British yeomanry during the First World War The British yeomanry during the First World War were part of the British Army reserve Territorial Force . Initially in 1914 there were fifty - seven regiment s and fourteen mounted brigade s . Soon after the declaration of war second and third line regiments were formed . The third line regiments however were soon absorbed into the Cavalry Reserve Regiments , to supply replacements for the cavalry and yeomanry . Other horsed regiments in the British Army , during the war , were the regular cavalry regiments and the three regiments belonging to the special reserve : the North Irish Horse , the South Irish Horse and the King Edward ' s Horse . The senior yeomanry regiments could trace their origins back over 100 years ; the oldest regiment , the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry , had been formed in 1794 . The most junior regiment , the Welsh Horse , had only been formed on 18 August 1914 , after the start of the war . To expand the yeomanry , mirror regiments and brigades were formed . The Yorkshire Hussars part of the Yorkshire Mounted Brigade was numbered the 1 / 1st when the second regiment was raised , which became the 2 / 1st Yorkshire Hussars in the 2 / 1st Yorkshire Mounted Brigade and so on . Mounted brigades were often broken up or renumbered the aforementioned 2 / 1st Yorkshire later became the 18th Mounted Brigade . Although there were no yeomanry divisions before the war , after mobilisation the mounted brigades were allocated to specially formed mounted divisions . Some regiments also served alongside regular cavalry regiments in cavalry brigades . While others were assigned to infantry divisions or army corps as their horsed regiment . The yeomanry fought in several theatres of war . On the Western Front they were initially used in their traditional role , but during the campaign in Gallipoli the 2nd Mounted Division fought dismounted . Later the yeomanry fought on the Macedonian front where , as part of the British Salonika Army , they were once again employed in the mounted role . Further mounted actions followed with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign . Some yeomanry regiments had a mixed war with several being converted to cyclist units . Others became infantry battalion s like the 1 / 1st Yorkshire Hussars which ended the war as the 9th ( Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry ) Battalion , West Yorkshire Regiment . Several regiments serving in the Middle East were converted to infantry and used to form the 74th ( Yeomanry ) Division , which then fought on in Palestine before being transferred to France . In 1918 , other yeomanry regiments were transferred to the Western Front to form battalions of the Machine Gun Corps . By the end of the war the yeomanry had suffered over 3 , 800 dead , which included several senior officers . Prelude . The British yeomanry was formed as a home defence force in 1790s . Each yeoman , then mostly farmers or agricultural workers , was expected to supply his own horse and saddle . They were however notoriously better known to the population for their involvement in the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and the Bristol riots in 1831 . In the early years the standard and number of men in a troop or troops in a regiment differed from county to county with no standard formation . By the 1800s nationally there were only around 1 , 500 , but fear of renewed French militarisation saw a large increase in their numbers by the middle of the century . By that time the yeomanry volunteer had to provide their own weapons and equipment and attend twenty - four days drill a year . However from 1896 , the yeomanry were issued Lee - Metford or Lee - Enfield carbine s , which had an effective range of . The Mauser that would be used by their opponents in the Second Boer War had a range in excess of . After the start of the Second Boer War , the British Government called for volunteers and in response 10 , 000 men enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry . At the time the strength of the combined yeomanry regiments was around 8 , 800 and around 2 , 200 volunteered for the Imperial Yeomanry . During the war it was the 7 , 000 colonial mounted contingent , not the 5 , 000 regular British cavalry , that led the way in tactical development . They were better trained , armed and more efficient , if only because they had been correctly trained to use the right weapons and tactics for the conflict . Since 1880 British cavalrymen had only been armed with carbine s and swords , although some also carried a lance . So poor were the regular cavalry regiments considered that General Sir Redvers Henry Buller , commanding the advance into Northern Natal , left his six regiments of cavalry behind at Ladysmith , trusting in the irregular mounted forces to carry out patrolling . After the war , in 1905 , the then Secretary of State for War , Richard Haldane started a reorganisation of the army and reserves . The Haldane Reforms and the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 gave the British Army the capability of forming an expeditionary