as the regimental colonel The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards has its origins in the
Regiment of Cuirassiers, raised by Sir
Arthur Haselrig on the orders of
Oliver Cromwell at
Newcastle upon Tyne and
County Durham in August 1650. It was initially disbanded following the 1660
Stuart Restoration, before being re-constituted in the wake of the
Venner Riots and creation of the
English Army on 26 January 1661. The colonelcy of the new regiment was given to
Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, and the regiment first paraded at
Tothill Fields in London on 6 February 1661. Early duties focused on internal policing and domestic security, with three troops based primarily in
Canterbury,
Southwark, and
Bagshot. When
James II of England succeeded in February 1685 it was recalled to do policing duties in London.
John Churchill, later Earl of Marlborough deserted the royal household to greet
William, Prince of Orange in 1688. The following year The Blues were part of the allied army that defeated the French at
Walcourt, near
Charleroi, when they charged the best French infantry, leaving 2,000 dead.
Wars of succession During the early eighteenth century the Blues were widely dispersed throughout the north country. Following the outbreak of the
War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, the Royals became part
Honywood's brigade, arriving in
Flanders in August 1742. An account of the campaign was provided by Dr John Buchanan, the regimental surgeon. The unit took part in the 1743
Battle of Dettingen, after which the Household Cavalry Brigade was formed for the first time, comprising the Life Guards, Horse Grenadiers, and Blues.
Granby and Seven Years' War During the Seven Years' War, the Blues fought alongside
Prince Ferdinand. The largest cavalry regiment, The Blues colonelcy was assumed by
John Manners, Marquess of Granby. This great soldier understood the importance of morale. In the mould of
John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, a predecessor, he established a brave and efficient force. His successor,
Henry Seymour Conway was one of the greatest colonels the regiment ever had over a 25-year period. Granby however, retained a passionate interest in the welfare of The Blues; his generosity and hospitality expressed later in a legion of public houses. Granby was in charge of the second division at
Battle of Minden Heath in August 1759. The Blues posted sentries called
Vedettes, who were so close when the French attacked that the regiment was thrown back. The Blues were eager to charge in after the infantry surge to Minden walls, but owing to
Lord George Sackville's orders the reinforcements were delayed. Sackville was court-martialled and found guilty of disobeying orders. The allies had saved
Hanover, and driven
Marshal Louis Georges Érasme de Contades back towards the Rhine. By December 1759 The Blues were exhausted looking forward to a winter break at
Osnabrück. Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston went to recruit in England; and found the Dragoon Guards who wanted to join for the superior conditions in The Blues. Granby was depressed by his son's death and that of his wife too, and the loss of his stud, so he decided to set up a Widows' Fund, and to provide better regimental medical care. His cousin,
Russell Manners was raised to battalion command; and King George II's interest in The Blues was inherited by
George III. Granby commanded The Blues and The Royals on their march south from
Paderborn. At
Warburg on 31 July 1760, The Blues lined up in the centre. The British force of 8,000 stole a march on the French positions, and charging headlong into the enemy dispersed a force of 24,000. The famous 'Charge' on trumpet and bugle sent Granby's men into history: In February 1761, The
Gold Stick, Granby led The Blues and others in a brilliant campaign. The French were hunkered down when surprised by the allies on the march, driving them back 50 miles over muddy roads. The regiment was present in the summer at the
Villinghausen when they took a force twice their size led by
Charles, Prince of Soubise, with the flexible use of artillery fire; the cavalry unable to gallop in the terrain.
15th Light Dragoons and The Blues encountered a skirmishing force at
Wilhelmsthal on 1 July 1761. The cavalry realizing the enemy's presence took the initiative, demoralizing the French while the infantry finished. ADC Henry Townshend wounded at Vellinghausen, was killed with a trooper and three horses. Henry Seymour Conway marched the regiment to a triumphal return to England in March 1763. On demobilization, the troopers were reduced from 52 to 29 men per troop. If Granby's grief at his son's loss was saddening, the crippling reductions to The Blues, according to William Pitt the Elder doomed "the bravest men the world ever saw to be sent to starve in country villages and forget their prowess." The harvest failures of the 1760s were compounded by rioting. The Blues were depressed to leave ex-comrades in Germany; they were used as militia for policing duties. Granby died in January 1770, to be replaced by General Seymour Conway as colonel.
