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.
History
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. In order to improve the country's defences, volunteer regiments were raised in many counties from yeomen. The word "yeoman" refers to small farmers who owned the land they cultivated as opposed to peasants, but the officers were drawn from the nobility and many of the men were their tenants. 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), but as police forces 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 reroled 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".
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 in the intervening years.
Current Yeomanry Regiments
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
Royal Yeomanry
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 Wessex Yeomanry
Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales's Own)
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
Royal Devon Yeomanry
Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry
Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry
Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry
Shropshire Yeomanry
Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's)
Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry
Queen's Own Yeomanry
Yorkshire Yeomanry
Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry
Northumberland Hussars
Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse
North Irish Horse
Infantry
Royal Regiment of Scotland
Lovat Scouts
Royal Welsh
Denbighshire Hussars
Flintshire and Denbighshire Yeomanry
Royal Signals
Independent Squadrons
Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars)
32 (Scottish) Signal Regiment
Lanarkshire and Glasgow Yeomanry
33 (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment
Cheshire Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's)
35 (South Midlands) Signal Regiment
Shropshire Yeomanry
36 (Eastern) Signal Regiment
Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars
37 (Wessex and Welsh) Signal Regiment
Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry
39 (Skinners) Signal Regiment
Middlesex Yeomanry (Duke of Cambridge's Hussars)
North Somerset Yeomanry
Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars
Berkshire Yeomanry
40 (Ulster) Signal Regiment
North Irish Horse
71 (Yeomanry) Signal Regiment
Essex Yeomanry
Inns of Court and City Yeomanry
Kent and County of London Yeomanry
Royal Artillery
100 Regiment
Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Yeomanry
South Nottinghamshire Hussars Yeomanry
104 Regiment
Glamorgan Yeomanry
106 (Yeomanry) Regiment
Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers)
Army Air Corps
6 Regiment, Army Air Corps
Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry
Royal Engineers
101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment
Surrey Yeomanry (Queen Mary's Regiment)
Sussex Yeomanry
71 Engineer Regiment
Lovat Scouts
Royal Logistic Corps
157 Transport Regiment
Pembroke Yeomanry
Army Medical Services
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps)
Yeomanry Regiments with more than one unit
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
Inns of Court and City Yeomanry
Signals Squadron
Regimental Band
Kent and Sharpshooters Yeomanry
NBC Recce Squadron
Signals Squadron
North Irish Horse
Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron
Signals Squadron
Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry
NBC Recce Squadron
Armoured Replacement Squadron
Shropshire Yeomanry
Challenger 2 Replacement Squadron
Signals Squadron
The Scottish Horse
Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron (now part of Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse)
Army Air Corp Squadron (Regular)
Translation
The word "Yeomanry" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German, French, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish.
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