force . The act also incorporated regular payment for Territorial Force soldiers and training , which included an annual two week training camp . As a result when the Territorial Force was formed it was decided there would be fourteen mounted brigades . Each of these brigades consisted of three yeomanry regiments , one artillery battery from the Royal Horse Artillery or the Honourable Artillery Company , an ammunition column , a transport and supply column and a field ambulance . Background . In August 1914 before the start of the First World War there were fifty - five yeomanry regiments . Together with the thirty - one regular cavalry regiments and three regiments of horse part of the Special Reserve , these formed the mounted troops of the British Army . However , soon after the yeomanry was greatly expanded ; two new regiments the Welsh Horse and the 3rd Scottish Horse were raised and all regiments old and new formed second line regiments , raising the total to 114 . Twelve regiments were broken up to provided divisional reconnaissance squadrons for infantry divisions on the Western Front . Another five served alongside the regular cavalry in the 1st , 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Division s in the same theatre . The largest contingent , forty regiments , served in the Middle East , thirty - one of them in a dismounted role during the Gallipoli Campaign . The second line regiments mostly remained in Great Britain as mounted troops until after 1915 , when they were eventually transferred to other formations . The regiment . The British yeomanry regiment of 1914 was composed of twenty - six officers and 523 other ranks . The commanding officer was a lieutenant colonel , with a major as the second in command , other officers in the headquarters were an adjutant , quartermaster , signals officer , medical officer and a veterinary officer . The other ranks included one warrant officer , thirty - seven senior non commissioned officer s , twenty - two artificer s , six trumpeters and 457 privates . Of these men , forty - eight were part of the regimental headquarters , twenty seven in the machine gun section armed with two Vickers Machine Guns . In 1909 the School of Musketry proposed each regiment should have six machine guns but this was declined for " financial reasons " . The remaining 474 men were in the regiments three squadrons , four troop s per squadron . Commanded by a major with a captain as the second in command , a squadron had 158 men , six officers , a squadron sergeant major , a squadron quartermaster sergeant , eight sergeant s , two trumpeters , six artificers , and 134 other ranks . While the troop had one officer , two sergeants , one artificer and thirty other ranks . To look after the regiments horses , attached to the regimental headquarters , was a veterinary officer , a quartermaster sergeant farrier who was also responsible for killing wounded and sick horses , a saddler sergeant and a saddle - tree maker . Each squadron had two saddler ' s , one a sergeant , and each troop a shoeing smith . The regiment had 528 riding horses , seventy - four draught horse s , six pack horses , eighteen carts or horse - drawn wagon s and fifteen bicycles . British yeomanry were armed with a 1908 pattern sword , and Lee Enfield rifles , unlike their French and German counterparts , who were only armed with a shorter range carbine . As the war progressed , they were issued with brodie helmet s , hand grenade s , trench mortar s and Hotchkiss light machine guns . Like the infantry , they were dressed in a karki uniform , with a service dress cap , and instead of infantry webbing , they carried their ammunition in a bandolier . The French cuirassiers , by comparison , would not have looked out of place in the Napoleonic Wars . Still wearing blue and red uniforms , with breast and back metal plates and plumed brass - steel helmets . While the Germans had a standard field grey uniform their uhlans still wore Polish style czapka helmets tunic s with plastron fronts , the hussars frogged jackets , and the cuirassiers steel spiked helmets . Yeomanry divisions and brigades . On 5 August 1914 the 1st Mounted Division was formed with the Eastern , 1st South Midland , 2nd South Midland and the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire , and based in the Bury St Edmunds area . On 2 September 1914 the 2nd Mounted Division was formed , initially at Goring , but moved to Norfolk in November , the 1st and 2nd South Midlands , the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire , and the London Mounted Brigade s came under their command . While the 1st Mounted Division assumed command of the Eastern , South Wales , Welsh Border , North Midland Mounted Brigade s and the Cyclist Brigade . There was also a 3rd Mounted Division , originally the 2 / 2nd Mounted Division , and a 4th Mounted Division for the second line brigades . The only yeomanry division to see active service was the 2nd Mounted Division now comprising the 1st , 2nd , 3rd , 4th and 5th Mounted Brigade s . The division served in the campaign at Gallipoli from August 1915 . By September casualties