Royal Horse Guards
Encyclopedia
The Royal Horse Guards was a cavalry regiment
of the British Army
, part of the Household Cavalry
.
Founded August 1650 in Newcastle Upon Tyne by Sir Arthur Haselrig
on the orders of Oliver Cromwell
as the Regiment of Cuirassiers, the regiment
became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment during the reign of King Charles II. As the regiment's uniform was blue in colour at the time, it was nicknamed "the Oxford Blues", from which was derived the nickname the "Blues." In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).
In 1918, the regiment served as the 3rd Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment
. During the Second World War the regiment was part of the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment.
The RHG was amalgamated with the Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons)
to form the Blues and Royals
(Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) in 1969.
Cavalry regiments of the British Army
There are currently nine regular cavalry regiments of the British Army, with two tank regiments provided by the Royal Tank Regiment, traditionally classed alongside the cavalry, for a total of eleven regiments. Of these, five serve as armoured regiments, and five as formation reconnaissance...
of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, part of the Household Cavalry
Household Cavalry
The term Household Cavalry is used across the Commonwealth to describe the cavalry of the Household Divisions, a country’s most elite or historically senior military groupings or those military groupings that provide functions associated directly with the Head of state.Canada's Governor General's...
.
Founded August 1650 in Newcastle Upon Tyne by Sir Arthur Haselrig
Arthur Haselrig
Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and 1659. He was one of the five members of Parliament whom King Charles I tried to arrest in 1642, an event which led to the start of the English Civil War...
on the orders of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
as the Regiment of Cuirassiers, the regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
became the Earl of Oxford's Regiment during the reign of King Charles II. As the regiment's uniform was blue in colour at the time, it was nicknamed "the Oxford Blues", from which was derived the nickname the "Blues." In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).
In 1918, the regiment served as the 3rd Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment
Guards Machine Gun Regiment
The Guards Machine Gun Regiment was a regiment of the British Army. It was initially formed in 1915 when machine gun companies were formed in the Guards Division. In April 1917, the four companies were grouped together as a single battalion of the Machine Gun Guards, before being re-designated by...
. During the Second World War the regiment was part of the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment.
The RHG was amalgamated with the Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons)
Royal Dragoons
The Royal Dragoons was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661, and served until 1969, when it was amalgamated with the Royal Horse Guards to form The Blues and Royals....
to form the Blues and Royals
Blues and Royals
The Blues and Royals is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. The Colonel-in-Chief is Her Majesty The Queen and the Colonel is HRH The Princess Royal...
(Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) in 1969.
Battle honours
- DettingenBattle of DettingenThe Battle of Dettingen took place on 27 June 1743 at Dettingen in Bavaria during the War of the Austrian Succession. It was the last time that a British monarch personally led his troops into battle...
, WarburgBattle of WarburgThe Battle of Warburg was a battle fought on 31 July 1760 during the Seven Years' War. The Battle was a victory for the Hanoverians and the British against the French. British general John Manners, Marquess of Granby achieved some fame for charging at the head of the British cavalry and losing his...
, BeaumontBattle of Beaumont (1794)The Battle of Beaumont-en-Cambresis 26th April 1794 was an action forming part of a multi-pronged attempt to relieve the besieged fortress of Landrecies, during the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary War...
, WillemsFlanders CampaignThis feature refers to the conflict that took place during the Wars of the French Revolution 1792–1801.For the Low Countries campaigns of the War of the Grand Alliance 1688–97 see Nine Years' War...
, PeninsulaPeninsular WarThe Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, WaterlooBattle of WaterlooThe Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882, Relief of Kimberley, PaardebergBattle of PaardebergThe Battle of Paardeberg or Perdeberg was a major battle during the Second Anglo-Boer War. It was fought near Paardeberg Drift on the banks of the Modder River in the Orange Free State near Kimberley....
, South Africa 1899-1900Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
- The Great War: MonsBattle of MonsThe Battle of Mons was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War. It was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. At Mons, the British army attempted to hold the line of the...
