7th Dragoon Guards
The 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1688 as Lord Cavendish's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 7th (The Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards for Princess Charlotte in 1788. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, to form the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards in 1922.
7th Dragoon Guards (Princess Royal's)
1688–1922
Kingdom of England (1688–1707)
Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1746, 1788–1800)
Kingdom of Ireland (1746–1788)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922)
Heavy Cavalry
550
The Black Horse
The Virgin Mary's Bodyguard[1]
(slow) 7th (Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards
Defunct
Regimental museum[edit]
The regimental collection is held in the York Army Museum at the Tower Street drill hall in York.[23]
The regiment's battle honours were as follows:
Memorials[edit]
In Norwich Cathedral there are memorial windows to those members of the 7th Dragoon Guards who died in the Second Boer War and World War I. Under the Boer War window there is a pair of brass plates listing 64 names, as well as the laid-up standards of the regiment.[24] Under the WWI window the brass plates list 120 names. An added plate underneath is inscribed 'In Memory of the Officers, Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Troopers of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards who fell in the Second World War'.[25][26]
The colonels of the regiment were as follows:[27]
from 1693 8th Regiment of Horse
in 1746 transferred to the Irish establishment and ranked
On 1 July 1751 a royal warrant provided that in future regiments would not be known by their colonels' names, but by their "number or rank".
in 1788 transferred to the British establishment and ranked
from 1921 7th Dragoon Guards (Princess Royal's)
from 1922 4th/7th Dragoon Guards after amalgamation with 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards