THE ROYAL DRAGOON GUARDS

Commanding Officer ~ Lt. Col. T (Tim) Hyams
The Royal Dragoon Guards, York Barracks, Munster British Forces Post Office 17
Tel: 00 49 251 927 2329
Email

Colonel of Regiment ~ Brigadier Clendon Daukes BA, MA, FCMI
Signet Farmhouse, Signet, Burford OX18 4JQ
Tel: 01993 823533

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF THE ROYAL DRAGOON GUARDS

History of the Regiment
The Royal Dragoon Guards formed on the 1st August 1992 as a result of the amalgamation of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.As both these were in their 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 in 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 to defend London from William’s expected invasion. The Regiments were originally known as Arran’s Horse and Shrewsbury’s Horse, taking their 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, James 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 the 5th Dragoon Guards. On the 1st July that year all three Regiments earned their first battle honour, fighting side by side at the Battle of the Boyne. James was defeated and returned to France.

Back in England in 1668 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 four standards from the Bavarian Horse Grenadiers.

In 1720 King George I conferred the colonelcy of 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 in 1743, Cornet Richardson Standard of the 7th received thirty seven wounds whilst defending the Regimental Standard. This standard, the oldest surviving in the Army, can still be seen today in the Regimental Museum in York. Little more that ten years later the 6th and 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.

During this period the two senior Regiments, the 4th and the 5th, were languishing in Ireland, clocking up a total of some one hundred and eighty years 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 out today on parades by the RQMS(T). 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 Hyde Park.

In 1854 the 4th, the 5th and the 6th, who last fought together at the Boyne, rode together again in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. In this action, eight hundred men, commanded by Major General J Yorke-Scarlett, himself a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards, routed nearly three thousand five hundred of the Tzar’s finest cavalry, with minimal loss to themselves, and so demoralised the Russian horsemen that they did not dare follow up the subsequent disaster to the Light Brigade later the same day.

After the Crimean War came several years service at home and in India for all our parent regiments. The peace time routine was broken briefly for the 4th and the 7th in 1882, when 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 of Tel-el-Kebir when an Egyptian force of thirty eight thousand men and sixty guns was defeated with the loss of only fifty seven all ranks killed; the 4th and 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 forces besieged at Ladysmith, whilst the 6th Inniskillings and the 7th “Black Horse” earned their spurs in innumerable skirmishes and many long patrols over the veld. Two officers serving at that time were later to achieve world wide 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 Lieutenant L E G Oates, of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, became a legend of self 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 1914 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 at 10.55am on the 11th November 1918.

In 1922,the large reductions in the strength of the Army brought about widespread amalgamations 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 5/6th Dragoons, but in 1927 this was changed to the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. 1938 brought about mechanization for both Regiments, with both initially equipped with the 4.5 ton two-man MK2 Light Tank.

Only one year after mechanization came mobilization and the start of the Second World War. 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 reequipping with heavier tanks in preparation for the Normandy landings, and 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 sum of the 4th, 5th 6th and 7th). The 22nd Dragoons were disbanded after the War. On D-Day the 4th/7th, as part of the Eighth Armoured Brigade, were the first tanks to land on Gold Beach in Normandy leading the advance on Caen; their tanks were also the first to cross the river Seine and they led the rescue column to Arnhem. The Regiment still wear the same identification flash on the Service Dress that was first worn by the 4th/7th in 1939 prior to their deployment to France. The Skins for their part were in almost continuous action from after Normandy to the end of the War, taking part in the successful action to capture S-Hertogenbosch and the break out from the Rhine bridgehead.

After the War, the 4th/7th were dispatched to Palestine to help in the peace keeping operations there. The Skins completed tours in Korea and the Suez Canal. Since the mid 1950’s both Regiments have served in the Middle East, Aden, England, Germany, Northern Ireland and Cyprus. The Royal Dragoon Guards, now equipped with Challenger, is a front line armoured Regiment in the Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, continuing a tradition of service that runs for over three hundred years.

1 RECRUITING AREAS – Yorkshire, Northern Ireland, Cheshire and Cumbria.

2 REGIMENTAL MOTTO – The Regimental Motto is “Quis Separabit” which means “Who shall separate us?”.

3 REGIMENTAL COLOURS – The Regimental colours are maroon, gold and green.

Regimental Days
A OATES SUNDAY
History – Captain LEG Oates served with the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. In 1911 he joined Captain Scott’s illfated Antartic Expedition and was put in charge of the ponies and dogs.He was selected to accompany Scott on the final leg of the journey to the South Pole. On the return journey Oates began to sufffer from severe frost bite to his feet. The swelling and intense pain almost paralysed him and he began to handicap the team’s chances of survival. Oates realised that he was becoming a hindrance and on the 17th March 1912, his 32nd birthday, he walked to his death. It was blowing a blizzard and Oates left the security of the shelter and said “I am going outside and may be sometime”. It was a selfless act of bravery that allowed his fellow adventurers a greater chance of survival.

B ST PATRICK’S DAY
History – St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in respect of the Irish traditions of two of our founder regiments, the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.

