Royal Gloucestershire Hussars cap badge from the period of the Imperial Yeomanry
The
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was a
volunteeryeomanryregiment which, in the 20th century, became part of the British
Army Reserve. It traced its origins to the First or
Cheltenham Troop of Gloucestershire Gentleman and Yeomanry raised in 1795, although a break in the lineage means that its formation is dated to the
Marshfield and
Dodington Troop raised in 1830. Six further
troops – officered by
nobility and
gentry, and recruited largely from among
landholders and
tenant farmers – were subsequently raised in
Gloucestershire, and in 1834 they came together to form the Gloucestershire Yeomanry Cavalry. In 1847, the regiment adopted a
hussar uniform and the name Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. Originally intended to counter insurrection and a
French invasion that never materialised, the yeomanry's first deployments were ceremonial and as mounted police during times of civil unrest. Three Gloucestershire troops were deployed to Bristol on two separate occasions in the 1830s in support of the civil authorities.
From the mid-19th century, the yeomanry's policing role diminished with the establishment of a
civilian police force, and renewed fears of invasion turned its focus to national defence. The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars' first
battle honour was won in South Africa during the
Second Boer War, when a contingent of Gloucestershire yeomanry served as mounted infantry in the
Imperial Yeomanry. Before the
First World War, all volunteer forces, including the yeomanry, were brought into the
Territorial Force. On the outbreak of the war the regiment raised a second-line unit, which remained in the UK and became a cyclist unit in 1916, and a third-line unit, which served as a reserve. The first-line unit saw action as infantry at
Gallipoli and as cavalry in the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign; in the latter it fought both mounted and dismounted from the Suez Canal to Aleppo in modern-day Syria. Following the war, the regiment was downsized and converted to the 21st (Royal Gloucestershire Hussars) Armoured Car Company. (
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