Second line yeomanry regiments of the British Army facts for kids

Yeomanry soldiers training in 1915.

The Yeomanry were special volunteer soldiers who served as a backup force for the British Army. Think of them as a reserve team, ready to step in when needed. At the start of First World War in 1914, the British Army had 54 Yeomanry groups, called regiments. These soldiers were usually mounted, meaning they rode horses.

When the war began, the army decided they needed even more of these volunteer horsemen. So, they created new Yeomanry regiments. These new groups were like copies of the ones already existing. They had the same names and worked with the same larger army groups, called brigades. However, these new regiments were known as "second line" units. The original regiments were called "first line" units. To tell them apart, the first line regiments were numbered like 1/1st. The new second line regiments were numbered 2/1st, 2/2nd, or 2/3rd, depending on how many groups had the same name.

These second line Yeomanry groups and their brigades were mostly used to defend the coast of Britain. They didn't usually go to fight in other countries. In 1916, many of these horse-riding regiments changed. They became "cyclist battalions," meaning they rode bicycles instead of horses! Most of them never fought in a real war zone. Some groups were even closed down, and their soldiers joined other regiments. Only one second line Yeomanry group served as a cavalry regiment on the Western Front, which was a major battlefield in France and Belgium.

Yeomanry Regiments and Their Role in WWI

This section lists some of the second line Yeomanry regiments and what happened to them during the First World War. Many of them were changed into cyclist units, which means they rode bicycles instead of horses. This shows how the army adapted during the war.