Reform at Horse Guards , who became the regimental colonel in 1770 On returning to civil duties again in 1795 The Blues were expected to maintain public order in
Loughborough and
Coventry; developing the doctrinal laws of absolute military necessity. They also patrolled the shoreline for smugglers. The Blues for the most part remained in the East Midlands. In 1788 and 1789 The Blues were required to come to London to mount up the King's Life Guard, as there were inadequate personnel in the Life Guards thanks to reorganization and reform. The lack of recruits threatened the Expeditionary Forces viability in Holland. The Blues were part of a contingent of 3,500 cavalry who departed Northampton with
Sir Charles Turner. In June 1793 The Blues were royal reviewed at
Northampton. Commanded by Lt-Colonel Turner, they disembarked at Ostend on 15 June. They marched to join the allied army at
Valenciennes, being besieged by
Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The Blues and The Royals encountered the French at Dunkirk in a sea board march. Lieutenant Board was unhorsed and killed by a cannonball. Skirmishes continued all year, and by November they retired to winter in
Ghent. The new Depot System worked well, and 1794 started with promise of success. The Blues were in Major General
John Mansel's brigade, as the allies laid siege to
Landrecies. Mansel was criticized as being slow to engage the enemy, when a large French force left
Cambrai on 23 April 1794. Mansel was still in command when the allied army took a position north of Cambrai on the Beaumont road. Mansel vowed to avenge the shame of 24th, he told
Prince Frederick, Duke of York, which he did charging and scattering the enemy, but was killed. The French line caught totally off guard were broken in the open, losing 5,000 men. The Blues lost 15 men, Quartermaster John Kipling, and 25 horses. In total allied casualties were 150. The regiment earned the epithet "Immortals" in this action. Now commanded by
Ralph Dundas, the Blues and the Royals pursued the French infantry northwards from Beaumont trapping them in a quagmire near the village of
Baisieux. A French general was fought to a standstill and run through by Private Joseph White. The battered French army retreated to
Tournai. York moved into
Roubaix, but
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor had run out on the allies, and returned to Vienna. The Blues returned to the depot at Northampton.
The Blues find a permanent home at Windsor In 1796 The Blues received new weapons – the curved sabre, and the
Nock Pattern Carbine. A reorganization at Horse Guards posted The Blues to a new base at
Windsor. George III liked the regiment, who acted as royal bodyguards. A new barracks was built on 14 acres at
Clewer Park in 1800, where a permanent barracks was built over a period of four years: 62 eight-bed dormitories for the men. Whilst life in the mess got more expensive and sociable, rates of pay stagnated. It was even more a requirement that all officers came from a moneyed background. By 1790
cornets were required to be aged eighteen, stabilizing entrants qualifications, and enabling purchasing to advance promotion rapidly. Quartermaster purchases attracted very modest incomers, raising a prospect for class mobility. And by 1800 only nine regimental commissions had transferred out in 20 years. But recruitment of cornets remained difficult in peacetime. Recruits had to pay as much as 5 guineas for a riding lesson. Officer cadets would study
Regulations for the formation and Movement of the Cavalry, spending a year at regimental HQ. In 1802,
The British Military Library journal was established to educate on military tactics. Stable parades happened four times daily, and great care was taken of horses. Field day drills took place in
Windsor Great Park or on Winkfield Plain every Friday. Quartermaster became an increasingly responsible rank. Wives were permitted to share at Clewer Park. Messes were created for NCO's. During the
Peninsular War gambling became fashionable amongst Blues' officers; and several ran up huge debts. They became a popular regiment in a royal location. Duelling was common and sent up in a number of parodies as described in the
Blueviad. More serious was the rioting of 1810 which ended in the attempted arrest of Sir
Francis Burdett MP. The mob cried out for the
Radical Burdett cajoling the government into ordering troops in from Clewer Park. Under the
Regency Act, the King was incapacitated, therefore the
Prince Regent demanded The Blues turn out in its smartest dress with the Life Guards. They were on crowd control duties on 19 June 1811 at the opening of
parliament. When
Princess Amelia died, they escorted the funeral cortege, on 13 November 1810, every fourth man carried a flambeau, a fact which was for the first time in the Annual Register. On the opening of parliamentary session for 1812, they marched with the Prince Regent to
Westminster. But from May 1812 they were at barracks in
Warrington,
Lancashire to quell serious bread riots and, so had been unable to prevent the
assassination of Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister, on 11 May. Designed to also assuage the volatile rhetoric of Burdett who labelled the Household Cavalry in the Commons as "the military murders". While the Blues had not been involved with the Life Guards arrest of the MP, the Blues had trampled onlookers in the Windsor riots when the horses ran scared. Hence, the old military adage "hold your horses".
With Wellington's Peninsular Army Detachments of Blues were increased from six to eight, as four troops embarked at
Portsmouth for
Portugal in October 1812. Their new colonel was the rich
Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, who used experience, had served in the American wars, and now wished to spend a small fortune on the regimental band. Unfortunately, he clashed with Horse Guards over the modernized regimental kit, which the Duke wanted to ditch for the traditional. His particular disagreement with
Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington was the appointment of senior officers, which Northumberland, ever the optimist, considered within his purview. He lost the argument and replaced by Wellington himself on 1 January 1813 as colonel of the regiment. Horse Guards'
military secretary Colonel
Henry Torrens had told the regimental commander, Sir
Robert Chambre Hill that such appointments were unauthorised. "I have never conceived the Corps to possess such a privilege ... unless the evidence could be adduced", wrote the C-in-C the Duke of York from
Oatlands Palace on 25 October. The Blues could not have the same access to the Sovereign as the Life Guards retorted the Duke, but were paid more than other regiments. On 10 December he concluded: Having discounted any principle of customary succession, Wellington felt free to promote on merit, which he achieved from 1813, already considering the Blues as part of the Household Cavalry. Captain Charles Murray was promoted to command 2nd Troop, brought off half-pay, on the basis solely of rank. The inability to promote from within by the Duke unduly caused his resignation on the augmentation of the Household regiments. The furious Northumberland vowed never to support the
Tories again. But the Duke of York's "firmness" had shown the chain of command could not be challenged by a colonel. Adverting to a new cornet vacancy,
Lord William Lennox was duly dispatched to Spain in early 1813. One of Wellington's first acts as colonel was to employ Greenwood, Cox & Co as agents. They had long been known to him but now he arranged to supply all their provisioning guaranteed by Whitehall. Messrs Bruce and Brown were recruited to provide clothing. The colonel was forced to make savings, excluding the maintenance of a band. Wellington founded the principle commissioning system of Ne Plus Ultra (Not a penny more), later the name given to his Tory supporters in the
Commons. The youthful troopers dispatched, they travelled with light camping equipment, and acquired a regimental mascot, a
Newfoundland dog. In April 1812 General Wellington aimed to make a decisive assault on Madrid. To capture the Spanish capital he sent a cavalry division, including The Blues at first under General
Francis Slater Rebow's brigade and then Sir Robert. By about 15 January 1813 the Blues had reached
Thomar. Hill was ordered to rendez-vous at
Alba de Tormes, crossing the
Douro the army pressed on to the city of
Salamanca. After quarters in monasteries the brigade forded the Douro at Toro on 4 June. Two days they escorted the reserve artillery to Valoria; totally outflanked the enemy withdrew to
Burgos. Encamped outside Burgos the brigade was awakened by a huge explosion at dawn on 13 January: the French had decided to blow up the
Castle of Burgos. In a lightning quick march, Wellington circled across the
Ebro cutting off the French retreat to
Vitoria at Puente da Arenas. The Household Cavalry were ordered to Carcarno with the reserves. Hill was ordered to seize the bridges at La Puebla in preparation for a three-pronged assault on the French positions in the mountainous passes. Arriving at
Subijana de Álava Hill's brigade rolled back the French left onto Vitoria. In 1813, Major Packe took temporary command in the
Battle of Vitoria, traversing a deep ravine along the Pamplona road. The Blues, with Household brigade already engaged, wheeled right across the ravine. Bivouacked on the road at
Pamplona, General Hill had orders to hold it as the Life Guards gave chase. The deftness of the manoeuvre embarrassed the French generals: the defeat ended Napoleon's grip on Spain. The victory earned Wellington a
Field Marshal's baton. The Blues were sent home in 1814 via
St Jean de Luz, where they were joined by three fresh squadrons under Captains Irby and Kenyon and Major Fitzgerald.
