The North Somerset Yeomanry was a part-time cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1798 to 1967. It maintained order in Somerset in the days before organised police forces, and supplied volunteers to fight in the Second Boer War. It served on the Western Front in the First World War. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it continued to operate in the mounted role and then as a specialist signals unit. Postwar it joined the Royal Armoured Corps and later became infantry. Its lineage today is maintained by 93 (North Somerset Yeomanry) Squadron 39 (Skinners) Signal Regiment.

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North Somerset Yeomanry
Badge of the North Somerset Yeomanry
Active	1798–present
Country	Kingdom of Great Britain (1798–1800)  United Kingdom (1801–present)
Branch	British Army
Type	Yeomanry
Size	Regiment
Part of	4th Yeomanry Brigade 1st South Western Mounted Brigade 4th Cavalry Brigade Royal Corps of Signals Royal Armoured Corps
Engagements	Second Boer War First World War France and Flanders 1914–18 Second World War Syria 1941 North Africa 1942–43 Sicily 1943 Italy 1943–44 North-West Europe 1944–45
Battle honours	See battle honours below
Commanders
Honorary Colonel	Brigadier Nigel C. Beacom, QVRM, TD[1]
Notable commanders	Thomas Strangways Horner Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet Richard Boyle, 9th Earl of Cork and Orrery Charles Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan

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After Britain was drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars, the government of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger proposed on 14 March 1794 that the counties should form Corps of Yeomanry Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the county.^[2] A meeting of householders at Frome in Somerset on 2 May 1798 resolved to form a military association to defend the town. Its services were accepted on 2 June, and the Frome Troop of Cavalry was formed. A condition of service was that it should not be required to march more than 10 miles from the town. Other troops were formed at about the same time at Road, Wolverton, Mells, Beckington and Bath.^[3][4][5][6]

These independent troops all served until the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 when they were disbanded. The peace was short-lived and Britain declared war on France again in May 1803, beginning the Napoleonic Wars. The Frome Volunteers offered their services again in July and were accepted on 17 August as the Frome Selwood Troop of Volunteer Cavalry. The volunteers formed two troops, becoming a squadron in June 1804 when they united with the East Mendip Cavalry to become the Frome and East Mendip Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry. The regiment became the North Somerset Yeomanry in 1814 with six troops:^[3][4][5]

• Frome (two troops)
• Mells (two troops)
• Shepton
• Batcombe

Further troops were then added:^[3][4][5]

• Bath Cavalry, January 1814
• Ston Easton May 1815
• East Harptree (two troops) March 1817
• Keynsham, April 1817
• Bedminster, after 1817
• Bath Rifles, attached

Although the Yeomanry generally declined in importance and numbers after the end of the French wars,^[7] the North Somerset unit continued at strength, and was regularly called out to suppress riots, in 1810, 1812 and 1817 at Bath, among miners at Radstock in 1813 and 1817, and weavers at Frome in 1816 and 1822.^[4][8] The actions of the Yeomanry in the 'Battle of Frome' in 1816 were discussed in Cobbett's Political Register.^[9][10]

In 1817 the regiment adopted a squadron organisation, with the Bath and Keynsham Troops forming the Right Squadron, the two Frome Troops the Frome or Right Centre Squadron, Ston Easton and East Harptree the Centre Squadron, the Mells Troops the Mells or Left Centre Squadron, while the Shepton and Batcombe Troops formed the Left Squadron. Two years later this organisation was abandoned in favour of two divisions:^[3][8] Bath Division:

• A Bath
• B Ston Easton
• C Keynsham
• D & E East Harptree
• F Bedminster

Frome Division:

• G & H Frome
• I & K Mells
• L Shepton
• M Batcombe

From 1820 to 1840 the regimental headquarters was at Mells Park, home of Thomas Strangways Horner, commanding officer (CO) from 1804 to 1839, when he was succeeded by his son.^[8] Another long-serving CO was Richard Boyle, 9th Earl of Cork and Orrery, Lt-Col Commandant 1867–93, who afterwards became Honorary Colonel, while his son, Viscount Dungarvan, took over as CO.^[11][12]

