| Brief
History | History of the Regiment | Former
Titles | Battle of Dettingen | Famous
Soldiers | DD Tank |
HISTORY
OF THE ROYAL DRAGOON GUARDS
|
| The
Royal Dragoon Guards was formed on 1 August 1992, as a result of the
amalgamation of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the 5th Royal
Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. Both of these were in turn the result
of earlier amalgamations in the 1920's. The Royal Dragoon Guards now
carries with it the traditions and history of four of the finest Regiments
of the British Cavalry, the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th
Dragoon Guards, the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.
All four were raised between 1685 and 1689, during the protracted
contest between James II and William of Orange for the English throne.
Both the 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards were formed
in 1685 from Troops of Horse raised by James II to defend London
from the invasion. The Regiments were originally known as Arran's
Horse and Shrewsbury's Horse, taking the names from their Commanding
Officers, as was the custom in those times. In the event, these
Regiments, together with the rest of James's Army, refused to support
him and he fled to France, abandoning the throne to William of Orange.
The next year, however, still claiming the throne, he landed in
Ireland. Only Carrickfergus, Londonderry and Enniskillen held out
against him. The town of Enniskillen raised three Regiments from
Protestants who had taken refuge there. One of these was Conyngham's
Dragoons, which became the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. On 11th June
1690, King William himself landed at Carrickfergus with a Protestant
Army, which included both the 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards, and on
the 1st July that year, all three Regiments fought side by side
at the Battle of the Boyne. James was defeated and returned to France.
Back in England in 1688, Lord Devonshire raised
six Troops of Horse to mark his support for the new Protestant King.
Devonshire's Horse, as they were known, became the 7th (Princess
Royal's) Dragoon Guards. Within a few years they were to find themselves,
together with the 5th Dragoon Guards, embarked for Holland and Marlborough's
famous campaigns; both Regiments earning honours side by side at
Blenheim, Malplaquet, Ramillies and Oudenarde, as well as the celebrated
cavalry action at Elixem in 1705 where the 5th Dragoon Guards captured
Standards from the Bavarian Horse Grenadiers.
In
1720, King George I conferred the Colonelcy of the 7th Dragoon Guards
on Colonel John Ligonier. His influence was profound, and during
his twenty nine year tenure, the Regiment was to reach a peak of
discipline and training. It was at this time they acquired the nickname
'The Black Horse', and together with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons,
took part in the 1742 campaign in the War of the Austrian Succession,
gaining further honours; Dettingen and Fontenoy. At Dettingen, Cornet
Richardson of the 7th received thirty seven wounds whilst defending
the Regimental Standard. This Standard, the oldest surviving in
the Army, is held by this Museum. Little more than ten years later,
the 6th and the 7th again found themselves marching side by side,
this time through Paderborn to the Battle of Warburg, where both
Regiments took part in the famous Cavalry Charge which won the day
over the French for the Allied Forces under the Marquis of Granby.
|
|
|
|
| All
the while our two senior Regiments the 4th and 5th , were languishing
in Ireland, clocking up a total of some one hundred and eighty years
of joint service in that country. However, their moment was shortly
to come. Both played a major role in Wellington's Peninsula campaign
and gained honours including Salamanca, where the 5th Dragoon Guards
captured the Staff of the Drum Major of the French 66th Infantry Regiment.
This Staff is still carried today on parades by the Senior Regimental
WO2. Colonel Sir William Ponsonby, who commanded the Regiment at Salamanca,
was later killed whilst leading the Union Brigade charge at Waterloo.
The Inniskillings, who took part in this charge, were so praised by
the Duke of Wellington that a statue of an Inniskilling Dragoon was
erected on the Wellington Memorial in Hyde Park.
In 1854, the 4th, 5th and the 6th, who had last
fought together at the Boyne, rode together in the charge of the
Heavy Brigade at Balaclava. In this action, eight hundred men, commanded
by General James York-Scarlett, himself a past Commanding Officer
of the 5th Dragoon Guards, utterly routed nearly three thousand
five hundred of the Tsar's finest Cavalry, with minimal loss to
themselves, and so demoralised the Russian horseman that they did
not dare to follow up the subsequent disaster to the Light Brigade
later that same day.
