2nd Dragoon Guards ( Queen ' s Bays ) The 2nd Dragoon Guards ( Queen ' s Bays ) was a cavalry regiment in the British Army , first raised in 1685 by King James II . It saw service for three centuries , before being amalgamated into the 1st The Queen ' s Dragoon Guards in 1959 . The Earl of Peterborough ' s Regiment of Horse ( 1685 – 1715 ) . The regiment was first raised from the neighbourhood of London as the Earl of Peterborough ' s Regiment of Horse in 1682 , by the regimenting of various independent troops , and ranked as the 3rd Regiment of Horse . When James II ' s throne was tottering , and William of Orange daily expected , the regiment was ordered to Torbay , when their helmets and cuirasses were deposited in the Tower , the officers having leave to wear the latter if they chose . On the accession of William and Mary , the Bays , then designated Villiers ' Horse , embarked for Ireland under Marshal Schomberg . The regiment fought at the battles of the Boyne ( 1690 ) and Aughrim ( 1691 ) . At Aughrim , in company with the Royal Horse Guards and another regiment , they crossed a seemingly impassable bog under a heavy fire , formed on the other side , and by a brilliant charge won the battle for King William . " It is madness , " exclaimed the French general , St . Ruth , as he watched the apparently reckless manoeuvre ; " but no matter , the more that cross the more we shall kill . " It was but a few minutes after that his head was carried off by a cannonball , and the decapitated corpse was buried secretly and hastily , that the heavy loss to King James might be known neither by friend nor foe . After the fall of Limerick they returned , and for the next three years or so were employed as an unofficial mounted police against the numerous highwaymen who made the commons of Hounslow and Blackheath unsafe for travellers . In 1694 they embarked for Holland , where they served with credit until 1698 , when they returned to England . Six years after they embarked for Lisbon , and distinguished themselves , as Harvey ' s Horse , in the various stirring though comparatively unimportant actions that followed . On arriving it was found that the Portuguese idea of what constituted a proper horse for British cavalry differed very considerably from that entertained by the latter themselves , and as a consequence many weary weeks were wasted . At last General Harvey was instructed or determined to requisition chargers , and the 3rd Horse were once more included in the effective cavalry . At Almanza , under Colonel Eoper , they charged and routed two French infantry regiments , though in the struggle against the overwhelming reinforcements that came up the 3rd lost Colonel Eoper and two other officers killed , and three officers wounded , and prisoners . Contemporary histories report , " The regiment of horse of General Harvey is certainly one of the finest regiments that ever was seen , and the worst horse they have is worth fifty pistoles . " The 3rd Horse had a share in the brilliant cavalry action at Almaneza , in July 1710 , when sixteen squadrons of British and Portuguese horse charged the French and Spaniards , whose force consisted of a first line of twenty - two squadrons flanked by infantry , and a second line of twenty squadrons and nine battalions . " Such was the astonishing resolution of the British horsemen that . . . the whole of the enemy ' s cavalry was soon overthrown , and with their infantry fled in disorder . " At the close of the campaign the 3rd Horse , with some other regiments , under Stanhope , were surprised at Brihuega , by a force more than ten times their number . They had no artillery , little ammunition ; the village was defenceless and prohibitive of the employment of cavalry , yet the British defended themselves with stones and hand missiles against the cannon of the besiegers , and repulsed with loss a general assault that was ordered . But the strife was too unequal , and at last they had to yield themselves prisoners of war . There were plenty , however , to exchange for them , and in October 1711 , the 3rd Horse arrived in England and were quartered in Surrey . The Queen ' s Own Regiment of Horse ( 1715 – 1746 ) . The ensuing years were occupied chiefly with the Great Jacobite Rebellion , and in 1715 the regiment received , in recognition of its gallantry at Preston , the title of " The Princess of Wales ' s Own Regiment of Horse for Princess Caroline of Wales . In 1727 , on the accession of the Prince of Wales to the throne as King George II , this was changed to The Queen ' s Own Regiment of Horse . 2nd Queens Regiment of Dragoon Guards ( 1746 – 1767 ) . In 1747 the Government , determined to save money , decided to reduce the regiment from the status of Horse ( who were better paid ) to that of Dragoon s ( who would cost less ) . There was such an outcry that eventually the 3rd Regiment of Horse became the 2nd Queens Regiment of Dragoon Guards . The Bays formed part of the force under General Wade , which was ordered to disarm the disaffected Highland tribes and to improve the communications between Scotland and the seat of Government . This was the " General Wade " of the famous couplet " Had you seen these roads before they were made , You ' d raise your hands and bless the General Wade . " It may be remarked that on Christmas Day of that year there joined the Bays , by exchange , Captain Garrick , the father of the celebrated actor . Through all that terrible time the Bays fought well and fiercely for the House of Brunswick , embarking in 1760 for the Seven Years ' War in Germany , where they fought at the Battle of Corbach , Warbourg , Eimbeck , and in the snow and bitter cold at Foorwohle . The Regiment distinguished itself at Battle of Warburg fighting the French under the command of the famous Marquis of Granby . In a celebrated charge , the Marquess lost his wig , giving rise to the expression ' going at it bald - headed ' . At the battle of Willems ( 1762 ) the Bays captured several French regiments by ' charging the flying foe sword in hand ' . On the return of the regiment to England in 1763 it did sterling , if unobtrusive , service in quelling the riots which were then disturbing the peace of the country . 