1st King's Dragoon Guards

[Maroon]

Formation of the Regiment & The Early Years The regiment was originally raised in June 1685, this makes it the oldest line-cavalry regiment in the British Army. When James II came to the throne in 1685, the accession of a Catholic king was deeply unpopular in protestant Britain. The Duke of Monmouth, Charles II’s illegitimate son, played on this sentiment to launch a bid for the throne.  In response James raised a number of regiments, one of which was Lanier’s Regiment of Horse, named after its first colonel, but then renamed the Queen’s Regiment of Horse in honour of James’ wife, Mary of Modena.  The regiment’s first task was to escort Monmouth to London (and eventual execution) after his defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor. By a strange irony of history, the regiment’s first experience of active service was as part of William III’s expedition to Ireland in 1690 against a rebellion raised by the now dethroned James during which they saw action at the Battles of the Boyne and Aughrim. They were part of Marlborough’s army during the War of Spanish Succession, earning their first battle honours at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706) and Oudenarde (1708).  They were also present at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. In 1714 they became the King’s Own Regiment of Horse, in honour of the accession of George I, and at Dettingen (the last battle commanded by a British king in person) in 1743 they stood their ground under prolonged French cannon fire and then engaged in a fierce hand to hand fight against a regiment of Gendarmes.

King James II inspects Lanier's Regiment of Horse (1685)

Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (1780)

Dragoon Guards & The Musket Era British governments have always regarded the army as a prime source for cuts when they need to save money, which was the situation in 1746.  Regiments of horse were more expensive than dragoons, so money could be saved by downgrading the King’s Own to dragoon status, a decision which was bitterly resented.  A compromise was eventually reached.  In 1751, along with several other regiments of horse, they became dragoon guards, and were given precedence over the existing dragoon regiments. Their next continental expedition was during the Seven Years’ War when they twice saw action in 1760.  At Corbach their successful charge was said to have saved the British army, while at Warburg they took part  in another crucial charge, most famous for being the occasion when the Marquis of Granby lost his wig.  (There are many pubs named the Marquis of Granby and the signs still denote the wigless Marquis.) The unit's 18th century officers included William Pitt the Elder, later a noted wartime prime minister, and Banastre Tarleton, who became a notorious cavalry commander in the American Revolutionary War soon after joining the regiment. The 1st Dragoon Guards took part in the first British expedition against the French revolutionary forces in 1793 and won a battle honour at Beaumont.  Thereafter they were on home service until 1815 where they were called into service for the Waterloo Campaign. The King’s Dragoon Guards were increased to strength of twelve troops, totalling 1,148 officers and men.  In early April 27 officers and 505 men with 537 horses, were ordered to the Low Countries under the command of Lt.Colonel William Fuller, to join the British army assembling around Brussels.  Regimental HQ was established around at St Levens Asche with troops billeted around at Eygam, Liederkerke, Nyderhasselt, Aloste and Denderleur. The King’s Dragoon Guards were brigaded in the Household Cavalry Brigade under the command of Major General Lord Edward Somerset.  The brigade was made up of two squadrons each of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, with four squadrons of the KDG.  Of the 1,349 sabres of the brigade mustered at Waterloo, almost forty percent of the total, 530 sabres were KDG.

The Battle of Waterloo The KDG had been standing to since daylight, when at 8am they were ordered to water their horses a little way to the rear.  They then resumed their position.  It was nearly two o’clock before a mass of the enemy were to be seen about two miles away.  Lord Uxbridge pointed out to Wellington that with defiles in their rear and the infantry to far off to be able to offer effective support, they were not in a good position.  The Duke agreed and the order was given to retreat in three columns.  The KDG were with the centre column, and as they steadily retired down the Brussels road, they halted from time to time and formed up on either side of the road.  The French ignored the two flank columns and concentrated their attention on the centre. The two heavy brigades had moved off at he head of the centre column, and as they reached the narrow winding street through Genappe, there was not a soul to be seen.  Lord Uxbridge halted the two brigades along the ridge, which runs some 700 yards up the slope leading out of Genappe; the household brigade was on the left of the road facing the French advance, whilst the Union Brigade formed up on the right.  Eighteen squadrons of French cavalry were now entering Genappe and as their lancers came through the town, they halted for about 15 minutes, facing the British heavies.  Those behind could see that the front ranks had halted, and as they pressed on, the whole mass of French cavalry became jammed between the houses.  Uxbridge seeing their indecision ordered the 7th Hussars to charge, which they did but with little effect on the dense masses.  The French then advanced and drove back the 7th, and the contest relapsed into a seesaw.  At this point the Life Guards were ordered to charge.  As the Life Guards charged, the KDG formed up behind them as a second line, but their services were not needed.  This left the KDG forming the rearguard as the British cavalry fell back onto the position at Mont St Jean, in front of Waterloo.  After Genappe the French kept their distance, and although on one or two occasions they made as if to attack, they never pressed forward.  So the retreat continued at a slow pace, the KDG retiring by alternate squadrons and with ‘perfect regularity’.  At last the weary troopers dismounted and bivouacked near the farm of Mont St Jean. The next day, at twelve, a general cannonade commenced, by which the regiment experienced some losses.  The men were ordered to dismount and lie on the ground besides their horses, so as to avoid the worst of the cannon fire. Napoleon had formed a simple plan of battle: he would open by attacking the right of the British position at the farm of Hougoumont, hoping to draw off Wellington’s reserves to its support.  The main assault, supported by a battery of eighty guns, would smash through the centre of the Allied position on either side of the Brussels road.  The assault on Hougoumont was pressed home by Jerome, Napoleon’s brother, but the Guards persistently foiled each attack, and more of the French reserves began to be drawn into what had only been intended as spoiling attack.