For some years the Keynsham Troop was without any officers, and although its members were keen and turned out promptly when required, their appearance and discipline had deteriorated to the point where they were known locally as 'The Cossacks'. It was disbanded in May 1842, but many of its members transferred to other troops of the regiment or joined the Gloucestershire Yeomanry Cavalry.^[3][13] In 1854 on the outbreak of the Crimean War, 342 out of 398 men in the regiment volunteered to serve in any part of the United Kingdom.^[14]

Following the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned Yeomanry units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The North Somerset Yeomanry was assigned as 'divisional troops' to 2nd Division of V Corps based at Warminster, alongside Regular Army and Militia units of infantry, artillery and engineers.^[11] This was never more than a paper organisation, but from April 1893 the Army List showed the Yeomanry regiments grouped into brigades for collective training. They were commanded by the senior regimental commanding officer (CO) but they did have a Regular Army Brigade major. The North Somerset Yeomanry together with the West Somerset Yeomanry formed the 4th Yeomanry Brigade, headquartered at Taunton. The Yeomanry brigades disappeared from the Army List after the Second Boer War.^[11]

The Yeomanry was not intended to serve overseas, but due to the string of defeats during Black Week in December 1899, the British government realised that it was going to need more troops than just the regular army to fight the Second Boer War. On 13 December, the decision to allow volunteer forces to serve in the field was made, and a Royal Warrant was issued on 24 December. This officially created the Imperial Yeomanry (IY). 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 force.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

The first contingent of recruits contained 550 officers, 10,371 men with 20 battalions of four companies.^[17][20] The first company left Southampton on 31 January 1900, bound for Cape Town,^[21] and the whole first contingent arrived in South Africa between February and April. Upon arrival, the IY battalions were sent throughout the zone of operations.^[22]

The North Somerset Yeomanry raised the 48th (North Somerset) Company for the IY, which arrived in South Africa on 23 March 1900 and served in 7th Battalion, IY.^{[3][4][20][22][23][24]} The company served until 1901, earning the regiment its first Battle honour: South Africa 1900–01.^[4][11][25] The regiment's CO, Viscount Dungarvan was already serving in South Africa in February 1900 and was seconded to the IY as second-in-command of the 22nd Battalion in 1901–02.^{[26][27][28][29]}

The Imperial Yeomanry were trained and equipped as mounted infantry. After the Boer War all Yeomanry regiments were termed Imperial Yeomanry until 1907, with an establishment of HQ and four squadrons with a machine gun section. In 1903 the North Somerset Imperial Yeomanry had HQ and A Squadron at Bath, B Squadron at Wells, and C Squadron at Bristol, while D Squadron was being formed.^{[3][4][11][30]}

The Imperial Yeomanry were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908.^[32][33][34] The North Somerset Yeomanry (TF) was affiliated to the regular Dragoons and was organised as follows:^{[3][4][11][35][36][37][38][39]}

• RHQ at Shepton Mallet, moving to a new Upper Bristol Road drill hall, Bath in 1912^[40]
• A Squadron at Bath, with detachments at Bathampton, Farmborough, Frome, Mells and Road
• B Squadron at Weston-super-Mare, with detachments at Axbridge, Clevedon, Langford, and Nailsea
• C Squadron at Shepton Mallet, with detachments at Queen Camel, Ston Easton, Wells, Wincanton and Castle Cary
• D Squadron at Bristol, with detachments at Queen Charlton, Barrow Gurney and Keynsham

The North Somerset Yeomanry formed part of the TF's 1st South Western Mounted Brigade.^[35][38]

The regiment reformed in the TF on 7 February 1920.^[3] Postwar, a commission was set up to consider the shape of the Territorial Force (Territorial Army from 1 October 1921). The experience of the First World War made it clear that there was a surplus of cavalry. The commission decided that only the 14 most senior regiments were to be retained as cavalry (though the Lovat Scouts and the Scottish Horse were also to remain mounted as "scouts"). Eight regiments were converted to Armoured Car Companies of the Royal Tank Corps (RTC), one was reduced to a battery in another regiment, one was absorbed into a local infantry battalion, one became a signals regiment and two were disbanded. The remaining 25 regiments were converted to artillery brigades^{[lower-alpha 2]} of the Royal Field Artillery between 1920 and 1922.^[59] As the 11th most senior regiment in the order of precedence, the regiment was retained as horsed cavalry.^[41][60]