forced a re - organisation , the survivors formed the 1st and 2nd Composite Mounted Brigade s , and the division was reinforced by the Scottish Horse Mounted Brigade and the Highland Mounted Brigade . In the following December the survivors were withdrawn to Egypt and the division was disbanded in January 1916 . The regiments now served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and formed several new brigades . The 5th , 6th , 7th , 8th and 22nd Mounted Brigade . These brigades served in the Imperial Mounted Division , the ANZAC Mounted Division , and after a further re - organisation in the 4th and 5th Cavalry Division s . The brigades in the two cavalry divisions consisted of one yeomanry and two British Indian Army cavalry regiments . The 7th Mounted Brigade also served , as an independent unit , with the British Salonika Army on the Macedonian front . Other yeomanry regiments that had served at Gallipoli and withdrawn to Egypt , were formed into the 1st , 2nd , 3rd and 4th Dismounted Brigade s , and deployed to defend the Suez Canal . Eighteen regiments were then converted to twelve infantry battalions , and assigned to the 74th ( Yeomanry ) Division in March 1917 . The division fought in several engagements in the Sinai before being transferred to France . Victoria Cross recipients . The Victoria Cross is the United Kingdom ' s highest award for valour in the face of the enemy . Six yeoman were recipients of the award during the First World War . The first was awarded 21 August 1915 , to Private Fred Potts of the Berkshire Yeomanry , during the Battle of Scimitar Hill part of the Gallipoli Campaign . Lance - Corporal Harold Sandford Mugford of the Essex Yeomanry attached to the 8th Squadron , Machine Gun Corps was the second recipient 11 April 1917 during the Battle of Arras . Major Alexander Malins Lafone of the Duke of Cambridge ' s Hussars for his actions on 27 October 1917 in the Battle of El Buggar Ridge . In 1918 , there were three awards , first to Private Harold Whitfield , 10th ( Shropshire and Cheshire Yeomanry ) Battalion , King ' s Shropshire Light Infantry 10 March 1918 during the Battle of Tell ' Asur in Palestine . A posthumous award to Acting Lieutenant - Colonel Oliver Cyril Spencer Watson also of the Duke of Cambridge ' s Hussars , while commanding the 2nd / 5th Battalion , Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on 28 March at Rossignol Wood during the German Spring Offensive in France . The last award was on 31 October 1918 to Sergeant Thomas Caldwell of the 12th ( Ayr and Lanark Yeomanry ) Battalion , Royal Scots Fusiliers at Audenarde France during the Hundred Days Offensive . Aftermath . Casualties . The British yeomanry did not have the same huge casualty lists , common among the infantry regiments . The Queen ' s Own Worcestershire Hussars with 215 had the highest total dead , while the 1st County of London Yeomanry only had eight dead . The greatest loss on one day was ninety - three from the Leicestershire Yeomanry on 13 May 1915 , during the Second Battle of Ypres . Out of the fifty - four regiments , three had over 200 dead , ten of them over 100 dead , sixteen had fifty or more dead and the remainder less than fifty dead . According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission the yeomanry regiments total dead during the First World War was 3 , 867 men , among that total was Brigadier - General Wight - Boycott of the Warwickshire Yeomanry , and nineteen lieutenant - colonels some while serving with other units . Conversion to artillery . After the war the British Government decided to reduce the number of yeomanry regiments down from the pre - war total of fifty - five . The fourteen senior regiments would remain as yeomanry cavalry while the majority of the remainder were converted to artillery , joining the Royal Artillery . The 1st County of London Yeomanry ( Duke of Cambridge ' s Hussars ) , were at the time uniquely converted to a signals regiment in the newly formed Royal Corps of Signals . Yeomanry today . The yeomanry is still represented in the Territorial Army reserve of the British Army of the 21st Century . The largest contingent is still associated with the successors to the cavalry the Royal Armoured Corps and four regiments , each of several squadrons representing an old yeomanry regiment . They are the Royal Yeomanry , the Queen ' s Own Yeomanry the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry , and the Royal Wessex Yeomanry . Other units serve in other corps and regiments . The Royal Signals have the 71st ( City of London ) Yeomanry Signal Regiment ( Volunteers ) , the Royal Artillery the 106 ( Yeomanry ) Regiment , while the Army Air Corps has two squadrons the 655 ( Scottish Horse ) Squadron Army Air Corps ( Volunteers ) , and the 677 ( Suffolk & Norfolk Yeomanry ) Squadron Army Air Corps ( Volunteers ) . Territorial Force mounted brigades . When the Territorial Force was formed there were only fourteen mounted brigades , those regiments that were not part of the pre - war organisation were now attached to brigades ( marked * * below ) . At the same time fifteenth brigade was raised in Scotland .