The Cavalry Memorial in Hyde Park, the centrepiece of Cavalry Sunday, properly called the Combined Cavalry Old Comrades Association Parade and Memorial Service. It originally remembered the cavalry dead of the First World War, but now includes those from subsequent conflicts.
21 May 2024
By Tim Koch
Tim Koch continues with the second part of his trilogy on Cavalry Sunday 2024. (Part I is here.)
On the left, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, positioned in front of the Cavalry Memorial, takes the salute. In the centre, more than 3,000 serving, veteran and reserve personnel march along the Serpentine Road past the Duke, Old Comrades Association Officials and invited guests. On the right, the band of the Household Cavalry provides a musical accompaniment. The order of precedence is jealously guarded. Today, there are nine regular cavalry regiments that are mostly the products of the many amalgamations of historic regiments that have taken place since 1922. The four Yeomanry regiments are members of the Army Reserve (formerly the Territorial Army).Juno, the Drum Horse of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, leads the march past followed by the band of the Household Cavalry who will play on the right as viewed here for the duration of the ceremony.The banner of the Combined Cavalry Old Comrades Association is followed by the Association’s wreath carried by four troopers from the 2024 sponsor regiment, the Royal Dragoon Guards. Behind them are members of the Life Guards and of the Blues and Royals.
The Life Guards
Hats are kept on until near the saluting base.Approaching the saluting base, the command “Eyes Right” is given and civilian hats are removed.
The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons)
The regimental standard is dipped as it passes the Prince.
1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
The QDG’s Escort to the Colour is followed by Emrys the regimental mascot, and then the regimental old comrades association banner.1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards is the Cavalry Regiment of Wales and the Border Counties.
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys)
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are the senior Scottish regiment.On formal mess nights, “God Save The Tsar”, the Imperial Russian National Anthem, is played in memory of Tsar Nicholas II, the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief at the time of his execution in 1917.
The Royal Dragoon Guards
The Regimental Standard leads the RDG.Because of its lineage through the 5th Royal Inniskillings and the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards the RDG retains strong links to Northern Ireland.As with all the other units on parade, the RDG Wreath Bearer leaves the march to take the regiment’s wreath to the Memorial.The Saluting Base
The Queen’s Royal Hussars (The Queen’s Own and Royal Irish)
The QRH are the only regiment on parade that sings its regimental song as it passes the saluting base.I’m a soldier in the King’s Army / I’m a galloping Queen’s Hussar / I’ve sailed the ocean wide and blue / I’m a chap who knows a thing or two / Been in many a tight corner / Shown the enemy who we are / I can ride a horse / Go on a spree, or sing a comic song / And that denotes a Queen’s Hussar.
The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeths’ Own)
The Royal Lancers is the last regiment in the British Army to have the title of “lancers”. The honorific suffix “Queen Elizabeths’ Own” was granted by the late Queen in 2017.
The King’s Royal Hussars
During Mess Nights, KRH officers drink from a silver chamber pot “captured” in 1813 from Joseph Bonaparte, a present from his brother, Emperor Napoleon.
The Light Dragoons
The Light Dragoons is known as “England’s Northern Cavalry” as it recruits mostly from Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.A wider view of the Light Dragoon’s march past.
The Royal Yeomanry
Yeomanry are reserve cavalry that originated with the volunteer units that sprang up with the fear of invasion by Napoleon. A yeoman was a respectable person, one social rank below a gentleman, and the yeomanry was initially a rural force that provided their own horses and that was recruited mainly from landholders and tenant farmers.The Royal Yeomanry is the only British Army reserve unit to have been awarded a battle honour (Iraq 2003) since the Second World War.
The Royal Wessex Yeomanry
As its name suggests, the Royal Wessex Yeomanry recruits mainly from the West Country.
The Queen’s Own Yeomanry
The Queen’s Own Yeomanry recruits from the North of England.
The Scottish & North Irish Yeomanry and The Middlesex Yeomanry
The Scottish and North Irish recruits from the Scottish counties of Lanarkshire, Lothian, Ayrshire and Angus and from Northern Ireland. Since 2014, the Middlesex Yeomanry has been part of 31 (Middlesex Yeomanry and Princess Louise’s Kensington) Signal Squadron.The SaluteHats On
Cavalry Affiliated Cadets
Members of the Army Cadet Forces and Combined Cadet Forces bring up the rear.
YouTube has a film of the 1934 Memorial Parade at Stanhope Gate. It makes an interesting comparison to footage of the 2022 Parade.
Part III, posted tomorrow, will show the Memorial Service and note some Royal connections.