, Le CateauBattle of Le CateauThe Battle of Le Cateau was fought on 26 August 1914, after the British, French and Belgians retreated from the Battle of Mons and had set up defensive positions in a fighting withdrawal against the German advance at Le Cateau-Cambrésis....
, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914First Battle of the MarneThe Battle of the Marne was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive that opened the war and had...
, Aisne 1914First Battle of the AisneThe First Battle of the Aisne was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army & Second Army as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914...
, Messines 1914Battle of Messines (1914)The battle of Messines was a battle fought in October 1914 between the German Empire and the British Empire, as part of the Race to the Sea. It took place between the river Douve and the Comines-Ypres canal.-External links:* at historyofwar.org...
, Armentières 1914Battle of ArmentièresThis battle was part of Race to Sea campaign. During this battle the British successfully held the line in their sector, against repeated German assaults.To the south it merged into the battle of La Bassée, to the north into the battle of Messines....
, Ypres 1914First Battle of YpresThe First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...
'15Second Battle of YpresThe Second Battle of Ypres was the first time Germany used poison gas on a large scale on the Western Front in the First World War and the first time a former colonial force pushed back a major European power on European soil, which occurred in the battle of St...
'17, Langemarck 1914First Battle of YpresThe First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...
, GheluveltFirst Battle of YpresThe First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...
, Nonne BosschenFirst Battle of YpresThe First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...
, St Julien, FrezenbergSecond Battle of YpresThe Second Battle of Ypres was the first time Germany used poison gas on a large scale on the Western Front in the First World War and the first time a former colonial force pushed back a major European power on European soil, which occurred in the battle of St...
, LoosBattle of LoosThe Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army...
, Arras 1917Battle of Arras (1917)The Battle of Arras was a British offensive during the First World War. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British, Canadian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras on the Western Front....
, Scarpe 1917Battle of the ScarpeThe Battle of the Scarpe refers to a number of battles fought on the Western Front during World War I in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France:...
, BroodseindeBattle of BroodseindeThe Battle of Broodseinde was the most successful attack of the Battle of Passchendaele. Using the "bite and hold" tactic , the Allied forces conducted an attack on well-entrenched German forces and showed that it was possible for the allies to overcome even the stoutest German...
, PoelcappelleBattle of PoelcappelleThe Battle of Poelcappelle marked the end of highly successful British attacks during the Battle of Passchendaele. Pitting the attacking forces against relatively intact German defences in rain and muddy conditions like those in August, the main attack was a failure and only the diversionary attack...
, Passchendaele, Hindenburg LineHundred Days OffensiveThe Hundred Days Offensive was the final period of the First World War, during which the Allies launched a series of offensives against the Central Powers on the Western Front from 8 August to 11 November 1918, beginning with the Battle of Amiens. The offensive forced the German armies to retreat...
, Cambrai 1918Battle of Cambrai (1918)The Battle of Cambrai was a battle between troops of the British First, Third and Fourth Armies and German Empire forces during the Hundred Days Offensive of the First World War. The battle took place in and around the French city of Cambrai, between 8 and 10 October 1918...
, SambreBattle of the Sambre (1918)The Second Battle of the Sambre was part of the final European Allied offensives of World War I.-Background:...
, France and Flanders 1914-18Western Front (World War I)Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
- The Second World WarWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
: Mont PinçonOperation BluecoatOperation Bluecoat was an attack by the British Second Army at the Battle of Normandy during the Second World War, from 30 July – 7 August 1944. The geographical objectives of the attack were to secure the key road junction of Vire and the high ground of Mont Pinçon...
, SouleuvreOperation BluecoatOperation Bluecoat was an attack by the British Second Army at the Battle of Normandy during the Second World War, from 30 July – 7 August 1944. The geographical objectives of the attack were to secure the key road junction of Vire and the high ground of Mont Pinçon...
, Noireau Crossing, Amiens 1944, Brussels, Neerpelt, Nederrijn, Nijmegen, Lingen, Bentheim, North-West Europe 1944-45, Baghdad 1941, Iraq 1941, Palmyra, Syria 1941, El Alamein, North Africa 1942-43, Arezzo, Advance to Florence, Gothic Line, Italy 1944