The original uniform of the Frome Troop was a light cavalry (Tarleton) helmet, a blue jacket with buff collar (and probably cuffs), and buff breeches. When the troop reformed in 1803 the helmet was retained, with a white feather Hackle, but the jacket was changed to scarlet with black facings and white breeches.^[5] By 1820 the regiment had adopted a uniform that conformed with the Regular Light Dragoons: the old Tarleton helmet was retained, but the short jacket or coatee was now blue with red facings and wide lapels forming a 'plastron' front, and the trousers were French Grey with a single red stripe.^[8] In 1842 a black Light Dragoon Shako replaced the helmet, but some time between 1851 and 1854 the regiment adopted a Heavy Dragoon helmet in white metal with a drooping black plume, possibly because the regimental adjutant at the time, Capt Francis Haviland, was a former officer in the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays). The jacket was now plain and single-breasted without the plastron front and worn with a white pouch belt over the left shoulder.^[14][13] In 1879 a new light dragoon tunic was taken into use, with Hussar lacing across the front, and white instead of red trouser stripes. A blue pillbox forage cap with a white band became the undress headgear.^[79]

A major change in the regiment's uniforms took place in 1888 when they were altered to conform with that of the 6th Dragoon Guards: white metal Dragoon helmet with white plume, blue Dragoon tunic with white collar, cuffs, piping, shoulder cords and Austrian knot on the sleeve, blue overalls or breeches with double white stripes. A blue cavalry cloak could be worn over this uniform, but by 1894 the regiment had adopted a red cloak (the Life Guards were the only other cavalry to wear this in red rather than blue). As late as 1898 the regiment's horse furniture retained the old steel collar chains instead of modern white head-ropes.^[79][80]

Some minor changes to this general pattern were adopted at the end of the 19th Century: a white foreign service pattern helmet was worn for a short period, and breeches were worn with blue puttees and ankle boots. Full dress was swept away when the Yeomanry Cavalry were converted into the Imperial Yeomanry in 1902. Instead, Khaki service dress was worn: 'frocks' (jackets) with four pockets and breeches, with a Slouch hat, the left side turned up, carrying a white-over-scarlet plume. The frock did retain a white trefoil knot on the sleeve until 1911. The peaked Service cap came into use in 1904 to replace the pillbox cap, but later took over from the slouch hat. However, a blue parade or substitute full dress was reintroduced by 1906 for ceremonial parades and 'walking out', with a blue frock and peaked cap with white band. From 1910 the Regular Army cavalry pattern was gradually introduced for service dress.^[81]

The North Somerset Yeomanry was awarded the following battle honours (honours in bold are emblazoned on the guidon):^[4]

The following served as Colonel or Honorary Colonel of the unit:^[11][82]

• Thomas Strangways Horner of Mells Park, appointed 2 July 1804, resigned September 1839
• T.S. Fortescue Horner (his son), appointed September 1839, died 1843
• Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet, appointed 9 August 1843
• Richard Boyle, 9th Earl of Cork and Orrery, Lt-Col Commandant 1867–93, appointed Hon Col 27 May 1893, died 1904
• Field Marshal Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, VC, appointed Hon Col 15 October 1904
• Lt-Col H.G. Spencer, TD, appointed Hon Col 3 June 1933

A memorial in the form of a wooden camp letter box with inscribed bronze panels listing 99 members of the North Somerset Yeomanry who died in the First World War, and 28 from the Second World War is preserved at the Bishops Hull Army Reserve Centre at Taunton Deane.^[83]

The Hollywood motion picture War Horse (2011) featured a fictional depiction of the regiment in France in 1914.^[84]

• Imperial Yeomanry
• List of Yeomanry Regiments 1908
• Yeomanry
• Yeomanry order of precedence
• British yeomanry during the First World War
• Second line yeomanry regiments of the British Army