Other ranks’ collar badge of the 6th Dragoon Guards, c1900.
NAM. 1964-04-83-11Introduction
In 1685 King James II was new on the British throne and already facing a rebellion by his brother Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. He was in dire need of troops and raised several regiments that year, including a unit of carabiniers, horsemen armed with carbines or shortened muskets. He ranked this unit as the 9th Horse, though its colonel soon successfully requested that it be renamed after Charles II's widow Catherine of Braganza, the Queen Dowager.
When James's brother-in-law William made a bid for the throne in 1690, the regiment went over to him and fought well for him in Ireland. It was thus renamed the King's Regiment of Carabineers after William in 1692, the year which saw the first of its three deployments to Flanders. The second came in 1702 and saw it fighting at Blenheim and Ramillies.
The regiment returned to Ireland in 1713 and then to England to oppose James II's grandson Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. By then, almost all the regiment's recruits were Irish Protestants, so it was moved to the Irish establishment as the 3rd Irish Horse. The regiment returned to the British establishment in 1788 as the 6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards and in 1793 was sent to fight French forces in the Low Countries once again. This was followed by a long period back in Ireland from 1796 to 1807 countering French landings and Irish rebellions. From there it sent a detachment of 400 officers and men to South America in 1806.
Scouting party of the 6th Dragoon Guards in South Africa, shown on the modello for their war memorial - the actual memorial is on Chelsea Embankment less than a mile from the National Army Museum.
NAM. 1990-06-374From 1807 to 1855 it alternated between garrison duties in England and Ireland. In 1855 it was part of the force sent to the Crimea, though the only battle honour it won there was 'Sebastopol'. It was then based at Delhi during the Indian Mutiny in 1857, only returning to the British Isles in 1861. It was back in India in the late 1870s to fight in the 2nd Afghan War. The regiment then returned to England until the outbreak of the Boer War, during which it helped relieve Kimberley. It was then moved straight to India for five years in 1903, where it paraded at the 1906 Bangalore Durbar before the future George V.
It was moved to a depot in Canterbury in 1912 from which it deployed in the first month of the First World War as part of the British Expeditionary Force. It served throughout the First World War on the Western Front, fighting at Mons, the Marne, in the first two battles of Ypres, the Somme, Arras and Cambrai.
The regiment spent the first four post-war years keeping the peace in Ireland during its run-up to civil war, before being redeployed to India via Aldershot. There, in 1922, it was merged with the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards to form the 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards. The carabiniers title did live on, however, since the new unit was renamed the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) six years after its formation.
Key facts
Motto:
- 'Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense' (meaning 'Shame On Him Who Thinks This Evil')
Nicknames:
- The Carbs (a shortening of carabiniers)
- Tichborne's Own (from 1849 to 1852 one of the regiment's officers was Sir Roger Tichborne – he was later lost at sea and the baronetcy to which he was heir was claimed by the imposter Arthur Orton, known as the Tichborne Claimant)
Titles to date:
- 9th Horse
- The Queen Dowager's Regiment of Horse
- The King's Regiment of Carabineers
- His Majesty's 1st Regiment of Carabiniers
- 3rd Irish Horse
- 3rd Regiment of Horse
- 3rd Regiment of Horse (Carabiniers)
- 6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards (Carabineers)
- 6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers)
- 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers)
- The Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards)
- 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards
- 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards)
- Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys)
Find out more
Regimental Museums
Regimental Merchandise
National Army Museum Collection
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