Stapleton Cotton could not praise highly enough the regiment's conduct, so while the older Life Guards were sent home, the Blues remained on active service. Marching to
Bayonne and
Pau they arrived at
Toulouse on 10 April 1814.
Waterloo Robert Hill was appointed to command The Blues in his brother's stead. The eldest was ennobled, and the youngest was ADC; but in fact Hill commanded a brigade of artillery on the extreme right of the line near
Hougoumont. They were in
Lord Uxbridge's Cavalry corps of 14,550 troops. Not Wellington's first choice, Uxbridge was richly attired, powerful, with influential friends, and a showman to boot. The Oxford Blues were in the mid-column of Sir John Eiley's Household Brigade, when they marched in the early hours of 16 June 1815 towards
Quatre Bras via
Enghien down narrow Belgian lanes. They spent an uncomfortable night; the weather was hot and humid and it rained all night. As dawn broke, heavy rain made the ground a quagmire. On the day of battle, The Blues drew up in the second line behind the Life Guards. They should have held the formation, when Uxbridge gave the order to charge. Robert Hill was wounded in the clash with the
4th Cuirassiers, shot by a chasseur. Major Packe was run through and fell dead off his horse; indeed all the commanding officers in the brigade were slain in their ferocious attack on the Curassiers. Many hundreds of Frenchmen were killed, and 1,200 taken prisoner. Charging through the regiment was in danger of going too far from
La Haye Sainte, they were rescued by
General Somerset. They fought
Michel Ney's cavalry to a standstill, until
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's
Prussians appeared to the left, and recovered the hilltop commanded by La Haye. One historical record that emerges is the perfunctory effectiveness of the surgery on the battlefield of Waterloo. For example, only six of the wounded fifty Blues actually died. They lost 44 killed. Some reported barbarism by the French upon prisoners. Waterloo proved the Guards were fit for active service....when we was about two hundred yards from the French lines a cannon ball came and took off my horses leg so I dismounted but looking around I saw a horse that somebody had been killed off so I soon got another. So we continued in that state until night the Prussians came up and began to work and the French began to run and a happy sight it was. Trumpeter Tom Evans who had saved General Robert Hill's life, retired to start a pub in Old Windsor, called the
Oxford Blue. The Cavalry left Brussels and rode on to Paris. On 22 June 1815, Napoleon abdicated having lost the support of the
Assembly. All was lost for the Emperor. Marshal
Grouchy's corps was still intact, and Marshal
Davout in Paris was willing to fight on, but France was beaten. The
Household Brigade reached
Boissy, a town already looted by the Prussians, only 12 miles from Paris, and the war was already over. Until early 1816, the British were an army of occupation on French soil. They took time to recover, and restock the regiments, recruit more men, and promote survivors. The Blues returned to the barracks at Windsor. The decisive point for the Cavalry at Waterloo came when the Household and Union Brigades had charged
d'Erlon's Corps, making the cavalry brigades national heroes for a few years afterwards. On
Lady Day, 25 March 1816, a medal was struck for "Waterloo men", the first to be so since
Battle of Dunbar in 1650. It started a Victorian tradition rewarding gallantry, bravery and valorous conduct has remained to this day, through a system of medal awards as commemoration.
The Household Blues The
Prince Regent made himself Colonel-in-Chief of Life Guards and The Blues on becoming king on 29 January 1820. The Blues pay remained lower. They rotated between
Windsor,
Regent's Park and
Knightsbridge from 1821. On 24 October 1818, The Gold Sticks were ordered to cut 104 men from The Blues – they were to pick only the strongest, fittest and best appearance in the troops. At
George IV's coronation on 19 July 1821, he ordered the Household Cavalry to wear
cuirasses. On 7 August 1821 only weeks after the coronation, from which she was excluded, Queen
Caroline died, having first expressed her wish to be buried in her native
Brunswick. On 14 August, a squadron of The Blues arrived, led by Captain Bouverie to take her body to
Romford. They pulled up at
Brandenburgh House,
Hammersmith to meet the local magistrate Sir Robert Baker. The mob planned to hijack the procession in the city, but when the hearse arrived to go through
Hyde Park, the gates were slammed in their faces. The Life Guards came to their aid. The mob blocked
Hyde Park Corner and
Park Lane, so Baker had to change the route to
Piccadilly. The cortege reached Tyburn Gate but it was barricaded. The Life Guards were involved in containing the violence, whilst the Blues still faced escorting through hostile crowds of belligerent Londoners. In January 1830, The Blues' entire regiment escorted the funeral cortege for George IV to
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, doing homage to a grateful king.
