Cheshire Yeomanry The Cheshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment that can trace its history back to 1797 when Sir John Fleming Leicester of Tabley raised a county regiment of light cavalry in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleon ic France . In 1803 the Prince of Wales ( later King George IV ) , gave his permission for the regiment to wear his triple feather crest , a badge that Cheshire Yeoman still wear today . Peterloo Massacre . The Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819 was the result of a cavalry charge into the crowd at a public meeting at Saint Peters Field , in Manchester , England . Eleven people were killed and more than 400 , including many women and children , injured . Local magistrates arranged for a substantial number of regular soldiers to be on hand . The troops included 600 men of the 15th Hussars , several hundred infantrymen ; a Royal Horse Artillery unit with two six - pounder ( 2 . 7 kg ) guns ; 400 men of the Cheshire Yeomanry , 400 special constables and 120 cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry , relatively inexperienced militia recruited from among shopkeepers and tradesmen . First battle honour . The first regimental battle honour was bestowed in 1900 – 02 , when the unit provided two companies of Imperial Yeomanry for service in South Africa . World War I . In the First World War the regiment spent 1914 – 15 training in Norfolk before being sent to fight dismounted in Egypt in 1916 – 17 . There they met up with the Duke of Westminster , ( a veteran of South Africa , who had been posted away from the regiment ) with his Rolls - Royce Armoured Car , the prototype of which he had produced at his own expense in 1914 . In February 1916 , after the battle of Mersa Matruh , the Duke mounted a raid against the Senussi using the cars . He was instructed to pursue the guerrilla s with ‘ reasonable boldness ’ . Driving across the desert at high speed , the Duke and his 12 cars caught the fleeing enemy , killing many of the Senussi and all of their Turkish companions , returning with three captured artillery pieces , nine machine guns and 30 prisoners . In March 1916 the Duke and the Rolls Royce - mounted Cheshire Yeomanry rescued the survivors of two British merchant ships , HMT " Moorina " and HMS " Tara " , which had been torpedoed off the coast of what is now Libya , earning the Duke worldwide praise and the DSO . The regiment moved to Palestine in 1917 , this time as a half battalion of the 10th King ' s Shropshire Light Infantry and saw fierce fighting against the Turks in battles for Jerusalem , Jericho and Tel Azur , before embarking for France in April 1918 . The KSLI saw action at the Somme , Bapaume and Epehy , suffering heavy casualties . The battalion was disbanded in June 1919 , the Cheshire Yeomanry was reconstituted as a cavalry regiment in March 1920 . World War II . During World War II the regiment was part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade , 1st Cavalry Division and remained mounted until 1942 , seeing action in Palestine , Syria and the Lebanon . As one of the last regiments of the British Army to fight on horseback , the Cheshire Yeomanry found it particularly painful to lose its mounts and to re - role as a Signals Regiment , when its title changed in 1942 to the 5th Line of Communications Signals Regiment . After leaving the Middle East the Regiment was redesignated the 17th Line of Communication Signals Regiment ( Cheshire Yeomanry ) for service in North - West Europe . Post war . On May Day , 1947 , the Cheshire Yeomanry reformed as an armoured regiment , equipped with Cromwell and Comet tanks . It continued as such until 1958 , when it re - equipped with Daimler Armoured Car s . < br > The defence re - organisation of 1967 led to the disbanding of the regiment except for a small cadre , but in 1971 The Queen ' s Own Yeomanry ( QOY ) was formed from four old yeomanry regiments , including the Cheshire Yeomanry . This lasted until 1999 when the regiment , as part of the Strategic Defence Review , was amalgamated into The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry . The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry . The RMLY ’ s current mission is to provide Challenger 2 ( CR2 ) War Establishment Reserves ( WER ) to the Regular Army . To fulfil this commitment the RMLY soldiers train as CR2 loaders and gunners . C ( Cheshire Yeomanry ) Squadron based in Chester , continues the traditions of the Cheshire Yeomanry . 33 ( Lancashire and Cheshire ) Signal Regiment . A second squadron continues in service as 80th ( Cheshire Yeomanry ) Signal Squadron ( V ) , part of 33 Signal Regiment , Royal Signals . The squadron is based in Runcorn , Cheshire .