page_title: Household Cavalry
section_title: The Household Cavalry's Operational Role
hierarchical_section_title: Household Cavalry / The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals / The Household Cavalry's Operational Role
caption_attribution_description: British Royal Family on Balcony for Queen's Official BirthdayTrooping the Colour, Saturday June 16th 2007
context_page_description: The British Household Cavalry, is an army corps of two regiments of soldiers. Cavalry regiments, until the end of World War I, were always "mounted" on horses. Nowadays cavalry regiments are mounted on tanks. The British Household Cavalry is unusual because half of them are also still mounted on horses. The two Regiments of Household Cavalry, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, which parades with horses and the Household Cavalry Regiment, which has light armoured vehicles, are manned by equal numbers of soldiers from The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals both of which are part of the "Household Division". In Britain the "Household Division" has the special privilege of guarding the Sovereign and the Royal Household. The term "Household Division" is used in all Commonwealth countries.
  In many other countries there are similar highly-trained army corps which guard the head of state and have ceremonial duties as well as operational military roles. Regiments of this sort can be found in Australia, Brunei, Belgium, Canada, Denmark and many other countries. But when speaking in English of the "Household Cavalry", the term generally refers to the "British Household Cavalry".
context_section_description: The Household Cavalry Regiment is an armoured reconnaissance regiment based in Windsor.  Most Household Cavalry soldiers begin their careers on mounted duty before being posted, normally after about two years at ceremonial duty, to the reconnaissance regiment, which has Scimitar light tanks, where they are trained in driving, gunnery ands signals. This regiment has deployed more than almost any other in the British Army to operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Gallantry medals awarded to soldiers of the Household Cavalry since 2003 include: a George Cross (GC) to Trooper Christopher Finney of The Blues and Royals, a Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) and a Military Cross (MC) to Staff Corporal Michael Flynn of The Blues and Royals (making him the most decorated serviceman in the British Army), a CGC to Lance Corporal of Horse Andrew Radford, a Distinguished Service Order to Major Richard Taylor of The Life Guards, and MCs to Captain Paddy Williams of The Blues and Royals and to Staff Corporal Shaun Fry of The Life Guards. All these were awarded on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
caption: H.M. Queen Elizabeth, Colonel in Chief watching the "Trooping of the Colour" in 2007.
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