1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards (The Welsh Cavalry) is the senior
Cavalry regiment of the Line. The regiment's origins go back to 1685 when The 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards and The Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) were both formed by James II. These two regiments amalgamated in 1959 to form 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.
In World War II both regiments found fame in the North African campaign. The KDGs had a front line role as one of the Eighth Army's leading reconnaissance regiments, while the Bays fought Rommel in Crusader tanks.
At Gazala, the Bays were in continuous tank action for 19 days which is said to be a record for an armoured regiment. From 1959 to the present day, the regiment has travelled far and wide operating in tanks and armoured cars. It has served in Germany, Belize, Cyprus, Bosnia and the UK and has trained all over Europe and in the USA and in Canada.
The QDG have seen active service in Malaya, Borneo, Aden, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and the Gulf with individual members seeing service in Oman, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Egypt, Cambodia and the Falklands.
In 1983, part of the regiment formed the British contingent of the UN multi-national peace-keeping force in Beirut. In recognition of this, the regiment received the Wilkinson Sword of Peace, and the Freedom of the City of Cardiff the following year.
The regiment celebrated its tercentenary in 1985 in Wimbish, Essex and moved to Germany in 1987. Whilst in Wolfenbuttel, more than half the regiment were deployed to the Gulf, where 'A' Squadron led the 7th Armoured Brigade into Kuwait during the ground offensive.
In 1991 the regiment moved from Wolfenbuttel to Tidworth in Hampshire. 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards has survived the recent Options for Change without amalgamation but a change of role from a medium reconnaissance regiment to that of an armoured regiment, equipped with Challenger tanks enforced an arms plot move to Sennelager, Germany in September 1992.
The anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, in which the King's Dragoon Guards fought, is the regiment's main battle honour. On the evening after the battle in 1815, the remaining officers and senior NCOs were so few in number that they shared their evening meal. Every year since 1815 this tradition has been maintained on the anniversary of the battle.
The regimental cap badge is the Hapsburg double-headed eagle. It was granted to the King's Dragoon Guards by the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria when he became Colonel in Chief in 1896. It has been worn by the regiment continuously except during World War I, when it was decided to wear the Dragoon Guards cypher instead of the Hapsburg Eagle. A message was sent to the regiment from the Emperor that any KDG captured would be treated as a guest by Franz Joseph himself.
A Warrant Officer I of the Queen's Dragoon Guards.
Regimental march - "Radetsky March".
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