Last modified: 2025-03-01 by rob raeside
Keywords: royal horse guards |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
Introduction of The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)
Colonel Aubrey de Vere as Earl of Oxford raised a 2nd royal cavalry
regiment. It consisted of eight troops in 1660, those of the King, the colonel,
the major and of five captains. In 1685 one more troop was added and the major
was upgraded to a lieutenant colonel. In 1733 the regiment was reorganised.
Since then it was subdivided into three squadrons. In 1794 a 4th squadron was
raised. The regiment was known at least by four different names, before it was
called Royal Horse Guards (The Blues), due to its unusual blue uniforms. The
regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons), which had not
been part of the Household Division before, on 29 March 1969, and it was renamed
to Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons (The Blues and Royals).
The latter was
raised in London as (The) Tangier (Regiment of) Horse in 1661. After Tangier had
been ceded in 1683 it was reorganised as an English regiment. Initially it was
named The King s Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, but already in 1690 renamed to
The Royal Regiment of Dragoons. As numbering of cavalry regiments became common
practise in 1751, it was again renamed to 1st (Royal) Dragoons.
It should
be mentioned that the predecessors of both regiments had not been part of the
Household Division before 1827.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 January
2025
![[Royal Horse Guards guidon]](../images/g/gb^rhg832.gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 January
2025
In addition to their standards, the Royal Horse Guards had a guidon granted
by King William IV and presented to the regiment on 13 August 1832. It is now in
the Household Cavalry Museum. It is made of crimson damask, richly-embroidered.
In the centre, it bears the royal cypher W R , reversed and interlaced in gold,
with a small IV beneath in the middle and the battle honours Peninsula above and
Waterloo below. Four more battle honours are displayed, two on each side and
surroundinging the cypher: Dettingen above hoist, Minden above fly, Warbourg
(also referred to as Warburg ), below hoist and Cateau (also referred to as
Beaumont ) below fly. These honours are embroidered in golden roman seriphed
capitals on blue scrolls fimbriated golden. This complex is surmounted by a
crown, often called an Albert Crown, because it was part of the Greater Arms,
borne by Prince Albert of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, the Prince Consort. This type of
crown was introduced by The Prince of Wales, later King George IV, in the early
19th century. In the 1st and 4th corners of the guidon is a crowned rose with
leaves, representing England, in the 2nd a crowned Union Badge, i.e. a rose, a
thistle and a shamrock growing from the same stem, representing the Union of
England, Scotland and Ireland. The latter became part of the Union in 1801.
Finally in the 3rd corner a crowned thistle with leaves. Those four crowns are
in the form of St Edward's Crown, and the devices are golden. In base, there is
the golden regimental monogram RHG . Fringes, cords, and tassels are golden. The
finial of the lance is a silver-gilt representation of St George Slaying the
Dragon. It bears the hall-mark London 1832.
The Regiment applied to have
the guidon renewed in 1880. However, the Commander-in-Chief ruled that it should
be considered as the personal gift of King William IV and that, as such, it
could not be maintained at public expense. It turned out unable to find any
record of its manufacture.
Probably the guidon of The Blues has not been
carried on a mounted parade since 1887. It was carried for the last time
dismounted in the presence of King George V and the German Emperor Wilhelm II on
occasion of the unveiling of the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham
Palace in 1911.
Source: Nicolas Payan Dawnay: The Standards, Guidons and
Colours of the Household Division 1660 1973 , London 1975, pp.11,25,44-45,63-73
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 29 January
2025
