17/21st Lancers (Famous Regiments S.)

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RW Smith (2004). "Modderfontein, 17 September 1901". Military History Journal. 13 (1). Archived from the original on 3 April 2009 . Retrieved 2 August 2009. With the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the deployment of 1st (UK) Armoured Division to the Gulf came the only opportunity for desert warfare since the North Africa campaign of 1943. Although the 17th/21st did not deploy as a Regiment; it did however furnish more than two Squadrons of men and most of its equipment to reinforce the Royal Scots Dragoons Guards and the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars. The 17th/21st Lancers Band were deployed in their wartime role as medics. Babits, Lawrence Edward; Howard, Joshua B. (2009). Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807832660.

Omdurman" was the regiment's only battle honour, giving rise to the satirical regimental motto of "thou shalt not kill." [6] That same year, the regiment was given the title 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers, taking the name from Queen Victoria who was the Empress of India. [1] Service in Ireland and India [ edit ] A troop from the 21st Lancers passing Marlborough House, circa 1911 The main role of the 17th/21st Lancers service after the war was as part of the British Army of the Rhine serving as part of NATO’s conventional deterrent against the Warsaw Pact Armies of Eastern Europe. It also served throughout the world with both squadron and troop deployments to Hong Kong, Borneo, Aden, Libya, Belize, Kuwait and Cyprus. Cannon, Richard (1841). Historical Record of the Ninth or the Queen's Royal Regiment of Dragoons, Lancers: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1715 and of Its Subsequent Services to 1841. John W. Parker.

May saw the final action of the North Africa campaign with the capture of the Cap Bon Peninsula. The Germans were trying to delay its capture long enough to allow evacuation of their Army by sea. The Regiment conducted a ‘charge’ along the beach totally out manoeuvring the German defensive positions. Enemy resistance crumbled, thousands of prisoners were taken, and thus ended the campaign. Early wars: Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, Sevastopol, Central India, South Africa 1879, South Africa 1900–1902

The regiment, which was based in Sialkot in India at the start of the First World War, landed in France as part of the 2nd (Sialkot) Cavalry Brigade in the 1st Indian Cavalry Division [53] in November 1914 for service on the Western Front. [54] The regiment fought in its conventional cavalry role at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. [45] The regiment was transferred to the 7th Cavalry Brigade, part of the 3rd Cavalry Division in February 1918 and was used as mobile infantry, plugging gaps whenever the need arose, both as cavalry and as infantry during the last-gasp German spring offensive. [45] Babits, Lawrence Edward (2001). A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807849262. Cannon, Richard (1841). Historical Record of the Seventeenth Regiment of Light Dragoons, Lancers: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1759 and of Its Subsequent Services to 1841. John W. Parker. Dutton, Roy (2012). Forgotten Heroes: The Charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman. Infodial. ISBN 978-0-9556554-5-6.Anglesey, Marquess of (1997). A History of the British Cavalry, 1816–1919, Volume VII, The Curragh Incident and the Western Front 1914. Pen & Sword. Greaves, Adrian (2012). Crossing the Buffalo: The Zulu War of 1879. London: Orion. pp.299–300. ISBN 978-1-4091-2572-3. Brumwell, Stephen (2007). Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe. Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 9780826436351. They stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which ended June 1902 with the Peace of Vereeniging. Four months later, 540 officers and men left Cape Town on the SS German in late September 1902, and arrived at Southampton in late October, when they were posted to Edinburgh. [52] First World War [ edit ] The 17th Lancers advancing, wearing their early-war uniform, postcard after Harry Payne Uniforms worn by the 17th between 1768 and 1914, by Richard Simkin. The regiment was originally raised in Bengal by the East India Company in 1858 as the 3rd Bengal European Light Cavalry, for service in the Indian Rebellion. [1] As with all other "European" units of the Company, it was placed under the command of the British Crown in 1858, and formally moved into the British Army in 1862, when it was designated as a hussar regiment and titled the 21st Regiment of Hussars. [1] A detachment saw service in the 1884–5 expedition to the Sudan, with the Light Camel Regiment. In 1897 it was re-designated as a lancer regiment, becoming the 21st Lancers. [1] The Indian origin of the regiment was commemorated in its "French grey" facings - this distinctive light blue/grey shade having previously been the uniform colour of the East India Company's eight regiments of Bengal Native Cavalry. [2] Mahdist War [ edit ] Lt Winston Churchill 1898