The Colonels-in-chief Even in 1780 roughly half all officers were from middle-class backgrounds, and this hardly changed throughout the Imperial era. It was only among the general class and the cavalry more widely did the landed families succeed to commissions from their more rural hinterlands. Even in the 20th century the horsemanship of hunters drew them naturally to cavalry elites, which was accentuated by the dominance of those public school-educated officers in the Indian army. Rising professionalism meant a better educated, trained and equipped cavalry in late 19th and 20th centuries increasingly drew officers from London and the southern counties. Wellington was the first Blues Gold Stick and was colonel of The Blues until 1827. This put the regiment on a similar parity with Life Guards in terms of access to the king. The Duke, however, did not believe in bucking the chain of command, and declined to exercise extraordinary influence outside the fact that The Blues had become part of the Household Cavalry on 29 January 1820. Wellington did approve of the appointment of
Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere to the Life Guards, but when the
Duke of York died in 1827, the Iron Duke was finally made
commander-in-chief. When Wellington became colonel of the
Grenadier Guards (previously 1st Foot Guards) he was made to give up the Gold Stick. His successor was
Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. The royal Duke believed the
Gold Sticks-in-waiting should have absolute authority over their regiments. But the old Duke of Northumberland had resigned over this very issue and the new King
William IV had the last word. He ruled that in all operational matters beyond ceremonial duties, the Household Cavalry would fall into the Commander-in-chief's care and command. Cumberland angrily resigned in a huff. The youngest of the three Hill brothers, Clement Hill who had been
Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill's
ADC, now the colonel of The Blues, became commanding officer. The trend was moving towards choosing operational commanders as colonel who would be fit for active service. To that end General Lord Hill, while Commander-in-Chief ordered that a cricket ground be built adjacent to every barracks.
Queen Victoria in 1837 strongly approved of a policy of meritorious promotion. In 1842 she selected
Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey to succeed Hill as colonel of The Blues. But the quality of life for officers, and their level of pay differed markedly with NCO's. In Windsor, the soldiers were by mid-century living in chronically overcrowded rooms. They slept on straw palliases, and there was no running water, nor private bathrooms. The transmission of disease became epidemic at
Knightsbridge Barracks, because there was not proper toilet paper. A report into the health of the Indian establishment concluded: Officers in the Royal Horse Guards had the lowest casualty rate per 1,000 of mean strength only 9.5 in the first half of 19th century. By contrast, in Bengal, men's deaths were 73.8 and officers 30.5, still more than three times higher. The Report's authors estimated that of 9.5, 5.4 of those lives could have been saved but for terrible conditions in England's barracks: It took the revelations during the
Crimean War for army reforms to introduce changes. Dr
Cosmo Gordon Logie was the crusading Medical Officer, of The Blues, who wrote an article condemning some barracks as unfit for human habitation.
