Provisional Cavalry

Provisional Cavalry
	Major William Hallett of the Berkshire Provisional Cavalry
Active	1796–1802
Country	Great Britain ; United Kingdom
Type	Auxiliary cavalry
Role	Light cavalry

Last updated October 01, 2020

The Provisional Cavalry was a force levied in Great Britain from 1796 for home defence and organised at the county level. The unit was raised by an Act of Parliament instigated by the Secretary of State for War Henry Dundas who thought light cavalry would be particularly effective against any invading force. It was filled by means of an obligation from Britain's horse owners, who had to provide one trooper for every ten horses owned – a method which drew comparisons to the feudal system. Each county had a quota of cavalrymen that it was expected to provide. The act was unpopular and the number and quality of recruits was low.

Dundas preferred the Yeomanry Cavalry system of volunteers and in 1798 instigated measures to increase their numbers, exempting counties from the obligation to raise Provisional Cavalry where the Yeomanry could provide at least 75% of the demanded quota. This proved highly effective with the number of Yeomanry exceeding Dundas' expectations. The Provisional Cavalry was disbanded by 1802 and the enabling act was allowed to lapse in 1806.

Origins

Britain in early 1796 was in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars and following defeats of her allies on the continent feared invasion. These fears later proved well founded with the occurrence of the December 1796 French expedition to Ireland and the February 1797 landings at Fishguard.^[1] The British government became concerned that there were too few cavalrymen in the existing British Volunteer Corps (known as Yeomanry Cavalry). Cavalry were thought to be essential in defeating an invading force, which would be hampered by the limited number of horses it could bring by ship. At the proposal of the Secretary of State for War, Henry Dundas, parliament passed the Provisional Cavalry Act in 1796. This act established the Provisional Cavalry, which was liable for service anywhere in the country (some militia units were liable for service only within their own counties). Dundas was also responsible for raising the Fencibles and the Supplementary Militia for home defence.^[2]

The Provisional Cavalry was raised by imposing liabilities upon those men in the country that owned horses. Those liable were required to provide one cavalry trooper for every ten horses owned (those who owned fewer than ten horses were collected into groups which were each required to provide one man).^[3] The method of recruitment has been described as a form of revival of the feudal system whereby vassals were required to provide a quota of knights for their lord.^[4] The British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger set an expected strength for the Provisional Cavalry of 20,000 men.^[5]

Service

Unlike the yeomanry cavalry, who were paid only when called up, troopers of the provisional cavalry received a wage.^[1] They sometimes took part in military exercises and camps with the yeomanry.^[1] A quota was established for each county that it was expected to keep. However the Provisional Cavalry was unpopular, being a drain on the county funds and effectively conscripting members of the landowning class.^[6] The Provisional Cavalry levies of 1797 failed to provide the minimum numbers that Dundas had set. In March of that year Colonel Mark Wood decried the unit in a parliamentary speech as an "unpopular measure ... so little calculated to afford any adequate degree of security to the public".^[6]^[7] Roman Catholics were prohibited from serving in the unit, though William Wilberforce campaigned for them to be allowed to do so.^[8]

Dundas described his intentions for the various cavalry units in case of an invasion. The regular cavalry was to attack the enemy, the Yeomanry to preserve the peace in civilian areas and the Provisional Cavalry to drive away cattle and carry out similar duties of a "hussar nature".^[9] A near contemporary press report stated that the provisional cavalry was not dependable as a fighting force and might only be useful as escorts for baggage and provisions; though the writer also stated that a select few of the younger and more active members might have been useful as light cavalry if placed under experienced officers.^[10]

Decline and disbandment

Dundas seems to have come to the conclusion that the volunteer Yeomanry provided a more effective force and that if it could be increased to sufficient numbers could supersede the Provisional Cavalry.^[6] In May 1798 Dundas exempted Yeomanry men from being selected for service in the Provisional Cavalry (the Volunteer Corps infantry were exempted in 1799).^[6] He also allowed counties to absolve themselves of the need for raising Provisional Cavalry if their Yeomanry regiments could muster more than 75% of the cavalry quota.^[6]^[11] This led to a rapid increase in the ranks of the Yeomanry Cavalry – in the first six months of 1798 their number increased from less than 10,000 to more than 22,000. The Buckinghamshire Yeomanry expanded from six troops in 1794 to more than 50 in 1798, easily satisfying Dundas' quota for the county.^[1]^[6]

