Formation and Early History of the Cheshire Yeomanry

The Regiment was founded in 1797 when Sir John Leicester of Tabley raised a County Regiment of light cavalry (Hussars) in the home defence role, in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France.

This Regiment, like all Yeomanry Regiments, was not intended to serve overseas, but due to the string of defeats during the Second Boer War in December 1899, the British Government realized that there was a requirement for more troops to reinforce the Regular Army in South Africa.  A Royal Warrant was issued on 24th December 1899, to allow volunteer forces to serve in South Africa, requesting Yeomanry Regiments to provide each up to 111 men in Company strength units, to be attached to the Imperial Yeomanry (IY), equipped and deployed as Mounted infantry. The Cheshire Yeomanry provided the 21st (Cheshire) and 22nd (Cheshire) Companies for the 2nd Battalion, IY, in 1900. The mounted infantry experiment was considered a success and the existing Yeomanry Regiments were converted to IY in 1901, the Regiment becoming Cheshire Imperial Yeomanry (Earl of Chester's).   The title 'Imperial' was dropped in 1908 when the Yeomanry were transferred to the Territorial Force (TF). The Regiment had its headquarters at Old Bank Buildings in Foregate Street, Chester at this time.

A detailed history of the Cheshire Yeomanry can be viewed here.

During the Great War the Cheshire Yeomanry was organised into three separate units as described below:

1/1st Cheshire Yeomanry

The 1/1st Cheshire Yeomanry was mobilised with the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade TF on 4th August 1914 at the outbreak of war.   It moved to East Anglia, where it joined the 1st Mounted Division TF in September 1914.   In November 1915, the Brigade was dismounted and all horses were transported overseas.   The unit was posted with the Brigade to Egypt in March 1916 and on 20th March 1916, the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade TF was absorbed into the 4th Dismounted Brigade TF (along with the South Wales Mounted Brigade TF).   The Brigade was with the Suez Canal Defences when, on 14th January 1917, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) Order No. 26 instructed that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dismounted Brigades be reorganized as the 229th, 230th and 231st Brigades.   Between January and March 1917 the small Yeomanry units were amalgamated and numbered as Battalions of Infantry Regiments recruiting from the same home districts.   As a result, the 1/1st Cheshire Yeomanry was amalgamated with the 1/1st Shropshire Yeomanry at Cairo on 2nd March 1917 to form the 10th (Shropshire and Cheshire Yeomanry) Battalion, The King's (Shropshire Light Infantry) (10th KSLI).

On 23rd February 1917, the General Officer Commanding the EEF, sought permission from the War Office to reorganise the 229th, 230th and 231st Brigades into a new Division, which was granted on 25th February 1917, and the new 74th (Yeomanry) Division started to assemble.  The 231st Brigade joined the Division at el Arish by 9 March 1917.   The 10th KSLI remained with 231st Brigade in 74th (Yeomanry) Division for the remainder of the war.   It took part in the invasion of Palestine in 1917 and 1918, including the Second (17th–19th April 1917) and Third Battles of Gaza (27th October–7th November 1917) – including the capture of Beersheba on 31st October 1917 and the Sheria Position on 6th November 1917. At the end of 1917, it took part in the capture and defence of Jerusalem and in March 1918 in the Battle of Tell 'Asur. On 3rd April 1918, the Division was warned that it would move to the BEF in France and by 30th April 1918 it had completed embarkation at Alexandria.

In May 1918, the 10th KSLI had landed at Marseilles, with the 74th (Yeomanry) Division.   By 18th May 1918, the Division had concentrated in the Abbeville area and underwent intensive training for service on the Western Front, particularly trench warfare and gas defence.   On 14th July 1918, the Yeomanry Division went into the line for the first time, near Merville on the right of XI Corps.  From September 1918, as part of III Corps of Fourth Army, it took part in the "Hundred Days Offensive" including the Second Battle of the Somme (Second Battle of Bapaume) and the Battles of the Hindenburg Line (Battle of Épehy).   In October and November 1918, it took part in the Final Advance in Artois and Flanders. By the Armistice, it was near Tournai, Belgium.   With the end of the war the troops of 74th Division were engaged in railway and road repair work and education was undertaken while demobilisation began. The Division and its sub-units were disbanded on 10th July 1919.

