The 2nd Dismounted Brigade was a formation of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It was formed in Egypt in February 1916 by absorbing the Highland Mounted Brigade and the 2nd South Western Mounted Brigade. In October it absorbed the remnants of the 1st Dismounted Brigade. The brigade served as part of the

Western Frontier Force The Western Frontier Force was raised from British Empire troops during the Senussi campaign from November 1915 to February 1917, under the command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF). Orders for the formation of the force were issued on ...

and the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

Defences. In January 1917, the brigade was reorganized and redesignated as the 229th Brigade and joined the

74th (Yeomanry) Division The 74th (Yeomanry) Division was a Territorial Force infantry division formed in Palestine in early 1917 from three dismounted yeomanry brigades. It served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War, mostly as part of XX Corp ...

in March. It served with the division in the

Sinai and Palestine Campaign The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revol ...

and on the Western Front.

2nd Dismounted Brigade

Formation

The 2nd Dismounted Brigade was formed in Egypt in February 1916 by absorbing the Highland Mounted Brigade and the 2nd South Western Mounted Brigade. The Highland Mounted Brigade had served dismounted in the Gallipoli Campaign from 26 September to 19 December 1915 assigned to the

2nd Mounted Division The 2nd Mounted Division was a yeomanry ( Territorial Army cavalry) division that served in the First World War. At the outbreak of war it was assigned to defence of the Norfolk coast. In March 1915 it formed a 2nd Line duplicate of itself, th ...

. Similarly, the 2nd South Western Mounted Brigade served in Gallipoli from 9 October until 19 December 1915 attached at various times to

11th (Northern) Division The 11th (Northern) Division, was an infantry division of the British Army during the First World War, raised from men who had volunteered for Lord Kitchener's New Armies. The division fought in the Gallipoli Campaign and on the Western Fro ...

and

53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division The 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought in both the First and Second World Wars. Originally raised in 1908 as the Welsh Division, part of the Territorial Force (TF), the division saw servic ...

. Both brigades were withdrawn to Egypt in December 1915 and formed part of the Western Frontier Force. The 2nd Dismounted Brigade was formed as part of the Western Frontier Force with the following composition: * 1/1st Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry * 1/1st Royal North Devon Yeomanry * 1/1st West Somerset Yeomanry * 1/1st Fife and Forfar Yeomanry * 1/1st Lovat Scouts * 1/2nd Lovat Scouts *2nd Dismounted Brigade Machine Gun Company *Highland Mounted Brigade Signal Troop *2nd South Western Mounted Brigade Signal Troop *1st Highland Mounted Brigade

Field Ambulance A field ambulance (FA) is the name used by the British Army and the armies of other Commonwealth nations to describe a mobile medical unit that treats wounded soldiers very close to the combat zone. In the British military medical system that deve ...

RAMC The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

*2nd South Western Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance, RAMC

Reorganised

On 27 September 1916, the 1/1st and 1/2nd Lovat Scouts (along with a company of the 1/3rd Scottish Horse) were merged to form the 10th (Lovat's Scouts) Battalion,

Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders or 79th (The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1793. It amalgamated with the Seaforth Highlanders (the Duke of Albany's) to form ...

at Cairo. The battalion was transferred to

Salonika Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, arriving 20 October, where it joined 82nd Brigade, 27th Division. On 1 October 1916, 1/1st Scottish Horse and 1/2nd Scottish Horse of the 1st Dismounted Brigade were amalgamated to form 13th (Scottish Horse Yeomanry) Battalion,

Black Watch The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment ...

. As the 1st Dismounted Brigade had now been reduced to just two regiments ( 1/1st Ayrshire Yeomanry and 1/1st Lanarkshire Yeomanry), it was dissolved and the remaining elements absorbed into the 2nd Dismounted Brigade. The brigade served as part of the Western Frontier Force and on the

Defences.

229th Brigade

The brigade was with the Suez Canal Defences when, on 14 January 1917,

Egyptian Expeditionary Force The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was a military formation of the British Empire, formed on 10 March 1916 under the command of General Archibald Murray from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the Force in Egypt (1914–1915), at the ...

(EEF) Order No. 26 instructed that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Dismounted Brigades be reorganized as the 229th, 230th and 231st Brigades. Consequently, the 2nd Dismounted Brigade was redesignated 229th Brigade at el Ferdan (near

Ismailia Ismailia ( ', ) is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, it is the capital of the Ismailia Governorate. The city had an estimated population of about 1,434,741 according to the statistics issued by the Cen ...

) on 15 January. The brigade units were reorganized in January 1917: *16th (Royal 1st Devon and Royal North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion,

Devonshire Regiment The Devonshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that served under various titles and served in many wars and conflicts from 1685 to 1958, such as the Second Boer War, the World War I, First World War and the World War II, ...

*12th (West Somerset Yeomanry) Battalion,

Somerset Light Infantry The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Som ...

*12th (Ayrshire and Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Battalion,

Royal Scots Fusiliers The Royal Scots Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that existed from 1678 until 1959 when it was amalgamated with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) to form the Royal Highland Fusiliers (Princess Ma ...