After the Crimean War came several years of service
at home and in India for all our parent Regiments. The peace time
routine was broken briefly for the 4th and the 7th when in 1882,
they took part in the short, but spectacularly successful campaign
to defeat the forces of Arabi Pasha in Egypt. The campaign culminated
in the battle Tel El Kebir when an Egyptian Force of thirty eight
thousand men and sixty guns were defeated with the loss of only
fifty seven all ranks killed; the 4th and the 7th Dragoon Guards
escaping without a single casualty.
Such
one sided success was not to be repeated, however, during the Boer
War of 1899-1902, the 5th Dragoon Guards formed part of the force
besieged at Ladysmith, whilst the 6th Inniskillings and the 7th
'Black Horse' earned their spurs in innumerable skirmishes and many
long patrols over the Veldt. Two Officers serving at that time were
later to achieve world fame, Lieutenant
Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, who commanded the 5th Dragoon Guards,
was to put his South African experience to good use as the founder
of the Boy Scout Movement, while Captain
L E G Oates, of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, became a legend
of self sacrifice when, as a member of Scott's ill-fated Antarctic
Expedition of 1912, he chose to sacrifice himself rather than impede
the progress of his comrades. |
|
|
|
|
| Both
the 4th and the 5th Dragoon Guards saw action from the outset of the
First World War. Indeed history allows C Squadron, the 4th Dragoon
Guards the honour of the first action by the British Army in the War,
with Corporal Thomas firing the first shot and Captain Hornby the
first officer to draw blood with his sword. Only a few days later
the Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards, Lieutenant Colonel
G K Ansell, was killed in action at Nery. By October of that year
both the Inniskillings and the 7th had arrived in France from India.
All four Regiments spent the greater part of the next four years acting
in the dismounted role, but the last weeks of the War found both the
5th Dragoon Guards and the 7th Dragoon Guards in action again on horseback;
the 5th capturing or killing over seven hundred German troops when
they attacked a troop train at Harbonniers, and the 7th claiming the
last cavalry action of the War when they captured the town of Lessines.
In 1922, the large reductions in strength of the
Army brought about widespread amalgamation of cavalry regiments.
The 4th Royal Irish were combined with the 7th (Princess Royal's)
Dragoon Guards to form the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, while the 5th
and 6th amalgamated to form, initially the 5th/6th Dragoons, but
in 1927 this was changed to the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.
In the mid-1930s the title 'Royal' was awarded to both Regiments.
1938 brought about mechanisation for both Regiments, both initially
equipped with 4.5 ton two-man MK2 Light Tanks.
Only one year after mechanisation came mobilisation
and the start of World War 2. The two Regiments were the first armoured
units to be deployed to France in support of the British Expeditionary
Force, fighting side-by-side in the desperate but gallant withdrawal
to Dunkirk. Both Regiments spent the next four years training and
re-equipping with heavier tanks in preparation for the Normandy
landings. In 1940 a cadre of men from both Regiments was formed
which was to be the nucleus of a newly raised Cavalry Regiment,
the 22nd Dragoons. The 22nd Dragoons were disbanded after the war.
On D-Day, the specially prepared waterproofed tanks of the 4th/7th
Royal Dragoon Guards (DD Tanks) were the first tanks ashore. As
part of the Eighth Armoured Brigade, the 4th/7th were the first
armour to cross the River Seine and led the rescue column to Arnhem.
The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (the Skins) for their
part were in almost continuous action from Normandy to the end of
the War, taking part in the successful action to capture S-Hertogenbosch
and the breakout from the Rhine bridgehead.
After the war, the 4th/7th were dispatched to Palestine
to help in the peace keeping operations. The Skins completed tours
in Korea and the Suez Canal. Since the mid 1950s, both Regiments
have served in the Middle East, Aden, England, Germany, Northern
Ireland and Cyprus. The Royal Dragoon Guards, now equipped with
Challenger II, are stationed in Catterick Garrison, North
Yorkshire continuing a tradition
of service that now runs over three hundred years. The
regiment having completed their 2nd 6th month tour in Iraq in June
2008 were
presented with their campaign medals by HRH The Prince of Wales at
Clarence House, London. Followed by a Freedom Parade in their
home city of York whilst 30 members of the regiment took part in the
welcome home parade to Irish Troops held in Belfast, Northern
Ireland being part of the regiments recruiting area.
They now look forward to a year of training to prepare for their
tour in Afghanistan in 2010
|
|
RDG in Iraq 2008
Copyright David Rowlands |
|
