The 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guard (QDG) is the most senior cavalry regiment in the British Army and obtains fierce allegiance to Wales. Due to the QDG and its predecessors being steeped in over 300 years of history, and being heavily utilised throughout the last century, it provides the regiment with some pretty interesting quirks and facts.
1) They are one of only three regiments in the army that focuses on recruiting in Wales, helping to justify there informal name, The Welsh Cavalry.
2) The regiment has many alliances throughout the Commonwealth, from the Type 23 frigate HMS Monmouth of the Royal Navy, to the 1st Special Service Battalion of South Africa, and 1st Reconnaissance Regiment of Sri Lanka which has inherited many traditions of the QDG, such as the 1st Dragoon Guards and 2nd Dragoon Guards Slow March.
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| Members of the QDG undergoing training on the Coyote vehicle |
3) The Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I, was appointed Colonel-in-chief of the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards (KDG) in 1896, and allowed the Austrian Imperial Coat of Arms, to be worn by the regiment. When the KDG merged with 2nd Dragoon Guards, the regiment kept the crest, and to this day is their cap badge. It is no coincidence that the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment of Sri Lanka also shares a very similar emblem, recognised by the double-headed eagle.
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| The Cap badge of the 1st Queen's Dragoon Guards, featuring the Austrian 2-headed Eagle |
4) The QDG hold the combined battle honours of its parent regiments, the KDG, and the 2nd Dragoon Guards, some of the most notable being Somme 1916, Morval, France and Flanders 1914–17 from WWI. It should also be said that the QDG have the Wadi al Batin, Gulf 1991 battle honour. QDG can boast the most number of battle honours to its name in the British Army.
5) The word ‘Dragoon’ derived from a type of firearm, called a "dragon", which was a handgun version of a blunderbuss, carried by dragoons of the French Army. The title has been retained in modern times by a number of armoured or ceremonial mounted regiments within Europe.
6) The regimental march of the QDG is the Radetzky March, the official Austrian military march, due to the King’s Dragoon Guards close historical ties with the pre-WWI Austria.
7) The Queen’s Dragoon Guards mascot is a six-year-old Welsh pony, called Trooper Emrys Forlan Jones, who didn’t come from Wales, but Wiltshire.
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| The regiment's mascot, Trooper Emrys Forlan Jones |
8) Captain Mark Philips, former husband of Princess Anne, served in the QDG.
9) In memory of the decisive role that the KDG played in the Battle of Waterloo, Officers and Sergeants of the QDG dine together, on June 18 of every year. One of the most quirkiest traditions of the regiment, indeed all of the British Army, is in the form of an indoor rugby match played with a series of frozen cabbages instead of a ball.
10) On the 31st July this year, the regiment celebrates its 60th anniversary. However, in May 2012, there was talk that the unit would become one of the many victims of defence cuts. As it was one of only three regiments historically associated with Wales, there was much support from the Welsh public to keep the QDG. The MOD denied all speculation of axing the regiment.
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| A Soldier from the QDG firing an FM Minimi |
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