The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (DLOY) was a yeomanry unit of the British Army from 1798 to 1992. Originally raised as part-time cavalry for home defence and internal security, the regiment sent mounted infantry to serve in the Second Boer War. During World War I it carried out mounted duties in Egypt and Palestine and on the Western Front. By 1917 the reserve units at home had become cyclists and the regiment serving on the Western Front joined an infantry battalion, seeing action at the Battle of Passchendaele, against the German Spring Offensive and in the final Allied Hundred Days Offensive. At the beginning of World War II the regiment gave up its horses and formed two regiments of medium artillery, which served in the Middle East, Italy and North West Europe. Postwar it became an armoured unit. Today its lineage is maintained by B (Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry) Squadron, the Queen's Own Yeomanry.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars After Britain was drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger proposed in 1794 that the counties should form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry (Yeomanry) that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the county. A number of counties did so immediately, mainly those close to the threatened coastline.Frederick, pp. vii–viii.Rogers, p. 145.Talbot. By 1797–98 the threat of invasion seemed more acute, and the government encouraged the formation of local armed associations of cavalry and infantry for purely local defence. The County of Lancaster (Lancashire) raised the following independent Troops: Liverpool Light Horse, one troop raised 23 March 1797 Manchester & Salford Light Horse, three troops raised 11 May 1797; expanded 1798 to six troops Bolton Light Horse Volunteers, two troops raised 5 April 1798Mileham, pp. 93–4. Ashton-in-Makerfield Association, one troop raised 2 May 1798 Manchester Light Horse, one troop raised May 1798 Loyal Blackburn Association, one troop raised 6 June 1798 Oldham Association, one troop raised 27 June 1798 Atherton Association, one troop raised 2 July 1798
Most volunteer cavalry was disbanded after the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, but the peace was short-lived, and many troops were reformed or newly formed: Liverpool Light Horse, one troop reformed 3 August 1802, second troop formed 1803; disbanded ca 1828 Bolton le Moors Cavalry (also known as Bolton Volunteer Cavalry), one troop reformed 3 August 1802; disbanded 1813, reformed 6 January 1820 as Bolton Yeomanry Cavalry Loyal Ashton Yeomanry Cavalry, one troop reformed 3 August 1802; disbanded 28 May 1823; reformed 31 August 1848 as Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry Cavalry Manchester & Salford Light Horse, three troops reformed 17 August 1802, reduced to two troops 1806; disbanded ca 1814; reformed 1817 as Manchester and Salford Yeomanry Preston Yeomanry Cavalry, one troop raised 9 August 1803; disbanded ca 1806 Oldham Yeomanry Cavalry, reformed 1817; disbanded ca 1824 Furness Cuirassiers (also known as Furness Yeomanry cavalry), one troop raised 23 August 1819 Wigan Volunteer Light Horse, one troop raised 20 October 1819
19th Century The Yeomanry declined in importance and strength after the Battle of Waterloo, but in the absence of police it remained available for use in aid of the civil power, particularly in the industrial North of England. The Manchester & Salford Light Horse was reformed as the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry with two troops in 1817. It participated in the so-called Peterloo Massacre in 1819, when 11 unarmed civilians were killed and around 400 injured by the action of the Regular and Yeomanry cavalry who had been called out to control a demonstration at St Peter's Fields, Manchester.Spiers, pp. 79–80.
In 1827 the government withdrew funding for the yeomanry when called out on duty, but units were permitted to continue unpaid. The remaining Lancashire troops (Bolton, Furness and Wigan) were regimented on 18 August 1828 as the Lancashire Corps of Yeomanry Cavalry. King William IV granted the title Duke of Lancaster's Corps of Yeomanry Cavalry in 1834. Since then the Sovereign, as the Duke of Lancaster, has traditionally served as Colonel-in-Chief of the DLOY.
Yeomanry pay for duty was restored in 1831 with the increasing social unrest in the country, but by 1839 the strength of the Yeomanry in Lancashire was only 171, despite the county having a large and restless urban population. The DLOY raised additional troops at Rochdale (1844) and Worsley (1845), and the regimental headquarters (RHQ) moved to Worsley. The former Loyal Ashton Yeomanry Cavalry was revived on 31 August 1848 as the Lancashire Hussars Yeomanry Cavalry, giving the southwestern part of the county its own regiment.
An invasion scare in 1859 led to the emergence of the Volunteer Movement, and Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs) began to be organised throughout Great Britain, Lancashire raising a large number. Units of Mounted Rifle Volunteers, later termed Light Horse Volunteers (LHVs), were also raised among farming and foxhunting communities, to carry out reconnaissance for the RVCs. The LHVs were less expensively dressed and less socially exclusive than the Yeomanry, but they occupied an anomalous position between them and the Rifle Volunteers, and most were short-lived.Beckett, pp. 71–3.Spiers, pp. 163–8. Two such units were raised in Lancashire:Beckett, Appendix X.Frederick, p. 372. 1st Lancashire Mounted Rifle Volunteer Corps, raised 22 March 1860 at Manchester, redesignated February 1861 as the 1st Lancashire Light Horse Volunteer Corps, disbanded in 1872 2nd Lancashire Light Horse Volunteer Corps, raised 11 July 1861 at Liverpool, disbanded in 1871
The Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the DLOY from 15 December 1862 was the Hon Algernon Egerton, who was also Lt-Col Commandant of the 3rd Manchester Rifles. He retained the command until 20 March 1882, when he was succeeded by his long-time second-in-command, Arthur Egerton, 3rd Earl of Wilton. The earl died in 1884 and was succeeded by Lt-Col R.H. Ainsworth on 29 October. The Hon Algernon Egerton was appointed the regiment's Honorary Colonel on 6 June 1885.Army List, various dates.