Troubles in the Crimea FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan was colonel of The Blues when he sailed for the Crimea in 1854. He had lost an arm at Waterloo, and was a successful Staff Officer on the Peninsula. But at age sixty-five, he had not led an operational army. He was brave, charming, but incompetent. He jumped in the mess when the French arrived, forgetting that they were allies. Horse Guards had thought a Transport Corps unnecessary, and now men lay dying of
cholera through lack of provision for fresh food, and clean water. Moreover, all the horses were dying from
glanders. The regiment played a key role in the
Battle of Balaclava in October 1854. Sir
Colin Campbell commanding the Highland Brigade, reinforced by Raglan's infantry, at 5 am had heard the Russian General
Pavel Liprandi was moving 25,000 cavalry in 35 squadrons forward to take the Allied positions in front of
Sevastopol. At daybreak, Raglan left the Light Brigade under
James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan in reserve, whilst going with General
James Yorke Scarlett's
Heavy Brigade and horse artillery to meet the Russian move. The Russian cannon decimated the Allied horses. They successfully occupied the redoubts before launching an attack on the British positions at Balaclava. The horse artillery did return fire, but since the heavy horses had been sent back for supplies, there was no way of getting more ammunition. The
93rd Highlanders stood in a "thin red line" as the Russian Hussars charged down on towards them. The British waited until the last minute to give the order to fire. Almost upon the bayonets, the Russians wheeled first left and then right before disappearing towards their own lines. The
Heavy Brigade of
Scots Greys,
Inniskillings, Dragoons and Blues were formed up by Scarlett as the black looking mass of 2,000 Russian
Hussars and
Lancers appeared over the hill. 300 of them charged the Russian lines and despite being heavily outnumbered managed to push the Russians back. Casualties were relatively light on both sides. This action was a relative success in contrast to the
Light Brigade's charge against artillery led by
George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. By January 1856, the cavalry had managed to construct small wooden huts, and life slowly began to improve.
The Cardwell Reforms Before the war in 1853, the sandy land near and around
Aldershot was acquired by the
War Office. When the Cavalry returned some of the regiments were sent back to that town. A permanent camp was ordered to be established here after the war. More garrisons were established at
Colchester in Essex,
Shorncliffe in Kent, and
the Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland. From 1868
Edward Cardwell began a series of significant Liberal
government reforms to the War Office and the army. He faced considerable opposition from
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-chief. Cardwell's reforms were impactful for a generation. One important change was abolition of the
purchase system. Cambridge led a spirited defence of it in parliament. From 1850 to 1899, 39 peers' sons served in The Blues: the highest concentration in the regiment's history (77 in Life Guards). John Brocklehurst was the son of Henry Brocklehurst, a successful
Macclesfield silk miller, who went on to be a
major-general. It was typical of industrial classes 'in trade' to be contributing to the ranks of The Blues.
A Nile Expeditionary Force In an 1871 speech to the Commons, Captain Talbot MP hinted that due to the success of German
Uhlans in defeating the French heavy cavalry in the recent
Franco-Prussian War, the era of heavy cavalry was over. He urged a radical solution of scrapping them as they were too costly to the
Exchequer at £100 per man. Talbot also pointed out that a cavalryman was on duty almost twice per every week, and in fact as to the allegations of drunkenness, the Guards were a very disciplined soldiery. He quoted the Duke of Cambridge that the guards were the flower of the imperial army. The
‘Urabi Revolt was provoked by the overthrow of Khedive
Tewfik Pasha in
Cairo, and the massacre of the British residents of
Alexandria. The Life Guards lobbied for a return to the Waterloo system of a composite regimental system; one regimental battalion doing ceremonial duties, the other operational. The
Adjutant-General to the Forces and colonel of The Blues in a famous letter of 7 July 1882 explained to Horse Guards that they could raise 450 officers and men for the Egyptian expedition, and that a squadron from each of the Household regiments would make up the force. This consisted of the two Life Guards squadrons and The Blues squadron. They were led by Lieutenant-colonel
Milne Home. As the Duke of Cambridge remarked in his diary on August 1, 1882 – "Went by special train to the
Albert Docks to see 1st Life Guards and half the Royal Horse Guards embark in the
Holland. Mr Childers went with me. All passed off well. Men in excellent spirits, and ship good and roomy". As they departed
Southampton Water under the overall command of Sir
Garnet Wolseley, they sent thanks to the Queen at