Army Deployment at The Battle of Waterloo (18th June 1815)

French Cuirassiers order the charge at Waterloo.

At 1.30 pm., in the centre, d’Erlon’s corps of 4 divisions, comprising some 16,000 men started to advance across the valley towards the left centre of the British position.  The Emperor ordered Milhaud to support this attack with Dubois’s brigade from the 13th Cavalry Division of the 4th Heavy Cavalry Corps.  This comprised 1st and 4th Cuirassiers, who moved off at a trot crossing the Brussels road.  A hundred yards south of the farm of La Haye Sainte they formed into line, broke into gallop, and caught a battalion of Hanoverians from Kielmansegge’s brigade, who had been sent to reinforce La Haye Sainte, and wiped them out.  Nine squadrons came past the farm on the right, and two on the left, rejoining as they passed by, to sweep on up the slope towards the very centre of the British line. On the right of the cuirassier’s came d’Erlon’s infantry.  As they advanced a Dutch-Belgian brigade, who had received a tremendous pouting from the French cannon, broke and fled before them, creating a gap in the Allied line which was quickly plugged by Kempt’s 8th British Brigade.  The whole weight of the assault now fell on Picton’s 3rd Division, and it seemed as though it was up to these 4,000 veterans British infantry to halt the 16,000 of d’Erlon’s Corps, and the eleven squadrons of Dubois’s cuirassiers. The four subalterns of the household Brigade, posted on the ridge, had reported back to Lord Edward Somerset on the French advance, and he deployed his brigade into line.  Uxbridge ordered Somerset to charge the cuirassiers, and then rode over to Ponsonby, in command of the Union Brigade, and ordered him to charge d’Erlon’s infantry as soon a she saw Somerset move.  The brigade deployed outwards at 2.20 pm., moving by threes to left and right, which took the left flank across the Brussels road.  The KDG in the centre, and the 1st Life Guards on the right, wheeled left by threes and moved off at once.  Owing to the urgency of the situation the 2nd Life Guards where still wheeling by threes to their right after the rest had started to advance.  The King’s Dragoon Guards and the 1st Life Guards descended into a sunken road athwart the ridge, crossed it and scrambled up the bank opposite.  On reaching the top they checked for moment to steady the line, and charged.  As they galloped forward, their right flank became advanced, so that the 1st and 4th cuirassiers were struck obliquely. The Brigade and the cuirassiers came to the shock the like two walls, in the most perfect lines.  I believe this line was maintained throughout.  A short struggle enabled us to break through them, notwithstanding the great disadvantage arising from our swords, which were full six inches shorter than those of the Cuirassiers, besides it being the custom of our Service to carry the swords in a very bad position whilst charging, the French carrying theirs in a manner much less fatiguing, and also better for either attack or defence.  Having once penetrated their line, we rode over everything opposed to us.

