A late Victorian 2nd Dragoon Guards pouch belt plate.
NAM. 1959-03-38-1Introduction
The regiment was first formed on 20 June 1685 by merging four of the independent troops of horse raised to fight for James II against the Monmouth Rebellion, which had been raised in Hounslow, Edgware, London and Yorkshire respectively.
Three years later it went over to James's rival William III and fought for him in Ireland at the Boyne and Aughrim. At the latter a charge by them and the Royal Horse Guards is considered to have won the battle.
After a short period opposing highwaymen in what is now south London, the regiment then spent 1694 to 1698 in the Low Countries and 1704 to 1710 in Spain. Their Spanish posting included two charges at Almanza but ended in the whole regiment being captured at Brihuega, only getting back to Britain via a prisoner exchange soon afterwards.
The regiment fought against both the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions, becoming dragoon guards shortly after the latter. This period also saw them renamed 'the Princess of Wales's' and then 'the Queen's Own' after Caroline, wife of George II. It then fought at Corbach and Warburg during the Seven Years War before returning to put down riots in England in 1763.
A soldier of the Queen's Own Regiment of Horse, 1742.
NAM. 2004-10-87-11In 1767 the regiment was ordered to switch to riding bay horses (those with white or dappled-white hair) and renamed accordingly. It fought in Germany, the Low Countries and northern France during the first three years of the French Revolutionary Wars, where they often provided the only British contingent in a largely Austrian, Prussian and Hanoverian force. They also fought as infantry at the siege of Dunkirk in 1793, since the ground there was too marshy to operate as cavalry, before arriving back at South Shields at the end of 1795.
The regiment then remained in Britain until soon after the Waterloo campaign, before joining the army of occupation in France for three years. 1857 saw them in action for the first time in over 60 years, at the siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny. In 1875 they began ten years in Ireland, assisting the civilian police during the disorder surrounding the First Irish Home Rule Bill. They then returned to India before postings to Egypt in 1895 and South Africa in 1899. One of its officers, Nevill Maskelayne Smith, won the Victoria Cross at Khartoum during the former conflict.
They arrived on the Western Front in 1914 as part of the original British Expeditionary Force and remained there throughout the conflict, mainly fighting as infantry but returning to their cavalry role during the final months of the war. They even captured 12 German cavalrymen in a horse-on-horse action at Montigny-les-Lens just one hour before the armistice came into effect at 11.00am on 11 November 1918.
From 1923 to 1928 the regiment was stationed in India again, but spent the rest of the inter-war period in Britain, where in 1936 it mechanised. It fought in northern France in May and June 1940 before evacuating from Brest. By November 1941 they had recovered and re-equipped, deploying to North Africa, fighting at Gazala and Alamein and at one point remaining in action continuously for a record 19 days - longer than any other armoured regiment in that theatre. It then shifted to Italy in May 1944 and remained in the Mediterranean until 1947, when they returned to Britain.
Apart from six years in West Germany from 1948 and three years in Libya and Jordan from 1954, the regiment then spent the rest of its life in Britain until it amalgamated with the 1st Dragoon Guards to form the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards in 1959.
Key facts
Motto:
- 'Pro Rege et Patria' (meaning 'For King and Country')
Nicknames:
- The Bays
- Rusty Buckles (shortly after moving from Ireland to England in the 18th century, the regiment's saddles had rust-prone steel buckles when all the Army's other cavalry regiments had switched over to brass)
Titles to date:
- Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse
- The Princess of Wales's Own Regiment of Horse
- The Queen's Own Regiment of Horse
- The Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards
- 2nd (The Queen's) Regiment of Dragoon Guards
- 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)
- The Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards)
- 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards
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