2/1st Cheshire Yeomanry

The 2nd Line of the Regiment was formed in September 1914.   In January 1915 the unit joined the 2/1st Welsh Border Mounted Brigade TF around the Newcastle area of Northumberland (along with the 2/1st Shropshire Yeomanry and the 2/1st Denbighshire Hussars) and the Brigade was placed under the command of the 63rd (2nd Northumbrian) Division.  On 31st March 1916, the remaining Mounted Brigades were ordered to be numbered in a single sequence and the Brigade became 17th Mounted Brigade, remaining in the Northumberland area under operational command of Northern Command.

In April 1916, the unit moved with its Brigade to East Anglia where it joined the 1st Mounted Division;  the Brigade replacing the 1st Line Regiments which had departed, dismounted, for Egypt.    By July 1916, it had left with its Brigade for the Morpeth, in the Northumberland area.

In July 1916, there was a major reorganization of all 2nd Line Yeomanry units in the United Kingdom.   All but 12 regiments were converted to infantry cyclists and as a consequence the unit was dismounted and the 17th Mounted Brigade converted to the 10th Cyclist Brigade.  Further reorganization in October and November 1916 saw the Brigade redesignated as 6th Cyclist Brigade, which remained in the Morpeth area.  In July 1917, the unit moved to Acklington, near Alnwick.   Early in 1918, the Brigade moved to Ireland and was stationed at the Curragh where it remained for the rest of the war.

3/1st Cheshire Yeomanry

The 3rd Line unit was formed in April 1915 and in that summer was affiliated to a Reserve Cavalry Regiment at The Curragh.  In the summer of 1916, it was attached to the UK based 3rd Line Units Group of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division.  The unit was disbanded in early 1917 with personnel transferring to the 2/1st unit or to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment at Oswestry.

Battle Honours

The sheer scale of the Great War led to a previously unheard of number of Honours being awarded and it was simply impractical to emblazon every one of them on the Regimental Colour.   In September 1922 it was ordered that  Regiments should select up to 10 Honours to be emblazoned on their Regimental Colours along with previous awards, up to a total of  24.   This led to a storm of protest, since many Regiments would have had to remove previous Honours.    The order was therefore amended the following December, to allow each Regiment to select up to 10 Honours to be emblazoned on its King's/Queen's Colour, Honours from other conflicts continuing to be displayed on the Regimental Colour.   Honours in bold below are emblazoned on the Regimental Colours.

Somme 1918,           Bapaume 1918,           Hindenburg Line,           Épehy,           Pursuit to Mons,           France and Flanders 1918,           Egypt 1916–17,           Gaza,           Jerusalem,           Jericho, 
                     
Tell 'Asur,           Palestine 1917–18

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) was established by Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), and pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two World Wars.   It is a non-profit-making organisation founded by Sir Fabian Ware.

The CWGC's principles are:

• Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial.

• Headstones and memorials should be permanent.

• Headstones should be uniform.

• There should be no distinction made of account of military or civil rank, race or creed.

Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and, in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials.   Over one million casualties are now commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150 countries.

Together with the tasks of structural and horticultural maintenance, the CWGC is charged with keeping records of the 1.75 million Commonwealth war dead.   At each cemetery and memorial you will find a register showing the service details and, in some cases, family details, of the men and women buried or commemorated there.   Much of the Commission’s day-to-day work is concerned with maintaining the integrity of the casualty database, the electronic version of the records, which can be accessed via the Debt of Honour Register (DoHR).

In December 2020, the Commission reviewed their policy on amendments to the Casualty Database.   One of the outcomes of the review was that they would no longer add Honours and Awards to the database where there is no entitlement to post-nominal letters.   Therefore the recording of "Mentioned in Despatches", for instance, would no longer be carried out.   Listed in the table below are names of any officers awarded "Mentioned in Despatches" which will not be recorded in the Casualty Database.

Some apparent inaccuracies in the records of Officers of the Cheshire Yeomanry may have been found in the DoHR.   The Webmaster will investigate and report these errors to the CWGC as the project/website is progressed.

Below is a brief summary of apparent inaccuracies discovered so far and action taken or planned to take.