The regiment was first raised by James, Earl of Arran, as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers in 1685 as part of the response to the Monmouth Rebellion, by the regimenting of various independent troops, and was ranked as the 6th Regiment of Horse.[1] It fought at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690[2] and the Battle of Steenkerque in August 1692 during the Williamite War in Ireland.[3] In 1691 it was re-ranked as the 5th Horse, and in 1746 transferred to the Irish establishment where it was the ranked 1st Horse. It returned to the British establishment in 1788, as the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards.[1]
Returning to the United Kingdom in late 1882, the regiment was back in Egypt (detachment to the Nile) from 1884 to 1885, then was posted to Ireland in 1886. It returned to England in 1891, and was posted to British India in 1894, where it was first stationed at RawalpindiinPunjab, then from late 1902 in Muttra.[4][5]
A defensive position built by the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in August 1914
The regiment landed in France at the outbreak of the First World War as part of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade in the 1st Cavalry Division on 16 August 1914 for service on the Western Front.[6] Perhaps the regiment's most notable engagement was on 22 August 1914, when one of its squadrons became the first members of the British Expeditionary Force to engage the German army in the First World War. Two full troops of British cavalry surprised four patrolling German cavalrymen of the 2nd Kuirassiers at Casteau near Mons.[7] After a brief pursuit the British cavalry killed most of the German patrol. Captain Charles Hornby was reputed to have become the first British soldier to kill a German soldier, using his sword, and Drummer Edward Thomas is reputed to have fired the first British shots of the war.[8]
Early Wars: Peninsular, Balaklava, Sevastopol, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882
The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Messines 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914 '15, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Rosières, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1914-18
Brereton, JM (1985). A Guide to the Regiments and Corps of the British Army on the Regular Establishment. London: The Bodley Head. pp. 33–34. ISBN0-370-30578-7.
Kingdom of England (1685–1707)
United Kingdom (1801–1922)
British Army