The yeomanry were cheaper to raise and maintain, easier to train and proved more willing to serve when commanded. Despite this Dundas was initially keen to retain the provisional cavalry in counties where effective forces had been raised but, convinced by the rapid expansion in Yeomanry, was soon making arrangements to retire the force.^[6] Dundas made the first arrangements to disband units of the Provisional Cavalry in June 1798 and within a year of doing so the numbers of Yeomanry had reached levels that exceeded what Dundas considered the maximum that was useful for the defence of the country.^[6] Only six regiments of Provisional Cavalry were ever embodied, and only the provisional cavalry of Worcestershire was called upon to serve – doing so in Ireland.^[12] Units that were not embodied were absorbed into the Yeomanry where they were often ostracised for their lower social status.^[12] By 1800, the embodied units had been disbanded,^[12] and the Provisional Cavalry as a distinct organisation was disbanded with the Peace of Amiens in 1802.^[4] The parliamentary act enabling the recruitment of the Provisional Cavalry was allowed to lapse by the government in 1806.^[6]^[13]

Related Research Articles

Yeomanry is a designation used by a number of units or sub-units of the British Army Reserve, descended from volunteer cavalry regiments. Today, Yeomanry units serve in a variety of different military roles.

The Essex Yeomanry was a Reserve unit of the British Army that originated in 1797 as local Yeomanry Cavalry Troops in Essex. Reformed after the experience gained in the Second Boer War, it saw active service as cavalry in World War I and as artillery in World War II. Its lineage is maintained by 36 Signal Squadron, part of 71 (Yeomanry) Signal Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals.

The Bedfordshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. Serving intermittently between 1797 and 1827, it was re-raised in 1901 for the Second Boer War. It participated in the First World War before being converted to an artillery regiment. It served in the Second World War. Its lineage was maintained by 201 Battery, 100th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery until that unit was placed in suspended animation in 2014.

The Warwickshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794, which served as cavalry and machine gunners in the First World War and as a cavalry and an armoured regiment in the Second World War, before being amalgamated into the Queen's Own Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry in 1956. The lineage is maintained by B Squadron, part of The Royal Yeomanry.

The Berkshire Yeomanry was an auxiliary regiment of the British Army formed in 1794 to counter the threat of invasion during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was the Royal County of Berkshire's senior volunteer unit with over 200 years of voluntary military service. After taking part in the Second Boer War, it saw action as mounted troops in the First World War and as artillery in the Second World War. Its lineage is maintained by 94 Signal Squadron, part of 39 (Skinners) Signal Regiment. The Headquarters of the Squadron is based in Windsor, Berkshire. The Berkshire Yeomanry had a number of battle honours won from Europe to the Far East and Private Frederick Potts was awarded a Victoria Cross for service during the Gallipoli Campaign.

The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (FFY) was an Armoured Yeomanry Regiment of the British Army formed in 1793. It saw action in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. It amalgamated with the Scottish Horse to form the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse in 1956. The lineage is maintained by "C" Fife and Forfar Yeomanry/Scottish Horse Squadron of The Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry based in Cupar in Fife.

The Cheshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment that can trace its history back to 1797 when Sir John Leicester of Tabley raised a county regiment of light cavalry in response to the growing fears of invasion from Napoleonic France. Its lineage is maintained by C Squadron, the Queen's Own Yeomanry.

The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry was a British Army regiment that existed from 1798 to 1992. The regiment sent mounted infantry for service in the Second Boer War as the Imperial Yeomanry, between 1900 and 1902, and also saw action during the First and Second World Wars. Its lineage is maintained by B Squadron, the Queen's Own Yeomanry.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army formed in 1902. Units of Yeomanry Cavalry were raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries at times of national emergency: the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. These were stood down once each emergency was over. The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, was established in 1902, and this saw action during the First World War both in the mounted role and as machine gunners.

The Sussex Yeomanry is a yeomanry regiment of the British Army dating from 1794. It was initially formed when there was a threat of French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. After being reformed in the Second Boer War, it served in the First World War and the Second World War, when it served in the East African Campaign and the Siege of Tobruk. The lineage is maintained by 1 Field Troop, 579 Field Squadron (EOD), part of 101 (London) Engineer Regiment (Volunteers).

The Lincolnshire Yeomanry was a volunteer cavalry unit of the British Army formed in 1794. It saw action in the Second Boer War and the First World War before being disbanded in 1920.

The Hampshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry cavalry regiment formed by amalgamating older units raised between 1794 and 1803 during the French Revolutionary Wars. It served in a mounted role in the Second Boer War and World War I, and in the air defence role during and after World War II. The lineage is continued by 295 Battery and 457 Battery, batteries of 106 (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery, part of the Army Reserve.

The Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army founded in 1794 as the Dorsetshire Regiment of Volunteer Yeomanry Cavalry in response to the growing threat of invasion during the Napoleonic wars. It gained its first royal association in 1833 as The Princess Victoria's Regiment of Dorset Yeomanry Cavalry, and its second, in 1843, as the Queen's Own Regiment of Dorset Yeomanry Cavalry.

The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was a Welsh auxiliary unit of the British Army first formed in 1803. It provided volunteers to the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War and formed three regiments for service during World War I. It was broken up and converted to infantry and artillery in 1920.

The Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army that can trace their formation back to 1796. It saw action in the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. It amalgamated with the Lanarkshire Yeomanry and the 1st/2nd Lothians and Border Horse to form the Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry in 1956. Its lineage was revived by B Squadron, the Scottish Yeomanry in 1992 until that unit was disbanded in 1999.

The Militia of Great Britain were the principal military reserve forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain during the 18th century.

The Volunteer Corps was a British voluntary part-time organization for the purpose of home defence in the event of invasion, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

The Militia and Volunteers of County Durham are those military units raised in the County independent of the regular Army. The "modern" militia dates from legislation enacted during the Seven Years' War. The volunteers had several forms and separate periods of existence until made a permanent body in 1859.

The Yeomanry Cavalry was the mounted component of the British Volunteer Corps, a military auxiliary established in the late 18th century amid fears of invasion and insurrection during the French Revolutionary Wars. A yeoman was a person of respectable standing, one social rank below a gentleman, and the yeomanry was initially a rural, county-based force. Members were required to provide their own horses and were recruited mainly from landholders and tenant farmers, though the middle class also featured prominently in the rank and file. Officers were largely recruited from among the nobility and landed gentry. A commission generally involved significant personal expense, and although social status was an important qualification, the primary factor was personal wealth. From the beginning, the newly rich, who found in the yeomanry a means of enhancing their social standing, were welcomed into the officer corps for their ability to support the force financially. Urban recruitment increased towards the end of the 19th century, reflected in the early 20th century by increasingly common use of hired mounts.

The Windsor Foresters, or more formally the Berkshire Fencible Cavalry, was a British regiment of cavalry raised for home defence in 1794. It served in Lincolnshire and Scotland on coastal defence and anti-smuggling duties until 1800. A second regiment, the Berkshire Provisional Cavalry was converted into fencible cavalry in 1799. Both regiments were disbanded in 1800, when a number of members transferred to a new Yeomanry Cavalry Troop at Wargrave.

References

1 2 3 4 Gee, Austin (2003). The British Volunteer Movement, 1794-1814. Clarendon Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780199261253 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ Life of William Pitt, Late Prime Minister of Great Britain,: With Biographical Notices of His Principal Friends and Illustrious Contemporaries. J. Watts, Philadelphia, J. Osborne, New York. 1806. p. 129. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ Buckinghamshire – Provisional Cavalry 1797. Booklet: Eureka Partnership. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
1 2 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Yeomanry" . Encyclopædia Britannica . 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 916.
↑ Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ Parliament, Great Britain; Almon, John; Debrett, John; Stockdale, John (1797). The Parliamentary Register. J. Almon. p. 167. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ Parliament, Great Britain; Almon, John; Debrett, John; Stockdale, John (1797). The Parliamentary Register. J. Almon. p. 533.
↑ Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ The Literary Panorama, and National Register. Cox, Son, and Baylis. 1808. p. 817. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
↑ "The learned pig". British Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
1 2 3 Beckett, Ian Frederick William (2011). Britain's Part-Time Soldiers: The Amateur Military Tradition: 1558–1945. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. p. 77. ISBN 9781848843950.
↑ Aylward, J. D. (1956). The English Master of Arms: From the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century. Taylor & Francis. p. 216.

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[gee-1] 1 2 3 4 Gee, Austin (2003). The British Volunteer Movement, 1794-1814. Clarendon Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780199261253 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[2] Life of William Pitt, Late Prime Minister of Great Britain,: With Biographical Notices of His Principal Friends and Illustrious Contemporaries. J. Watts, Philadelphia, J. Osborne, New York. 1806. p. 129. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[3] Buckinghamshire – Provisional Cavalry 1797. Booklet: Eureka Partnership. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[brit-4] 1 2 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Yeomanry" . Encyclopædia Britannica . 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 916.

[5] Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[cookson-6] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[7] Parliament, Great Britain; Almon, John; Debrett, John; Stockdale, John (1797). The Parliamentary Register. J. Almon. p. 167. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[8] Parliament, Great Britain; Almon, John; Debrett, John; Stockdale, John (1797). The Parliamentary Register. J. Almon. p. 533.

[9] Cookson, J. E. (1997). The British Armed Nation, 1793-1815. Clarendon Press. p. 33. ISBN 9780198206583 . Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[10] The Literary Panorama, and National Register. Cox, Son, and Baylis. 1808. p. 817. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[11] "The learned pig". British Museum. Retrieved 25 February 2019.

[beckett-12] 1 2 3 Beckett, Ian Frederick William (2011). Britain's Part-Time Soldiers: The Amateur Military Tradition: 1558–1945. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. p. 77. ISBN 9781848843950.

[13] Aylward, J. D. (1956). The English Master of Arms: From the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century. Taylor & Francis. p. 216.