Household Cavalry Composite Regiment

The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was a temporary, wartime-only, cavalry regiment of the British Army consisting of personnel drawn from the 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards. It was active in 1882 for service in the Anglo-Egyptian War, in 1889-1900 during the Second Boer War, from August to November, 1914 during the opening months of World War I and in World War II.

Anglo-Egyptian War
The regiment was first formed in 1882 to take part in the Anglo-Egyptian War.

Second Boer War
The regiment was re-raised and served in the Second Boer War from 1889 to 1900.

World War I


When the British Expeditionary Force was mobilised, it had a war establishment of seventeen cavalry regiments - five cavalry brigades of three regiments each, and two regiments which would be broken up to serve as reconnaissance squadrons, one for each of the six infantry divisions. The peacetime establishment in the United Kingdom was nineteen cavalry regiments - sixteen line regiments, and the three regiments of the Household Cavalry.

The sixteen regular regiments were earmarked for overseas service, whilst the seventeenth regiment was to be provided by a composite regiment formed with a squadron from each of the three Household Cavalry regiments - the 1st Life Guards, the 2nd Life Guards, and the Royal Horse Guards - and assigned a mobilisation role in 4th Cavalry Brigade.

Mobilisation
On the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914, the regiment was duly constituted with a squadron each from the 1st Life Guards at Hyde Park, the 2nd Life Guards at Regent's Park and the Royal Horse Guards at Windsor. The regiment joined 4th Cavalry Brigade which was assigned to The Cavalry Division and moved to France in August 1914.

Early Actions
With The Cavalry Division, the regiment took part in a number of actions during the early war of movement: the Battle of Mons (23–24 August), the Battle of Le Cateau (26 August), the Action at Néry (1 September), the Battle of the Marne (6–9 September) and the Battle of the Aisne (12–15 September).

2nd Cavalry Division
The regiment was transferred with 4th Cavalry Brigade to the 2nd Cavalry Division on 14 October 1914 to bring it up to the standard three brigade strength. With the division, the regiment took part in First Battle of Ypres, notably the battle of Gheluvelt (29–31 October). On 11 November, the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was broken up and its constituent squadrons rejoined their parent regiments; these had landed at Zeebrugge on 7 October 1914 with 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division. The Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, a Yeomanry regiment, replaced it in 4th Cavalry Brigade.

Household Battalion
From 1916 to 1918, an infantry battalion, the Household Battalion, was formed from reserve regiments of the 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards.

World War II
By the outbreak of World War II, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards had benn amalgamated as the Life Guards. In 1939, the Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards formed the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment and the Household Cavalry Training Regiment.

The Household Cavalry Composite Regiment once again served with the 4th Cavalry Brigade and joined the 1st Cavalry Division when it was formed on 31 October 1939. It departed the United Kingdom in February 1940, transited across France, and arrived in Palestine on 20 February 1940. It served as a garrison force under British Forces, Palestine and Trans-Jordan.

From 6 May 1941 the 4th Cavalry Brigade, together with a battalion of infantry from the Essex Regiment, a mechanised regiment from the Arab Legion and supporting artillery was organised as Habforce for operations in Iraq including the relief of the base at RAF Habbaniya and the occupation of Baghdad. Following this, in July 1941 it was placed under the command of I Australian Corps and was involved in operations against the Vichy French in Syria, advancing from eastern Iraq near the Trans-Jordan border on Palmyra to secure the Haditha - Tripoli oil pipeline.

In 1940, the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was reorganised into the 1st Household Cavalry Regiment and the Household Cavalry Training Regiment as the 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment. They were disbanded in 1945 and the personnel returned to their original units.