Tag Archives: Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment

Dusting off the Moonlight Charge and putting an IR net on it

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This is the world-famous and instantly recognizable Household Cavalry Regiment, a unit which dates back to 1660, if not earlier.

The HCR is made up of The Life Guards and The Blues & Royals, divided into the Household Cavalry Regiment and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

For reference, the last time the HCR rode horses during wartime was when patrolling British Palestine in 1940, just prior to becoming mechanized.

Their last horse-mounted cavalry charge was the famed “Moonlight Charge” at Kassassin in the Anglo-Egyptian War in August 1882, “just” 144 short years ago.

The Moonlight Charge of Kassassin by the Household Cavalry, 1882 by G. W. Bacon. The outcome of the battle was in the balance until the arrival of British reinforcements just as darkness began to fall. The Household Cavalry composite regiment charged the Egyptian infantry, who soon abandoned their guns. The composite regiment consisted of a squadron from each of the 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards, Royal Horse Guards and 7th Dragoon Guards with four guns of the Royal Horse Artillery.

This is also the HCR, who, when they aren’t on public service duties with the London Garrison, run around in Ajax and Warrior AFVs performing an armored recon role in the British 3rd Deep Strike (Armored) Brigade.

The horse barracks is in Hyde Park, while the Ajaxes run out of Bulford Camp (Ward Barracks), about 75 miles to the west of London.

In recent memory, the HCR served in the Falklands, Bosnia, and the Sandbox.

FV101 Scorpion light tank, of the HCR’s Blues and Royals, at San Carlos during the Falklands War, May 1982. 

However, this is also the HCR recently, running about the Longmoor Training Area in Hampshire and in the woods beside Sandhurst, where they have been exploring mounted reconnaissance, concealment, and moving through tough terrain where horses can outperform armored vehicles.

Via the Times

Via the Times

Via the Times

Yup, the force is exploring the possibility of using horses on the battlefield in the near future. It doesn’t sound so strange when you think of it.

With the rapid expansion of IR optics down to the individual soldier level and drones over every treetop, it turns out that good old-fashioned tech like horse cavalry and towed field guns are now back in fashion.

“The infrared thermal imaging is now pretty ubiquitous,” HCR Lieutenant-Colonel Ben McNeil told the Times.  “A horse can move in a more natural profile than any armoured vehicle can.” It might be mistaken for wildlife. In woodland, with drones patrolling overhead, “there’s a better chance of you getting from A to B with a horse than … with a Challenger 2 tank,” he said.

The Brits are just taking cues from the rest of Europe right now.

Besides reports that the Russians are using horse-mounted infantry in assaults on Ukrainian outposts and the fact that countries like Austria, Poland and Switzerland still have specialized tactical units using horses.

Check out these images of Swiss Militärpolizeischule patrols, complete with horses in multi-spectral camo netting, designed especially to defeat NV and IR.

Everything old is new again…

Straths take London

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A non-British unit has taken over the duty of the King’s Life Guard for just the third time in history, with a Canadian detachment holding it down for a ten-day stint.

The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment is a familiar sight at Horse Guards, where they have mounted a 24/7 ceremonial guard at the official entrance to the Royal Palaces for almost 400 years. His Majesty The King has given His approval for the King’s Life Guard to be delivered by Lord Strathcona’s Horse from Canada, from 11-21 July 2025, which this year is celebrating its 125th anniversary.

The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment recently passed the role over to a 26-man Mounted Troop of Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), which, besides the guard company of the Van Doos and that of the Governor General’s Foot Guards, is perhaps the smartest Canuk unit on parade. The Canadian armored unit last took on the King’s Life Guard role back in 2000, as it turned 100 years old.

Of note, the Canadians, riding as lancers, borrowed the mounts of the HCMR, whose horses are accustomed to London public duties.

Lord Strathcona’s Horse ride down The Mall to take up their duties at Horse Guards as the new King’s Life Guard

Making like 1914

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Recently seen in London, via the Ministry of Defence, HQ Household Troops:

In a series of stunning photos which could have been taken at the turn of the 20th century, the horses and riders of the Queen’s Birthday Parade showed off their movements and equestrian skills as they paraded around Horse Guards for their Mounted Review this morning.

Over 350 horses drawn from The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery conducted the same movements they will do at Trooping the Colour, just without those on foot to distract them (or the horses), to enable them to focus on the timings and commands required for the historic day.

In their khaki No.2 Service Dress, they looked like they could be off to the front lines of the First World War with the WWI-era QWF 13-pounder guns drawn by the King’s Troop just adding to the effect.

