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The British yeomanry during the First World War were part of the British Army reserve Territorial Force. Initially in 1914 there were fifty-seven regiments and fourteen mounted brigades. Soon after the declaration of war second and third line regiments were formed. The third line regiments however were soon absorbed into the Cavalry Reserve Regiments, to supply replacements for the cavalry and yeomanry. Other horsed regiments in the British Army, during the war, were the regular cavalry regiments and the three regiments belonging to the special reserve: the North Irish Horse, the South Irish Horse and the King Edward's Horse.〔Rinaldi, pp.138–139〕 The senior yeomanry regiments could trace their origins back over 100 years; the oldest regiment, the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, had been formed in 1794. The most junior regiment, the Welsh Horse, had only been formed on 18 August 1914, after the start of the war.〔Rinaldi, p.148〕 To expand the yeomanry, mirror regiments and brigades were formed. The Yorkshire Hussars part of the Yorkshire Mounted Brigade was numbered the 1/1st when the second regiment was raised, which became the 2/1st Yorkshire Hussars in the 2/1st Yorkshire Mounted Brigade and so on. Mounted brigades were often broken up or renumbered the aforementioned 2/1st Yorkshire later became the 18th Mounted Brigade. Although there were no yeomanry divisions before the war, after mobilisation the mounted brigades were allocated to specially formed mounted divisions. Some regiments also served alongside regular cavalry regiments in cavalry brigades. While others were assigned to infantry divisions or army corps as their horsed regiment. The yeomanry fought in several theatres of war. On the Western Front they were initially used in their traditional role, but during the campaign in Gallipoli the 2nd Mounted Division fought dismounted. Later the yeomanry fought on the Macedonian front where, as part of the British Salonika Army, they were once again employed in the mounted role. Further mounted actions followed with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Some yeomanry regiments had a mixed war with several being converted to cyclist units. Others became infantry battalions like the 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars which ended the war as the 9th (Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. Several regiments serving in the Middle East were converted to infantry and used to form the 74th (Yeomanry) Division, which then fought on in Palestine before being transferred to France. In 1918, other yeomanry regiments were transferred to the Western Front to form battalions of the Machine Gun Corps. By the end of the war the yeomanry had suffered over 3,800 dead, which included several senior officers. ==Prelude== The British yeomanry was formed as a home defence force in 1790s. Each yeoman, then mostly farmers or agricultural workers, was expected to supply his own horse and saddle. They were however notoriously better known to the population for their involvement in the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 and the Bristol riots in 1831.〔Miller, p.25〕 In the early years the standard and number of men in a troop or troops in a regiment differed from county to county with no standard formation. By the 1800s nationally there were only around 1,500, but fear of renewed French militarisation saw a large increase in their numbers by the middle of the century.〔Miller, p.26〕 By that time the yeomanry volunteer had to provide their own weapons and equipment and attend twenty-four days drill a year.〔Miller, p.28〕 However from 1896, the yeomanry were issued Lee–Metford or Lee–Enfield carbines, which had an effective range of .〔Badsey. p.78〕 The Mauser that would be used by their opponents in the Second Boer War had a range in excess of .〔Badsey. p.86〕 After the start of the Second Boer War, the British Government called for volunteers and in response 10,000 men enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry.〔Miller, p.37〕 At the time the strength of the combined yeomanry regiments was around 8,800 and around 2,200 volunteered for the Imperial Yeomanry.〔Badsey. p.95〕 During the war it was the 7,000 colonial mounted contingent, not the 5,000 regular British cavalry, that led the way in tactical development. They were better trained, armed and more efficient, if only because they had been correctly trained to use the right weapons and tactics for the conflict.〔Childers, pp.28–30〕 Since 1880 British cavalrymen had only been armed with carbines and swords, although some also carried a lance.〔Badsey 2008, p.6〕 So poor were the regular cavalry regiments considered that General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, commanding the advance into Northern Natal, left his six regiments of cavalry behind at Ladysmith, trusting in the irregular mounted forces to carry out patrolling.〔Childers, p.31〕 After the war, in 1905, the then Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane started a reorganisation of the army and reserves. The Haldane Reforms and the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 gave the British Army the capability of forming an expeditionary force. The act also incorporated regular payment for Territorial Force soldiers and training, which included an annual two-week training camp.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Western Front Association )〕 As a result when the Territorial Force was formed it was decided there would be fourteen mounted brigades. Each of these brigades consisted of three yeomanry regiments, one artillery battery from the Royal Horse Artillery or the Honourable Artillery Company, an ammunition column, a transport and supply column and a field ambulance.〔Westlake, p.14〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British yeomanry during the First World War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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