Household Cavalry Composite Regiment The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was a temporary , wartime - only , cavalry regiment of the British Army consisting of personnel drawn from the 1st Life Guards , 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards . It was active in 1882 for service in the Anglo - Egyptian War , in 1889 - 1900 during the Second Boer War , from August to November , 1914 during the opening months of World War I and in World War II . Anglo - Egyptian War . The regiment was first formed in 1882 to take part in the Anglo - Egyptian War . Second Boer War . The regiment was re - raised and served in the Second Boer War from 1889 to 1900 . World War I . When the British Expeditionary Force was mobilised , it had a war establishment of seventeen cavalry regiments - five cavalry brigades of three regiments each , and two regiments which would be broken up to serve as reconnaissance squadrons , one for each of the six infantry divisions . The peacetime establishment in the United Kingdom was nineteen cavalry regiments - sixteen line regiments , and the three regiments of the Household Cavalry . The sixteen regular regiments were earmarked for overseas service , whilst the seventeenth regiment was to be provided by a composite regiment formed with a squadron from each of the three Household Cavalry regiments - the 1st Life Guards , the 2nd Life Guards , and the Royal Horse Guards - and assigned a mobilisation role in 4th Cavalry Brigade . Mobilisation . On the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914 , the regiment was duly constituted with a squadron each from the 1st Life Guards at Hyde Park , the 2nd Life Guards at Regent ' s Park and the Royal Horse Guards at Windsor . The regiment joined 4th Cavalry Brigade which was assigned to The Cavalry Division and moved to France in August 1914 . Early Actions . With The Cavalry Division , the regiment took part in a number of actions during the early war of movement : the Battle of Mons ( 23 – 24 August ) , the Battle of Le Cateau ( 26 August ) , the Action at Néry ( 1 September ) , the Battle of the Marne ( 6 – 9 September ) and the Battle of the Aisne ( 12 – 15 September ) . 2nd Cavalry Division . The regiment was transferred with 4th Cavalry Brigade to the 2nd Cavalry Division on 14 October 1914 to bring it up to the standard three brigade strength . With the division , the regiment took part in First Battle of Ypres , notably the battle of Gheluvelt ( 29 – 31 October ) . On 11 November , the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was broken up and its constituent squadrons rejoined their parent regiments ; these had landed at Zeebrugge on 7 October 1914 with 7th Cavalry Brigade , 3rd Cavalry Division . The Queen ' s Own Oxfordshire Hussars , a Yeomanry regiment , replaced it in 4th Cavalry Brigade . Household Battalion . From 1916 to 1918 , an infantry battalion , the Household Battalion , was formed from reserve regiments of the 1st Life Guards , 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards . World War II . By the outbreak of World War II , the 1st and 2nd Life Guards had benn amalgamated as the Life Guards . In 1939 , the Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards formed the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment and the Household Cavalry Training Regiment . The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment once again served with the 4th Cavalry Brigade and joined the 1st Cavalry Division when it was formed on 31 October 1939 . It departed the United Kingdom in February 1940 , transited across France , and arrived in Palestine on 20 February 1940 . It served as a garrison force under British Forces , Palestine and Trans - Jordan . From 6 May 1941 the 4th Cavalry Brigade , together with a battalion of infantry from the Essex Regiment , a mechanised regiment from the Arab Legion and supporting artillery was organised as " Habforce " for operations in Iraq including the relief of the base at RAF Habbaniya and the occupation of Baghdad . Following this , in July 1941 it was placed under the command of I Australian Corps and was involved in operations against the Vichy French in Syria , advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans - Jordan border on Palmyra to secure the Haditha - Tripoli oil pipeline . In 1940 , the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was reorganised into the 1st Household Cavalry Regiment and the Household Cavalry Training Regiment as the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment . They were disbanded in 1945 and the personnel returned to their original units .