Page 160 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
transferred to a mounted infantry role. In 1746 it was re-named the King’s Dragoon Guards and five years later the 1st Royal Regiment of Dragoons – “The Royals” – who became involved in most of the major campaigns of the British Army. One of the regiment’s most famous battle honours was gained at the Battle of Waterloo when they captured the Eagle Standard of the French 105th Infantry Regiment. A symbol that found its way into their insignia.
“The Royals’” first Colonel was Lord Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, and among those who held the rank of Colonel-in-Chief were Kaiser Wilhelm II, King George V and King George VI.
In 1961 the regiment was re-titled once more to become The Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) and, already the oldest line cavalry unit in the Army, “The Royals” were promoted to Guards status in 1969, when the regiment was amalgamated with The Royal Horse Guards (“The Blues”).
Blues and Royals unite – in 1969
The main parade marking the amalgamation of the “The Blues” and “The Royals” took place in April 1969 at Detmold, Germany, while token parades were held at Wellington Barracks in London, Bovington Camp in Dorset, and Pirbright Camp, in Surrey.
As Colonel of the new Blues and Royals Regiment – Field-Marshal Sir Gerald Templer KG, GCB, GCMG, KBE, DSO, took the Salute at a March Past on a windswept Detmold parade ground. Alongside him was the Deputy Colonel, General Sir Geoffrey Richard Desmond Fitzpatrick, GCB, GCVO, DSO, MBE, MC, Colonel in Chief, British Army of the Rhine.
This new regiment, equipped with Chieftain battle tanks and stationed at Hobart Barracks, Detmold, became the first Household Cavalry Regiment to be equipped with tanks.
In what must have been a very emotional gathering, around eighty old comrades of The Royal Dragoons attended an earlier weekend of special activities at Detmold to mark the end of their regiment as a separate entity.
The Blues and Royals were accorded the honour of a privileged regiment of the City of London and given the Freedom of the Royal Borough of Windsor. Their Commander was Lieuten- ant-Colonel R M H Vickers, former Commander of The Royal Dragoons.2
Although they serve together in the Household Cavalry Regiment (armoured) and the Household
Cavalry Mounted Regiment both The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals retain their own separate identities, colonels, traditions, and uniforms.
“Walk march!” Goodbye H Squadron
While the regiments of the Household Cavalry were coming together in the 1960s, other Units in the Army were experiencing the arrival of mecha- nisation to the point of losing their long connection with Military Working Animals.
A programme which began in the 1920s to mechanise the Army gained speed in the ‘60s. A number of horses were retained for ceremonial duties with the Household Cavalry, The King’s Troop RHA and others for mounted tasks in the Corps of Royal Military Police but the Royal Corps of Transport was not to be so fortunate.
Using transport of all kinds including road and cross-country vehicles, aircraft, ships, and hovercraft in the past, the Corps had also loaded donkeys, mules, ponies, camels, and buffalos. However, the last of its horses were handed over on the disbandment of H Squadron at Buller Barracks in Aldershot in 1970 at an event that marked a very poignant end of an era.
It meant that the Corps retained only 414 Pack Troop in Hong Kong, equipped with pack mules which had long been giving good service in the New Territories. This is explored fully in the Chapter on Pack Transport.
There was much controversy when mechani- sation of the Cavalry was ordered after the First World War. The 12th Lancers were informed in February 1928 and received their first armoured car in Egypt in January 1929. The 17th/21st Lancers converted in January 1938, in India, but 1st The Royal Dragoons and The Royal Scots Greys were still operating usefully with horses in Palestine in 1940.
Knightsbridge Suite: the new Hyde Park Bar- racks – 1970
As some were forced to say goodbye to their horses, the Household Cavalry was preparing, at last, to move into more spacious barracks.
The thirty-two storey tower block of the new Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks point like a slender finger to the sky. Its architect, Sir Basil Spence, called it a typical London ‘tower’ with a richness of silhouette through which the light can be seen, like the Victoria Tower of the Houses of Parliament.
The tower is 66 feet square at the base which makes it not as large as many a suburban house
2 Soldier Magazine dated June 1969.
152