North Irish Horse Yeomanry Regiment Cap Badge – Queens Crown

Guaranteed original. Complete & intact. This is an original Queens Crown North Irish Horse Regiment Cap Badge for sale. In good condition. Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military cap badges for sale including other North Irish Horse cap badges.

For more original cap badges for sale, click here.

The North Irish Horse is a yeomanry unit of the British Territorial Army raised in the northern counties of Ireland in the aftermath of the Second Boer War. Raised and patronized by the nobility from their inception to the present day, they were one of the first non-regular units to be deployed to France and the Low Counties with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 during World War I and fought with distinction both as mounted troops and later as a Cyclist Regiment, achieving 18 battle honours. The regiment was reduced to a single man in the inter war years and re-raised for World War II where they achieved their greatest distinctions in the North African and Italian campaigns. Reduced again after the Cold War the regiment’s name still exists in B (North Irish Horse) Squadron, the Queen’s Own Yeomanry and 69 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron (V) part of 32 Signal Regiment.

Under the plans for Army 2020, B (North Irish Horse) Squadron has come under command of the newly established Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry Regiment while 69 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron has become 40 (NIH) Signal Squadron.

The declaration of war against Germany in August 1914 found the North Irish Horse at summer camp, as was its sister regiment the South Irish Horse. The Expeditionary Force squadron (designated A Squadron) under the command of Major Lord Cole, consisting of 6 officers and 154 other ranks, along with its counterpart in the South Irish Horse (designated B Squadron) was assigned to the British Expeditionary Force. Both squadrons sailed from Dublin on the SS Architect[8] on 17 August 1914. They were the first non-regular troops to land in France and be in action in the First World War. They were joined shortly afterwards by C Squadron of the North Irish Horse under the command of Major Lord Massereene and Ferrard DSO. Three more squadrons of the ‘Horse’ were to join the regiment in France landing on 2 May 1915, 17 November 1915 and 11 January 1916. A total of 70 officers and 1,931 men of the regiment went to war between 1914 and 1916.

On 31 August 1939 the War Office ordered the reconstitution of the regiment as a wheeled armoured car unit under the command of Sir Basil Brooke (formerly 10th Hussars) with Lord Erne as his second in command, although Brooke was shortly to leave the position as his political commitments took precedence. Ultimately to be replaced, after several temporary officers, by Lt Col David Dawnay, grandson of the 8th Viscount Downe. Recruiting commenced and instructors were brought in from other RAC and Yeomanry units to raise the Horse from its “One Man Regiment” status from scratch. On 11 September a Special Army Order transferred the regiment from the Cavalry of the Line to the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC). By November 50 recruits had been trained and a further 30–40 were due to start training immediately. The regiment also moved its base to Enniskillen Castle in the same month.

Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military cap badges for sale including other North Irish Horse regiment cap badges.