The Duke of Connaught's Own Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles

The Royal East Kent Yeomanry were formed in 1794, originally as a series of independent troops based in the important towns of Kent, England.In the latter part of the 19th century they frequently provided escorts for the Queen and members of the Royal Family, and as a result, in 1856 the East Kent Yeomanry became the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles (Duke of Connaught's Own).

Boer War
On 13 December 1899, the decision to allow volunteer forces serve in the Second Boer War was made. Due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December, 1899, the British government realized they were going to need more troops than just the regular army, thus issuing a Royal Warrant on 24 December 1899. This warrant officially created the Imperial Yeomanry.

The Royal Warrant asked standing Yeomanry regiments to provide service companies of approximately 115 men each. In addition to this, many British citizens (usually mid-upper class) volunteered to join the new regiment. Although there were strict requirements, many volunteers were accepted with substandard horsemanship/marksmanship, however they had significant time to train while awaiting transport.

The first contingent of recruits contained 550 officers, 10,371 men with 20 battalions and 4 companies, which arrived in South Africa between February and April, 1900. Upon arrival, the regiment was sent throughout the zone of operations. The Royal East Kent Yeomanry provided troops for the 33rd Company, 11th Battalion.

World War I
During World War I the Royal East Kent Yeomanry formed three regiments, the original regiment now known as the 1/1st Royal East Kent Yeomanry, was joined by a second line regiment (2/1st) and a third line regiment (3/1st).

1/1st Royal East Kent Yeomanry
The 1/1st Royal East Kents Yeomanry were mobilised in August 1914 and as part of the South Eastern Mounted Brigade, 1st Mounted Division. In September 1915 the regiment was dismounted and moved to the Dardanelles and saw action at the Battle of Gallipoli, landing on 8 October, 1915 and attached to the 42nd Division. After the evacuation of Gallipoli, they were sent to Egypt, arriving in February 1916 joining the 3rd Dismounted Brigade. The regiment was then amagamated in February 1917 with the West Kent Yeomanry, together they formed the 10th Battalion (Royal East Kent and West Kent Yeomanry), the Buffs and moved to France in May 1918 as Infantry.

2/1st Royal East Kent Yeomanry
The 2/1st was formed September 1914,they were converted to a cyclist unit in 1916 attached to the 4th Mounted Division and would remain in the United Kingdom until April 1918 when moved to Ireland. They ended the war in Ireland and did not see active service.

3/1st Royal East Kent Yeomanry
The 3/1st was formed in 1915, they also remained in United Kingdom until being disbanded in early 1917.

Between the wars
On the reforming of the TA, the 14 senior Yeomanry Regiments remained as horsed cavalry regiments (6 forming the 5th and 6th Cavalry Brigades) the remaining Yeomanry Regiments would be re roled as Artillery. The Royal East Kent Yeomanry was one of the regiments now re-designated and formed part of the Royal Artillery. Together with Kent's other Yeomanry regiment The West Kent Yeomanry (Queen's Own), they formed the 6th (Kent) Army Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, in 1920. In 1921 it became the 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, consisting of the Canterbury based 385th, and 386th Ashford based (Duke of Connaught's Own Yeomanry) Batteries, and the Bromley based 387th and the Maidstone based 388th (Queen's Own Yeomanry) Batteries. In 1938 the unit was re-designated as the 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment, Royal Artillery,

97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment
The 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment served with the 5th Infantry Division, during the Battle of France, seeing action at St. Valery-en-Caux in June 1940, after the German advance the regiment destroyed its guns and equipment and headed to Dunkirk for evacuation in Operation Dynamo. The regiment then moved to the Middle east and served in the 10th Army as part of the 10th Indian Infantry Division in Iraq during 1941. It later joined the 7th Armoured Division the Desert Rats in July 1942, being involved in the Battle of Alam El Halfa the First and Second Battle of El Alamein, until October 1943 when it rejoined the 10th Indian Division, serving in North Africa, Palestine and Italy, where it ended the war on the Adriatic coast near Trieste.

143rd (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment
In 1939 the 143rd Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (Kent Yeomanry) was formed as a duplicate of 97th Regiment. The Second Line regiment spent the first two years of the war in Iceland. On its return to the UK in 1941 the regiment joined the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division they were involved in the D-Day actions giving support to the forces attacking Caen. They were also in action around Le Havre and at the Turnhout Canal. The winter of 1944-45 was spent on the Dutch - German border along the River Maas. Their final action was at Arnhem in April 1945.

Post war
In 1947 it became the 297th (Kent Yeomanry) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery In 1961 the Kent Yeomanry was amalgamated with the Sharpshooters to form a reconnaissance regiment. Six years later the Kent and County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was reduced to squadron strength to form C Squadron of the Royal Yeomanry More recently members of the Squadron have been deployed on operational tours in support of the regular army to Kosovo, Bosnia and Kuwait. In 2003 nine members of the Squadron were mobilised to form part of a Royal Yeomanry Squadron for the Joint NBC Regiment deploying on Operation TELIC. Further deployments have been to the southern province of Basra and Al Amarah, in Iraq.