Save for the helmets, it could pass for the early 1900s. The men in the background are from the Blues and Royals. The Blues and Royals wear blue tunics while on ceremonial duties and metal helmets with red plumes. The Life Guards, seen in the foreground, wear scarlet tunics and white plumed helmets.

Almost like one of those old uniform plates, showing a variety of officers milling around posing for the artist. Note the Life Guards on the left, and Blues & Royals to the right. The Royal Horse Artillery is at the caissons and an assortment of guards officers, including two in bearskins, are in the center. 

All you are missing is a Kitchener poster

When is the last time you saw a full squadron’s worth of horse-mounted cavalry on parade, with four classic troops in formation? This evokes memories of the Sudan, the Crimea, or even Waterloo. Besides headquarters and training cadres, the Blues and Royals, taking up the rear as they are “younger” consist of a half-strength horse-mounted saber squadron that contains two “divisions” which are troop-sized (one subaltern and 24 troopers) while the more senior Life Guards have the same strength. Of course, as you see, the entire combined force is still just the size of a Great War-era squadron of four troops. All told, the force is termed the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR), authorized at 341 members and 250 horses. 

Livgarde and Livgardet in Reception

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We’ve talked about the Swedish Livgardet and Danish Kongelige Livgarde a few different times over the years, as, well, they deserve it. Besides being historic frontline combat units with a long history, and their current dual-hatting as royal guards on public duties while training to fight if things go sideways, they just look great doing it.

Case in point, the Swedish Livgardet late last month fell in for a state reception for King Felipe VI of Spain, complete with their 6.5mm Carl Gustav-made Mausers and bearskin grenadiers helmets.

Likewise, the Danish Livgarde, complete with horse soldiers of the Gardehusarregiment, assembled for a state reception for new ambassadors to Copenhagen. Always nice to see the traditional hussar pelisse hanging over the shoulder of braided dolmans. Of note, the foot guards are in their scarlet gala tunics and bearskins rather than the more commonly seen black tunics. The red tunics are only for special occasions such as royal birthdays.

In other, related news, the British Army’s five regiments (actually just single battalions) of foot guards will continue to use bearskin grenadiers’ hats after testing found a synthetic replacement, proposed by animal rights wackos at PETA and urged on by Pam Anderson of all people, “didn’t meet the standards required.”

1st Battalion Irish Guards for a special St Patrick’s Day Parade today at their Barracks in Hounslow, 3.16.2017. MOD photo by Sgt. Rupert Frere.

Some 110 replacement ceremonial caps were purchased by the MOD in 2020 at a cost of £145,000, with the fur coming from Canada’s black bear cull surplus– in other words, pelts that would have been harvested regardless of the Guards. 

Some 14 nations still have bearskin caps in use for military dress uniforms, a practice picked up in most respects from Napoleon’s Old Guard. 

Grenadiers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, by Hippolyte Bellangé, 1843

Happy Saint George’s Day

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Celebrated in England going as far back as the 7th Century or so, Saint George’s Day (April 23rd) is something of a holiday not only in Britain but also to a lesser degree in Canada and Australia.

Commemorating the famous dragon slayer, the British Army asked soldiers of the Rifles, Mercian Regiment and Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment how they would tackle such a fire-breather today, to which they responded with a .338 AI sniper rifle, 30mm Rarden cannon via FV510 Warrior IFV, and horse-mounted lance, respectively.

Nice to know the Queen still has the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals of the HCMR around if things get sticky.

Horse soldiers never die

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A division of the Blues and Royals sabre squadron, part of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (All photos via MoD)

The British Army’s Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) traces its lineage back to the 1660s– to King Charles II’s Life Guards and the Earl of Oxford’s Blues — and its horse-mounted unit, after the reforms of 1992, now consists of one 75-member sabre squadron plus a mounted band from each regiment of the Household Cavalry (the red tunic wearing Life Guards and the black tunic wearing Blues and Royals), each with their distinctive cuirass and plumed “Albert” helmet.

Life Guards in red, Blues and Royals in Black

Based at their Hyde Park Barracks, they are on “public duty” which consists of ceremonial operations around London and the royal estates to include state visits, Investitures, the opening of Parliment, etc. The standard unit is a 25-man mounted division, though this can be halved. All told, the force, with their H/HS complete with staff, vets, saddlers and farriers, amounts to about 350 officers, NCOs and troopers.


Last week they had their annual inspection by Major General Ben Bathurst, the General Officer Commanding the Army in London and the Queen’s Household Troops, but this one was different:

“For the first time in recent memory, the Regiment were joined by their cavalry cousins from the Swedish Livgardet and Danish Gardehusarregiment. The Swedish Life Guards and Danish Guard Hussar Regiment each fielded an officer and senior non-commissioned officer, dressed in their equivalent ceremonial uniforms, to ride in the parade.”