2nd Dragoon Guards ( Queen ' s Bays ) ( 1767 – 1921 ) . Shortly thereafter , in 1767 , the Regiment was ordered to be mounted on bay horses accompanied by the new title 2nd Dragoon Guards ( Queen ' s Bays ) . This is emphasised in the Regimental badge which is simply the word ' BAYS ' within a laurel wreath surmounted by a crown . The Regimental motto is " Pro Rege et Patria " , which is Latin for " For King and Country " . The regiment served with Wellington ' s army during the Peninsular War . On one notable occasion a single squadron of the Bays , under Major Craufurd , attacked and utterly defeated a picket of French , consisting of six officers and about a hundred and fifty men , and took no less than a hundred and four prisoners , the remainder being killed in the attack . The Bays were not at the Battle of Waterloo , being engaged in preserving order during the troublous times at home , but shortly after it was fought they embarked for the Continent , there to form part of the Army of Occupation . When the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857 the Bays were ordered to India . On arrival at Calcutta late in November , The Bays were informed that they were to go to Allahabad with the utmost speed to join Hope Grant ' s Cavalry Division in Sir Colin Campbell ' s force . This meant a 500 mile journey , 400 miles of entailed marching across India with their newly issued horses . Captain Seymour wrote : " Very hard marching we shall have had , as the last ten days are forced marches . We are marching with our heavy baggage , yet we have no less than 2 , 000 paid camp followers ! We march at 4am , always in the dark for two hours , and this adds much to the ordinary confusion of a march . We sleep in our tents , but our tents are never up with the regiment for some time after we reach our new camping ground . It is all very rough I assure you . . . our Officers have been greatly plagued with their native servants , as owing to the times one is obliged to pay them in advance . Nearly all those engaged in Calcutta have bolted . . . I fortunately did not engage one there , none of mine have left me . . . my Establishment is complete " . From the end of January onwards the Bays were regularly employed in minor mopping up operations which characterised the later stages of the Mutiny . In March they took part in the siege of Lucknow Captain Seymour wrote : " We came on bodies of Cavalry and Infantry of the enemy . Bays where ordered to the front to charge and pursue ! Away we went as hard as possible , Major Smith and I leading . We did not stop for three miles , cutting down and pursuing the mutineers right up to Lucknow , and across the river . We are told the most gallant . smartest , though somewhat rash thing that was done before Lucknow " . The Bays were on duty in Ireland between 1875 – 1885 and were deployed several times to assist the local civil force during the First Irish Home Rule Bill . They were stationed in India between 1885 – 1894 and then in Egypt in 1895 – 97 . The Bays fought in South Africa ( 1899 – 1902 ) , arriving in 1901 , and capturing Commandant Pretorius . In the First World War ( 1914 – 18 ) the Bays formed a part of the original Expeditionary Force ( ' The Old Contemptibles ' ) and were heavily engaged throughout the War in France and Flanders on the Western Front ( World War I ) , fighting in all the major battles ; the Retreat from Mons , Le Cateau , the battle of the Marne , Messines , Ypres , the Battle of the Somme , Cambrai , the Scarpe , and in the final victorious advance of 1918 . Many honours were gained including the Retreat from Mons , Aisnes 1914 , Armentières 1914 , Frezenburg , Bellewaarde , Flers - Courcelette , Arras 1917 , St Quentin , Bapaume 1918 , Rosiers , and Albert 1918 . One of the incidents that will long live in the memory of The Bays is their successful chase of the German cavalry at Montigny - les - Lens on the last day of the Great War . The Queen ' s Bays ( 2nd Dragoon Guards ) ( 1921 – 1959 ) . After service in the First World War , the Regiment was again retitled The Queen ' s Bays ( 2nd Dragoon Guards ) in 1921 . In 1935 the Bays lost their horses , after 250 years and became a mechanised regiment . They transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939 . At the outbreak of World War II the Regiment was in England . In May 1940 the Bays were sent as part of the 1st Armoured Division to France and were heavily engaged on the Somme . In mid June , with the collapse of French resistance , they were evacuated to England through the port of Brest . The Bays arrived in the Middle East in November 1941 , equipped initially with the 2 pounder Crusader tank . They fought with great bravery at the ' Cauldron ' and ' Knightsbridge ' during the battle of Gazala and were continuously in action for 19 days , a record for an armoured regiment in the Western Desert . They played a major part at the Battle of Alamein , the Tebaga gap , at El Hamma , the Mareth Line , and so on to Tunis . The Bays arrived in Italy in May 1944 and were engaged in the Gothic Line , at the battle of Coriano Ridge they lost all but three of their tanks and suffered 98 casualties in a matter of minutes when they were sent against a screen of German anti - tank gun s , including the notorious 88 . They fought in the Po Valley at the Crossing of the Lamone and at Rimini , Coriano Ridge and Cesena . The Bays helped force the Argenta Gap and found themselves at Ferrara when the Germans surrendered . After the war the Bays remained in northern Italy , then moved to Egypt before returning to Britain in 1947 . In 1950 the regiment was stationed in Germany , at Fallingbostel , equipped with Centurion Mk2 tanks . On 1 November 1958 the Queen ' s Bays paraded for the last time and were reviewed by their Colonel - in - Chief , Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother . On 1 January 1959 the 1st King ' s Dragoon Guards and The Queen ' s Bays ( 2nd Dragoon Guards ) amalgamated to become 1st The Queen ' s Dragoon Guards . On 2 March 1959 the Queen Mother , their Colonel - in - Chief , presented the new Standard .