1st Cavalry Brigade (United Kingdom)

The 1st Cavalry Brigade was a brigade of the British Army. It served in the Napoleonic Wars (1st Household Cavalry Brigade), the Anglo-Egyptian War (1st (Heavy) Cavalry Brigade), the Boer War and in the First World War when it was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division.

The brigade was a pre-war formation based at Aldershot in England and originally consisted of three cavalry regiments, and an Royal Engineer signal troop. After the declaration of war in August 1914, the brigade was deployed to the Western Front in France, where an artillery battery joined the brigade the following September and a Machine Gun Squadron in February 1916.

One of the brigades first battles was the Action at Néry (1 September 1914), when acting alone the brigade defeated the German 4th Cavalry Division. During this action three men from the artillery battery Captain Edward Bradbury, Sergeant-Major George Dorrell, and Sergeant David Nelson, were all awarded the Victoria Cross.

Napoleonic Wars
Battle of Talavera 1809 Battle of Furentes de Onoro 1811 Battle of Albuera 1811 Battle of Salamanca 1812 Battle of Vitoria 1813 Battle of Waterloo 1815
 * 3rd Dragoon Guards
 * 4th Dragoons
 * 1st Dragoons
 * 14th Light Dragoons
 * 3rd Dragoon Guards
 * 4th Dragoons
 * 13th Light Dragoons
 * 5th Dragoon Guards
 * 3rd Dragoons
 * 4th Dragoons
 * 14th Light Dragoons
 * 1st Hussars, King’s German Legion
 * 1st Life Guards
 * 2nd Life Guards
 * Royal Horse Guards
 * 1st King's Dragoon Guards

Anglo-Egyptian War

 * Household Cavalry Composite Regiment (1 Squadron each from the 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards)
 * 4th Dragoon Guards
 * 7th Dragoon Guards

Boer War
During the Battle of Paardeberg, the brigade commanded:
 * Household Cavalry Regiment
 * 10th Royal Hussars
 * 12th Royal Lancers
 * Q, T and U Batteries, Royal Horse Artillery

First World War

 * 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays)
 * 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales’s) Dragoon Guards
 * 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars
 * 1st Signal Troop Royal Engineers
 * I Battery, Royal Horse Artillery from 17 September 1914
 * 1st Cavalry Brigade Machine Gun Squadron Machine Gun Corps