the other light cavalry role proved useful against the American Revolutionary army's guerrilla tactics. However, that posting left it so depleted that its few remaining men were drafted into the 17th Light Dragoons and its officers sent back to England to recruit.
By the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars the 16th was back up to strength and from 1793 to 1796 it operated in northern Europe. The regiment's next foreign posting followed in 1809 to 1814 to Spain and Portugal, where it lost 309 men and fought at Talavera, Salamanca and Vittoria. At Waterloo the regiment managed to cover the withdrawal of the Heavy Brigade after the latter charged too far from its own lines.
The post-war period saw the regiment in Ireland for five years then to Sheffield for a year, during which time they were renamed lancers. That time also saw the regiment express its loyalty to Caroline, George IV's estranged wife and queen consort. Legend has it this so infuriated George that he posted the regiment to India in 1822 as a result. That deployment lasted 24 years and saw the regiment serve in the Punjab, Gwalior and the 1st Afghan War (1839-42).
Charge of the 16th Lancers at Aliwal, 28 January 1846.
NAM. 1971-02-33-24-1Its first Indian posting culminated in the 1st Sikh War (1845-46), during which one of its squadrons charged an enemy cavalry force ten times its numbers at Aliwal before going on to rout the artillery and infantry behind them. It had two more long postings to India and the North West Frontier from 1865 to 1876 and 1890 to 1899, interspersed with garrison duty in Britain and Ireland. In 1877 the 17-year-old William Robertson joined the regiment as a private, later becoming the only British soldier ever to rise from private to field marshal.
The regiment joined 3 Cavalry Brigade in South Africa from 1900 to 1902, sailing back to home service before deploying to France as part of the same brigade in August 1914. By then the regiment was commanded by Hubert Gough, whose first commission had been in the 16th Lancers in 1889. It remained on dismounted duties in the trenches of the Western Front for the whole war and only returned to horseback in March 1918.
After the war it was redeployed to police the former Ottoman province of Syria, now a British Mandate, before moving on to India in 1921. It was still there a year later, when it was merged with the 5th Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers.
Key facts
Motto:
- 'Aut Cursu Aut Cominus Armis' (meaning 'Either in the Charge, or Hand to Hand')
Nickname:
- The Scarlet Lancers (all other light cavalry regiments switched from scarlet to blue tunics in 1846, but this regiment retained them after a direct petition to Queen Victoria)
Titles to date:
- 16th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons
- Burgoyne's Light Horse
- 2nd (or The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons
- 16th (or The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons
- 16th (The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Lancers)
- 16th (or Queen's) Lancers
- 16th (The Queen's) Lancers
- 16th The Queen's Lancers
- 16th/5th Lancers
- 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers
- 16th Lancer Squadron, Queen's Royal Lancers
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