C DETTINGEN DAY
History – In 1742 King George II decided on active intervention for the cause of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, acting under a pledge to support her accession as Elector of Hanover, when she came under attack from France and Bavaria. An allied army of British and Hanoverian troops led by the King himself defeated the aggressors at Dettigen in 1743. The 7th Dragoon Guards fought along side the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons in this battle. The standard of the 7th was carried by Cornet Henry Richardson, who suffered 37 wounds in its defence. The Standard was presented by the “Black Horse” to Cornet Richardson when the regiment received its new standard. When the 7th Dragoon Guards were in India in 1911 they found it was customary to have a “Red Letter Day” which was observed as a general holiday. The regiment selected 27 June, the anniversary of the Battle of Dettingen. It was alsothe last appearance of a king of England in battle at the head of his troops.

Regimental Competitions
There are two major competitions each year, the inter troop tactical and skills competition (the Ansell Cup) and the inter squadron sports competition (the Shamrock Cup).

In addition the Colonel-in-Chief has presented the Regiment with a trophy which will be presented to the sabre squadron which has performed best overall in the Ansell and Shamrock Cups. The winning squadron will be known as the Prince of Wales’s Squadron for the year following their victory and will be at the right of the line on parades. The tanks of the Prince of Wales’s Squadron will carry the Prince of Wales’s feathers.

Regimental Council
The Regimental Council is the body of senior Regimental officers who support the Colonel of the Regiment in the direction of Regimental business and are the Trustees of the Serving Officers’ Regimental Trust and the Museum.

Officers’s Mess
Mess rules stipulate how the Mess functions. However there are certain traditions that are not included in the rules:

THE LOYAL TOAST – The Loyal Toast is drunk only on specific occasions usually when Royalty are present or when foreign guests are entertained and the health of their Head of State. During guest nights the National Anthem is played but officers remain seated and talk. Both the 4th/7th and the Skins observed the same custom which is thought to have started at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745.

CENTREPIECE AND SHILLELAH – The Springbok centrepiece faces the Commanding Officer or the senior officer present at dinner. Only the Commanding Officer can bring out the Shillelah and it should only go once around the table.

DUNKIRK DINNER – A stag dinner night in June when all the warrant officers are invited in memory of the bonding that was so important in the desperate and gallant withdrawal to Dunkirk.

CHRISTMAS – The Warrant Officers’ and Sargeants’ Mess members are invited with their wives for lunch in the Officers Mess before the Christmas standdown. The officers serve the soldiers their Christmas lunch.

The Regimental Band of Pipes and Drums
The Band formed at the formation of the Regiment in 1992. Membership is voluntary and is drawn from across the Regiment. It is a part time and unestablished organisation that was raised in an attempt to retain an indigenous band prior to the loss of our brass band in 1993. The priorities for its engagements are Regimental functions, functions where it represents the Regiment and finally private functionswhen charges are paid into the Pipes and Drums Fund.

Regimental Home Headquarters
Home Headquarters is at 3 Tower Street, York. It is the one permanent base for the Regiment and is the home for the Regimental Secretary and his staff. It provides the link between the serving and retired members of the Regiment, it administers various welfare funds for the old comrades and is generally the focal point for the Association. It also administers all potential officers.

SERVING OFFICERS’ REGIMENTAL TRUST (SORT) – All officers subscribe to this trust. The trust owns all the Officers’Mess property and its income is used to pay for the insurance of mess property and to provide sporting grants for serving officers. The Regimental Paymaster is the Secretary of the SORT and all applications for grants must be made in writing to the Commanding Officer stating what it is for and how much his personal contribution is likely to be. All the bids for SORT grants are then submitted by the Commanding Officer to the Trustees for approval at the Annual Trustees Meeting.

REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION – All members of the Regiment are encouraged to subscribe to the Association. The income is used primarily for the welfare of old comrades but is also used to provide sporting or adventurous grants to soldiers and for any projects that promote the good name of the Regiment. All applications for serving soldiers are to be made as for the SORT.

Regimental Publications
JOURNAL – The Journal is the annual Regimental magazine and is produced by the Regiment in time for the Cavalry Memorial Parade of the following year. It chronicles the calendar year and includes articles from the Regiment, those at ERE and the Association. It is distributed to everyone at Regimental Duty and ERE who subscribe to the Association and to all those members of the Association who subscribe to the Journal Fund.

ERE NEWSLETTER – Produced by the Adjutant at the middle and end of the year to update those at ERE of any changes to Regimental matters and will include an updated Regimental Staff and Social List and a Forecast of Events.

OUT AND ABOUT – Produced by the Regimental Secretary three times a year to keep members of the Association informed of Association and key Regimental business.

Regimental Museums
The Regimental Museum is managed by the Trustees and the Regimental Secretary and is housed at Home Headquarters in York. However artefacts from the 5th Dragoon Guards can be seen in the Cheshire Regiment Museum at the Castle in Chester and artefacts from the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons are displayed in the Museum of the Enniskillen Regiments at the Castle Barracks, Enniskillen.