In 1872 the Furness Trp was disbanded and replaced by a new troop at Oldham. Further troops were raised at Broughton, Salford, in 1877 and at Blackburn in 1880, but the Wigan Trp was disbanded in 1883. Two more troops were formed at Blackpool and Liverpool in 1889. Then on 1 April 1893 the Yeomanry adopted the squadron organisation, with the DLOY organised as follows: RHQ at Worsley A Squadron:Oldham and Rochdale Trps B Squadron: Liverpool and Bolton Trps C Squadron: Broughton and Worsley Trps D Squadron: Blackburn and Blackpool Trps
In the late 19th Century the DLOY was ranked 12 in order of precedence among yeomanry regiments, apparently based on the date of first raising the Bolton Troop.
Following the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned Regular, Militia and Yeomanry units places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The DLOY was assigned as 'divisional troops' to 3rd Division of VI Corps based at Manchester. This was never more than a paper organisation, but from April 1893 the Army List showed the Yeomanry regiments grouped into brigades for collective training. They were commanded by the senior regimental commanding officer but they did have a Regular Brigade major. The Duke of Lancaster's together with the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry formed the 14th Yeomanry Brigade. The Yeomanry brigades disappeared from the Army List after the Second Boer War.
Imperial Yeomanry
Following a string of defeats during Black Week in early December 1899, the British government realised that it would need more troops than just the Regulars to fight the Second Boer War. On 13 December, the decision to allow volunteer forces to serve in South Africa was made, and a Royal Warrant was issued on 24 December. This officially created the Imperial Yeomanry (IY). The force was organised as county service companies of approximately 115 men signed up for one year. Volunteers from the Yeomanry and civilians quickly filled the new force, which was equipped to operate as Mounted infantry, armed with a Lee–Metford infantry rifle and bayonet instead of a cavalry carbine and sabre.Rogers, p. 228.Ryan.Spiers, p. 239.Dunlop, pp. 104–18.
The Duke of Lancaster's Yeomanry and Lancashire Hussars co-sponsored the 24th and 32nd (Lancashire) Companies, which served in the 8th and 2nd IY Battalions respectively.Amery, Vol IV, pp. 229–35; Appendix to Chapters I-XIV, pp. 503–14.IY at Anglo-Boer War.Westmorland & Cumberland Yeomanry at Penrith and Eden Museum (archived).Frederick, p. 370.IY Companies at Roll of Honour.IY at Regiments.org.
2nd Battalion, IY, including 32nd (Lancashire) Company, landed in South Africa on 28 February 1900 and was sent to Naauwpoort as part of a Yeomanry brigade under Major-General John Brabazon.Amery, Vol III, p. 495. 8th Battalion, IY, including 23rd (Lancashire) Company, landed in South Africa on 5 March 1900 From early May 1900 23rd (Lancashire) and 24th (Westmorland & Cumberland) Companies of the 8th Bn and 19th (Paget's Horse) Bn were serving under the Earl of Erroll with Sir Charles Warren's Column operating in Griqualand West. Warren began his advance before all the troops had assembled, and entered Douglas on 21 May. The Boers were at Campbell, blocking the route up onto the Kaap Plateau. On 26 May the column camped at Faber's Put, a farmstead a few miles south of Campbell. 23rd and 24th Companies and a small detachment of Paget's Horse were in camp. Warren had placed insufficient pickets and before dawn on 30 May a force of Boers surrounded the camp, infiltrated into the garden and prepared to attack. Spotted by a Yeomanry sentry who fired on them, the Boers fired back and a furious firefight ensued, while the Boers stampeded the Yeomanry's horses and shooting down gun crews. The two IY companies advanced to support their picket on the southern ridge and brought their two Colt machine guns into action. Leaving a party to keep down enfilading fire from the garden, and the Paget's Horse detachment to protect the machine guns, the rest of the IY advanced by rushes over open ground towards the ridge. Themselves under enfilade fire from the picket in the rocks, the Boers retired from the ridge before the Yeomanry arrived with their bayonets. The rest of the Boers in the garden ran back to their horses and rode off before the Yeomanry could recover their own horses. After the action at Faber's Put Warren was able to clear Griqualand West without further trouble.Rose-Innes, pp. 74–82, 89–90.Warren's report of 29 June 1900, London Gazette 8 February 1901, pp. 906–9.Faber's Put at Canadian War Museum.
The First Contingent of the Imperial Yeomanry completed their year's term of service and went home in May 1901, to be replaced by a Second Contingent who served until the end of the war in 1902. Most of the Second Contingent were raw recruits, but the 'Relieving Draft' for the 23rd Co did at least contain a number of DLOY men.IWM WMR Ref 56087. These companies earned the DLOY its first Battle honour: South Africa 1900–02.Leslie.
The Imperial Yeomanry were trained and equipped as mounted infantry. The concept was considered a success and before the war ended the existing Yeomanry regiments at home (including the DLOY) were converted into Imperial Yeomanry, with an establishment of RHQ and four squadrons with a machine gun section. RHQ of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Imperial Yeomanry moved from Worsley to Lancaster House, Whalley Road, Whalley Range, Manchester.
Territorial Force