The Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards)
Encyclopedia
The Carabiniers was a cavalry regiment
Cavalry regiments of the British Army
There are currently nine regular cavalry regiments of the British Army, with two tank regiments provided by the Royal Tank Regiment, traditionally classed alongside the cavalry, for a total of eleven regiments. Of these, five serve as armoured regiments, and five as formation reconnaissance...

 of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

.

The regiment was descended from the Ninth Horse regiment, raised in response to the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion
Monmouth Rebellion
The Monmouth Rebellion,The Revolt of the West or The West Country rebellion of 1685, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England, King of Scots and King of Ireland at the death of his elder brother Charles II on 6 February 1685. James II was a Roman Catholic, and some...

 in 1685, the first year of the reign of King James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

. Colonelcy of the Ninth Horse was given to Richard, 2nd Viscount Lumley of Waterford
Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough
Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough was an English soldier and statesman best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution.-Origins:...

. In accordance with tradition of the time, the regiment became known as Lord Lumley's Horse. Shortly thereafter, Lumley petitioned the Queen Dowager to permit labeling the regiment The Queen Dowager's Horse, which request was granted. In 1691, during King William's Irish Campaign, the regiment distinguished itself, as a result of which it was posted to London and re-named The King's Carabiniers.

The regiment participated in putting down the rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745-46. By this time, it was recruited almost entirely from Irish Protestants, and so the regiment was redesignated the Third Irish Horse, but continued to be known as The Carabiniers. In 1788 a reapportionment of the army establishment resulted in the designation 6th Dragoon Guards (The Carabiniers), which was to remain in place for the next 133 years. The regiment fought under this title through the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, to include the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

; the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

; the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

; and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

During the 1800's there was an attempt to convert the regiment to Light Cavalry
Light cavalry
Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...

, and various appropriate changes to uniform were made, however this change did not come to fruition, leaving various oddities, such as a Light Cavalry sabre, and the Blue and Yellow of British Light Cavalry that would be a lasting legacy.

In 1906, the regiment was part of The Cavalry Brigade at the Grand Durbar (the visit of the Prince
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 and Princess of Wales
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....

 to Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...

), during which HRH presented a new standard to The Carabiniers. The regiment was in the First
First Battle of Ypres
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders , was a First World War battle fought for the strategic town of Ypres in western Belgium...

 and Second Battle of Ypres
Second Battle of Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres was the first time Germany used poison gas on a large scale on the Western Front in the First World War and the first time a former colonial force pushed back a major European power on European soil, which occurred in the battle of St...

 in France, at the Battle of the Somme, Allenby
Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby
Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby GCB, GCMG, GCVO was a British soldier and administrator most famous for his role during the First World War, in which he led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918.Allenby, nicknamed...

's attack at Arras
Battle of Arras (1917)
The Battle of Arras was a British offensive during the First World War. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British, Canadian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Australian troops attacked German trenches near the French city of Arras on the Western Front....

, and at Longueval
Longueval
Longueval is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Longueval is located 24 miles northwest of Amiens on the D919 road, at the junction with the D8....

. Following the war, the regiment was on constabulary duty in Ireland from 1919-1922.

In July 1922, the 6th Dragoon Guards (The Carabiniers) was returned to England and posted to Aldershot
Aldershot
Aldershot is a town in the English county of Hampshire, located on heathland about southwest of London. The town is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council...

. There, they were amalgamated with the 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales'), and this regiment was designated the 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards
3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards)
The 3rd Carabiniers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army.-History:The regiment was formed in 1922 as part of a reduction in the army's cavalry by the amalgamation of the 3rd Dragoon Guards and The Carabiniers , to form the 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards...

.

Colonels

  • 1821–1839: Hon. Robert Taylour
  • 21 January 1868 — 14 May 1873: Sir John Rowland Smyth
    John Rowland Smyth
    Sir John Rowland Smyth KCB was a British soldier. Born to Grice Smyth and his wife Mary, Smyth was commissioned as a cornet into the on 5 July 1821. Promoted to Lieutenant on 26 May 1825, he fought at the Capture of Bharatpur a year later. He was made a Captain on 22 April 1826, and transferred to...

    .
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