Uxbridge’s charge, perfectly timed, hit the French at their moment of savering, with their horses blown and winded by the long advance over slippery ground – much of which was uphill plough land, into which the horses sank up to their knees.  The opposing lines met with a crash, and the superior weight of the British heavies, both in men and horses, together with the advantage of the downhill slope, overthrew the French. The 2nd Life Guards on the left of the brigade were the last to form line, and when they came to cross the sunken road running along the ridge of Mont St Jean, they plunged down onto a mass of cuirassiers that had taken refuge there.  They were followed by the left-hand squadron of The King’s Dragoon Guards, and the whole surging mass of horsemen, cutting and thrusting as they went, poured across the main Brussels road opposite the farm of La Haye Sainte.  The confused welter of cavalry hit the remains of d’Erlon’s Infantry, which had just been broken by the charge of the Union Brigade on the left of the Household troops. The farm of La Haye Sainte had acted as a breakwater to the charge of the Household Brigade; most of the King’s Dragoon Guards went with the 1st Life Guards, the Blues being in support, to the right of the farm, but at least a squadron and a half veered t the left with the 2nd Life Guards; there they joined the Union Brigade of the Royal Dragoons, Greys and Inniskillings, slaughtering d’Erlon’s infantry as they went. Lord Edward Somerset reported that ‘the 2nd Life Guards, on the left of the Brigade, drove a portion of the Cuirassiers across the chaussee to the rear of La Haye Sainte, and down the slope.  Here they were joined by the King’s Dragoon Guards, who had crossed the road in front of the farm, and the two Regiment becoming mingled with Ponsonby’s Cavalry, lost all regularity in the eagerness of the pursuit.’  By now the men were out of hand, excited and paying no attention to shouted orders or trumpet calls as they falloped up the other side of the valley and through the Great Battery of French guns. Napoleon now brought up Gobrecht’s brigade of Jacquinot’s division, consisting of the 3rd and 4th Lancers, who came in from the flank and chased any British cavalryman they could find, while from the centre of the French position the 5th and 10th Cuirassiers of Delort’s brigade began to sweep the valley clear of the British stragglers. John Hibbert records the scene:  ‘an immense body of Lancers who were sent for the purpose of attacking them met them.  Our men were rendered desperate by their situation.  They were resolved to get our of the scrape or die, rather than be taken prisoners, so they attacked them, and three troops cut their way through them; about a troop were killed or taken prisoner.’

The 1st King's Dragoon Guards charging at Waterloo.

The 1st King's Dragoon Guards fighting French Dragoons at Waterloo.

The losses to the King’s Dragoon Guards from that first charge were heavy.  The commanding officer Lt.Colonel Fuller was missing, Major Graham 2nd in command and Major Bringhurst killed as was Captain Battersby, the Adjutant Lt Shelver and Lieutenant Brooke, also killed was Cornet the Hon H B Bernard, also lost were five entire troops out of eight reducing the effective strength of the KDG to three troops, but their part in the battle was by no means concluded.  The celebrated charge of the two heavy cavalry brigades as been much dramatised and criticised-the latter justly so, for there was loss of discipline and cohesion with disastrous results, especially, within the KDG, among those who had veered to the left of La Haye Sainte.  But the effects of the charge cannot be underestimated: Dubois cuirassiers were annihilated, d’Erlons whole corps was destroyed and-something that is often overlooked – a major part of the Great Battery was put out of action for some critical hours. There was at this point, about 3.30 pm, A lull in the battle, and Wellington moved his infantry back off the crest and made them lie down.  The cavalry was not so fortunate, for it had to continue in support of the infantry remain mounted.  Marshall Ney was misled by Wellington’s action in withdrawing the infantry, which, together with the movement of wounded to the rear, persuaded him that a massive charge would clear the crest and provide the coup de grace.  He accordingly gathered and personally led 43 squadrons of cavalry against the centre of the British Position.  As the French cavalry came surging forward, the remains of the household Cavalry Brigade, drawn up in its original position, was given the order to charge, Lord Uxbridge putting himself at their head.  It was now 4.15 pm, and they fell upon the advancing, and now disordered, cuirassiers, lancers and chasseurs.  The French horses were blown at the end of their charge, whereas those of the heavies had had time to rest.  There was a spirited hand-to-hand cavalry contest, where both horsemanship and skill at arms decided the difference between life and death. From this point, there were various charges an counter-charges by both sides as the numbers of the Household Division slowly diminished. After the battle peaked, the KDG were part of the force used to pursue the French despite numbering at around 100 men. On the evening of the 18 June 1815 the officers and men of the King’s Dragoon Guards shared out what little food they had and sat down to eat it.  In memory of that evening to this day the officers and sergeants of 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards dine together on Waterloo night in the sergeant’s mess.