Osborne House. On 24 August the Household Cavalry were in action for the first time. They took the towns of El Magfar, "the Household troops made a fine charge with great success" on 16 August, Mahsamah. At
Kassassin Lock Graham held his own "till the Cavalry came up and under Lowe, by moonlight, made a brilliant charge, destroying all before them, riding over 12 guns and entirely routing the Egyptians". They were very short of food, and it was very hot. The huge British cavalrymen and horses towered over their enemy. They carried razor-sharp sabres on the 1848 steel pattern,
Martini–Henry carbines, and pistols. There was a false alarm before the cavalry saw action at Mahsamah, charging 'Urabi infantry, who were supported by cannon. "Then the cheer we gave, then the few seconds of silence, and then the havoc and slaughter.". The Blues on the left "For the first few minutes it looked as if they meant to shoot us down; and then it was our men's turn to butcher them." (John Brocklehurst). By 12 September 1882, Wolseley was prepared enough to plan an attack on the strongly fortified Tell El Kebir. The British had 13,000 troops and 70 guns. Wolseley planned a surprise night march and a dawn raid. On the 13th at 5 am
they attacked with the Household Cavalry on the right rolling up the flank, causing panic in the Egyptian ranks. They rode 60 miles in 24 hours, reaching Cairo the following day. On 20 October The Blues landed on board the
Lydian Monarch to a triumphal reception at Southampton. They processed amidst cheering crowds towards
Regent's Park Barracks. The Queen was relieved
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn had returned. Both Victoria and the
Prince of Wales, who was temporarily staying at
Bad Homburg wrote the regiments with congratulations On 21 October Cambridge went to Regent's Park Barracks to inspect the Squadron of the Blues. The men looked thin but in perfect health, and for the horses, though ragged, looked quite fit for work, and better than I expected". And on 25 October they were entertained to a banquet at the old
Holborn Town Hall, while they stayed at
Knightsbridge Barracks. In 1884
Muhammad Ahmad, a tribal leader claiming to be the Prophet Mahdi, led a
nationalist rising. General
William Hicks defeated the Mahdi's troops at
Kurdufan in October 1883. But
Valentine Baker was defeated by the Mahdi's General
Osman Digna near
Suakin. An expedition by General
Gerald Graham from Cairo won two victories at
El-Teb (February 1884) and
Tamai (March 1884). Wolseley was called upon to rescue General
Charles George Gordon from Khartoum. But the loss of Suakin made it impossible to execute operations on the River
Nile. Wolseley took the radical step of forming a Camel Corps from the Household Cavalry regiments and The Royals totalling 200 hand-picked men. He also picked a light Guards regiment as infantry. They had left Aldershot via Southampton for Alexandria by 24 September, travelling down the Nile to
Aswan, and thence by Camel they reached the great bend in the Nile by Christmas. The Blues were led by a renowned officer,
Fred Burnaby.
The Times reported on Gordon's plight, and Burnaby was their reporter in the Sudan. In 1884 Burnaby was wounded at
El Teb. But the public were dismayed to learn that he had fought in 'civvies' armed with a shot-gun. Leading the charge over the ramparts, blasting his shot-gun as he went, he was wounded in the arm, but rescued by a Highlander. Wolseley detached the Camel Corps under Sir
Herbert Stewart to march across the desert to
Metemma, securing the wells at Jakdul on 12 January 1885. Having learnt how to handle camels in the saddle, they were expected to employ carbines and full kit as mounted infantry. They then had to secure more wells, and eventually encountering on foot, the enemy at
Abu Klea, where 700 Mahdists charged them. The
Gardner machine-gun jammed. They formed a defensive square, during which hand-to-hand fighting Burnaby fell, defended to the last by Corporal Mackintosh, who was killed.
George Baillie-Hamilton, Lord Binning, the regiment's signalling officer, crept out twice to give Burnaby water. Wave after wave of
Baggara tribesmen mounted on black chargers rushed their positions, falling on volleys of rifle fire. The tactics of the square at Abu Klea exhausted the Mahdi's best troops, who fell at that battle. Major
Lord Arthur Somerset of The Blues squadron wrote commanding officer to inform him of the heroic actions. On the second occasion Burnaby had been speared. In total 9 Officers and 65 men were killed, 94 wounded in the Heavy Camel Regiment, but only one killed and four from disease among NCOs and ranks. As the British made their way to the Nile they were constantly harassed, exhausted and thirsty. As they boarded boats Sir Herbert was killed; and his Intelligence Officer to whom command was devolved dithered. Sir
Charles Wilson reached Metemma on 19 January but was not able to repair down the Nile; Gordon was killed and Khartoum taken on 26 January 1885. A tribute to their heroic commanding officer was written by Private Cameron, The Blues: == Twentieth century warfare ==