Yeomanry
Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Territorial Army, descended from volunteer cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units may serve in a variety of different military roles.
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History [edit]
In the 1790s, the threat of invasion of the Kingdom of Great Britain was high, after the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. To improve the country's defences, volunteer regiments were raised in many counties from yeomen. While the word "yeoman" in normal use meant a small farmer who owned his land, Yeomanry officers were drawn from the nobility or the landed gentry, and many of the men were the officers' tenants or had other forms of obligation to the officers. These regiments became known collectively as the Yeomanry. Members of the yeomanry were not obliged to serve overseas without their individual consent.
During the first half of the nineteenth century Yeomanry Regiments were used extensively in support of the civil authority to quell riots and civil disturbances, including the Peterloo Massacre; as police forces were created and took over this role, the Yeomanry concentrated on local defence.
During the Second Boer War companies of Imperial Yeomanry were formed to serve overseas from volunteers from the Yeomanry. In 1901 all yeomanry regiments were redesignated as "Imperial Yeomanry", and reorganised.
In 1908 the Imperial Yeomanry was merged with the Volunteer Force to form the Territorial Force, of which it became the cavalry arm. The "Imperial" title was dropped at the same time.
Following the First World War the Territorial Force was redesignated as the Territorial Army. Following the experience of the war, only the fourteen senior yeomanry regiments retained their horses, with the rest being rerolled as armoured car companies, artillery, engineers, or signals. Two regiments were disbanded. The converted units retained their yeomanry traditions, with some artillery regiments having individual batteries representing different yeomanry units.
On the eve of the Second World War the Territorial Army was doubled in size, with duplicate units formed; this led to some regiments being de-amalgamated. The last mounted regiment of yeomanry was the Queen's Own Yorkshire Dragoons, who were converted to an armoured role in March 1942. Volunteers from the Yeomanry served in the Long Range Desert Group from 1940 through to 1943, incorporated into "Y Patrol".[1]
There were reductions in the size of the TA in 1957 and 1961 and this led to amalgamation of some pairs of yeomanry regiments. There was a major reduction in reserve forces in 1967 with the formation of the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve, and all existing yeomanry regiments were reduced to squadron, company or battery sub-units. A number of further reorganisations have taken place since then.
Current Yeomanry Regiments [edit]
Today, in the modern Territorial Army, there are many former Yeomanry regiments serving in one form or another, usually as a squadron/battery that is part of a larger unit:
Royal Armoured Corps [edit]
- Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales's Own)
- Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
- Leicestershire and Derbyshire (Prince Albert's Own) Yeomanry
- Kent and Sharpshooters Yeomanry
- Westminster Dragoons
- Inns of Court and City Yeomanry
- Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales's Own)
- Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
- Royal Devon Yeomanry
- Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry
- Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry
- Shropshire Yeomanry
- Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's)
- Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry
- Yorkshire Yeomanry
- Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry
- Northumberland Hussars
- Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse
- North Irish Horse
Infantry [edit]
Royal Signals [edit]
- Independent Squadrons
- Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars)
- 32 (Scottish) Signal Regiment
- 33 (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment
- Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's)
- 35 (South Midlands) Signal Regiment
- 36 (Eastern) Signal Regiment
- 37 (Wessex and Welsh) Signal Regiment
- 40 (Ulster) Signal Regiment
- 71 (Yeomanry) Signal Regiment
- Middlesex Yeomanry (Duke of Cambridge's Hussars)
- Inns of Court & City and Essex Yeomanry
- Kent and County of London Yeomanry
Royal Artillery [edit]
- 100 Regiment
- 104 Regiment
- 106 (Yeomanry) Regiment
- Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers)
Army Air Corps [edit]
- 6 Regiment, Army Air Corps
Royal Engineers [edit]
- 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment
- Surrey Yeomanry (Queen Mary's Regiment)
- Sussex Yeomanry
- 71 Engineer Regiment
Royal Logistic Corps [edit]
Army Medical Services [edit]
- First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (all-female unit, carried out secret intelligence, motor transport and nursing, duties during the Second World War).
Yeomanry Regiments with more than one unit [edit]
Most of the old yeomanry regiments are perpetuated through a single unit, be it an armoured, engineers or signal squadron, or an artillery battery. However, there are seven yeomanry regiments that maintain more than one unit:
- Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's)
- Challenger 2 Replacement Squadron
- Signals Squadron
- Signals Squadron
- Regimental Band
- NBC Recce Squadron
- Signals Squadron
- Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron
- Signals Squadron
- NBC Recce Squadron
- Armoured Replacement Squadron
- Challenger 2 Replacement Squadron
- Signals Squadron
- Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron (now part of Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse)
- Army Air Corp Squadron (Regular); later (Volunteer).
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Arthur Taylor, Discovering British Cavalry Regiments, Aylesbury, 1973
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