The KDG in the 19th & 20th Century The KDG suppressed uprisings in Canada in 1838 to 1843 and in India in 1857, as well as fighting at Sevastopol during the Crimean War. The unit fought in the Second Chinese War of 1857 to 1860 and then spent most of the rest of the 19th century in India. It also deployed to the Zulu War in 1879, where one of its officers, Major Richard Marter, led the cavalry patrol which captured the Zulu king Cetshwayo. The regiment fought in South Africa in 1881 and 1901 and during the first of these conflicts Private John Doogan of the regiment won the Victoria Cross. In 1896 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria became the regiment's colonel-in-chief At the commencement of war in 1914 the KDGs were stationed in Lucknow, India as part of the Lucknow Cavalry Brigade. The regiment was ordered to France and arrived at Marseilles on 7 November. The KDGs formed part of 1st Indian Cavalry Division serving on the Western Front. The regiment returned to India in 1917 and joined 1st (Peshawar) Division. The KDGs remained in garrison at Meerut until October 1918 when they exchanged stations with 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers and moved to Risalpur. On 2 May 1919 Afghan troops seized control of wells on the Indian side of the border. The Afghan Amir Amanullah was warned to withdraw, but his answer was to send more troops to reinforce those at the wells and to move other Afghan units to various points on the frontier. The KDGs were mobilised on 6 May and formed part of the British Indian Army's 1st Cavalry Brigade. The regiment served throughout the Third Afghan War and saw action at the Khyber Pass and Dakka. On 8 August a peace treaty with Afghanistan was officially signed and the KDGs returned to Risalpur on 28 August. During the Second World War, the Regiment fought with distinction in North Africa and Sicily and Italy, landing at Salerno against concentrated enemy opposition. They were the first Allied unit into Naples. The Welsh writer Norman Lewis, in his celebrated account of life in Naples claimed that the King's Dragoon Guards was the first British unit to reach Naples in 1943, and that many of its officers immediately went on a looting spree, cutting paintings from their frames in the prince's palace. In November 1939 it deployed to Egypt and turned into an armoured car regiment. It fought exclusively in North Africa and Italy for the next five years, before serving in peacekeeping and counter-insurgency roles in Greece, Palestine, Northern Ireland and Malaya from 1944 until amalgamation. It also spent five years as part of the occupying force in West Germany from 1951 onwards. In 1959 it merged with the 2nd Dragoon Guards to form the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.

A column of the 1st King's Dragoon Guards, Dakka (1919).

[Maroon]

Senior Officers Major Maroon Junior Officers Captain Gyrocile Cornet Jones Cornet BobTHEblob Non-Commissioned Officers Warrant Officer Lozza Staff Corporal TyTrooper Lance Corporal of Horse Jackson

Enlisted Lance Corporal Jelly Lance Corporal Church Trooper LordCyclops Horseman Shigi Horseman Parsedor Cadet Montbourg Cadet Samo Cadet Henry Cadet BarryLyndon Recruit Ahquatic Recruit Feely Recruit Michu

Reserve (Inactive) Corporal of Horse Francois Trooper Nukkel Trooper Alekseev Trooper Jaydee Trooper Klaerke Trooper Torby Trooper Turtle

Senior Officers Colonel [Col] Lieutenant Colonel [LtCol] Major [Maj] Junior Officers Captain [Capt] Lieutenant [Lt] Cornet [Cor] Non Commissioned Officers Warrant Officer [WO] Squadron Corporal Major [SCM] Staff Corporal [SCpl] Corporal of Horse [CoH] Lance Corporal of Horse [LCoH] Enlisted Lance Corporal [LCpl] Trooper [Trp] Horseman [Hsm] Cadet [Cdt] Recruit [Rct]

The King's Dragoon Guards recruit any experience level from across the world - all that is required is that you are able to understand English well, are able to use Teamspeak 3 and want to improve both yourself and the regiment. The regiment itself is based on the concept of having fun whilst playing this game, but rules are always necessary. The main rules are as follows: 1. This is a game, the whole point of it is to have fun. Just know where the line is and don't take stuff over the top. 2. Banter is encouraged between our soldiers, but once again - know the line and don't cross it. Keep it within the regiment, as other people may take it the wrong way. 3. Unless you inform an officer, you are expected to turn up to trainings and line battles. We don't mind if you simply don't want to play tonight or you're playing another game, just let us know so that we have a rough idea of what numbers the Regiment can field. As mentioned in rule 1 - this is a game and we're all here to have fun. Nobody is going to force people to play. 4. Finally, applicants are expected to have some level of maturity. We don't mind what your age is, as long as you are aware that one of our pet hates is immature people who always take the joke too far or constantly ignore orders. We are not in desperate need of members, so we are more than happy to release members who cause too much trouble.

If you're still reading this and think that you've got what it takes to make it as a Cavalryman, then post the following in the thread below:

Code

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Steam ID (Or a link to your profile page):[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Nationality:[/b]
[b]Experience in the game before:[/b] (This wont affect your application, I just want to get an idea)
[b]Do you understand the rules of the Regiment?[/b]

Alternatively, contact Maroon on Steam if you would like more information.

[Flash]

Jolly good.

[Connzcdf]

Very nice! Good luck 1st KDG!

[Maroon]

Very nice! Good luck 1st KDG!

Thanks mate

[Peppers]

Goodluck fellow Cavalrymen!

[InfamousBeats]

Very good looking thread, i must say. Good Luck to you lads!

[Odysseus]

Good luck!

[Maroon]

Very good looking thread, i must say. Good Luck to you lads!

Credits go the Flash for making the thread
And thanks

[Wolfy]

Best of luck,but what happened to shadow?

[Jamez]

Good Luck!

[Maroon]

Best of luck,but what happened to shadow?

Shadow stepped down from command.
And thanks

[dooomninja]

good luck Maroon and good luck KDG

[Saga]

Good luck!

[Maroon]

Updated roster a bit, and a shameless bump