*14th (Fife and Forfar Yeomanry) Battalion,

*4th Machine Gun Company *229th Trench Mortar Battery *229th Field Ambulance On 23 February, the GOC EEF ( Lt-Gen Sir A.J. Murray) sought permission from the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

to form the 229th, 230th and 231st Brigades into a new division. The War Office granted permission and the new

started to form. The 229th Brigade joined the division at

el Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ' ) is the capital and largest city of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Mediterranean coast northeast of Cairo and west of the Egypt–Gaza border ...

between 7 and 9 March. 229th Brigade remained with 74th (Yeomanry) Division for the rest of the war.

Palestine 1917–1918

With the 74th Division, the brigade took part in the invasion of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

in 1917 and 1918. It fought in the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

Battles of Gaza (including the capture of

Beersheba Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...

and the Sheria Position). At the end of 1917, it took part in the capture and defence of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and in March 1918 in the Battle of Tell 'Asur. On 3 April 1918, the Division was warned that it would move to France and by 30 April 1918 had completed embarkation at Alexandria. Before departure for France, the 4th Machine Gun Company joined 209th (of 230th Brigade), 210th (of 231st Brigade) and 261st MG Companies to form 74th Battalion,

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a Regiment, corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in the World War I, First World War. Th ...

. It concentrated at Alexandria between 17 and 30 April and departed for France with the division on the latter date.

France and Flanders 1918

In May 1918, the brigade landed at Marseille, France with 74th (Yeomanry) Division. It served in France and Flanders with the division for the rest of the war. By 18 May, the division had concentrated around

Rue ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of the genus '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Mediterranean. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for i ...

in the

Abbeville Abbeville (; ; ) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is the of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of Ponthieu. Geography Location A ...

area. Here the dismounted Yeomanry underwent training for service on the Western Front, particularly gas defence. Due to a lack of replacements, British infantry divisions on the Western Front had been reduced from 12 to 9 battalions in January and February 1918. To conform with this new structure, on 21 June, 12th Royal Scots Fusiliers, 12th Norfolk Regiment (of 230th Brigade) and 24th Royal Welsh Fusiliers (of 231st Brigade) left 74th (Yeomanry) Division. They were used to reconstitute 94th Brigade of 31st Division which was renamed 94th (Yeomanry) Brigade on that date. On 14 July 1918 the Yeomanry Division went into the line for the first time, near Merville on the right of

XI Corps 11 Corps, 11th Corps, Eleventh Corps, or XI Corps may refer to: * 11th Army Corps (France) * XI Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * XI Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army * ...

. From September 1918, as part of

III Corps III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * I ...

of Fourth Army, it took part in the

Hundred Days Offensive The Hundred Days Offensive (8 August to 11 November 1918) was a series of massive Allied offensives that ended the First World War. Beginning with the Battle of Amiens (8–12 August) on the Western Front, the Allies pushed the Imperial Germa ...

including the

Second Battle of the Somme The Second Battle of the Somme of 1918 was fought during the First World War on the Western Front from late August to early September, in the basin of the River Somme. It was part of a series of successful counter-offensives in response to th ...

(

Second Battle of Bapaume The Second Battle of Bapaume was a battle of the First World War that took place at Bapaume in France, from 21 August 1918 to 3 September 1918. It was a continuation of the Battle of Albert (1918), Battle of Albert and is also referred to as the ...

) and the Battles of the

Hindenburg Line The Hindenburg Line (, Siegfried Position) was a German Defense line, defensive position built during the winter of 1916–1917 on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in France during the First World War. The line ran from Arras to ...

(

Battle of Épehy The Battle of Épehy was fought during the First World War on 18 September 1918, involving the British Fourth Army under the command of General Henry Rawlinson against German outpost positions in front of the Hindenburg Line. The village of Ép ...

). In October and November 1918 it took part in the Final Advance in Artois and Flanders. By the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

it was east of

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

, Belgium, still with 74th (Yeomanry) Division. With the end of the war, the troops of 74th Division were engaged in railway repair work and education was undertaken while demobilisation began. The division and its subformations were disbanded on 10 July 1919.

Commanders

The 2nd Dismounted Brigade / 229th Brigade had the following commanders during its existence:

Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

R. Hoare (promoted to Brigadier-General on 5 August 1914) was the commander of the 2nd South Western Mounted Brigade from 1 April 1912. He took command of 2nd Dismounted Brigade on formation. Reginald Hoare was born 18 September 1865, 13th of 14 children all of whom survived into old age, educated at Eton and Sandhurst and in 1886 commissioned into the 4th Queens Own Hussars, which was posted to India along with a new bumptious subaltern called Winston Churchill. In 1899 the 4 QOH won the India Polo Cup in a team captained by RH, by then a Major having been Adjutant, and which included WSC (see My Early Life: WSC.) RH missed Boer War 1 having badly broken his leg in a riding accident but went out to Boer War II as ADC to Gen Elliott and for the last 6 months commanded his own column trying to hunt down de Witt. From 1905 -1909 he commanded 4 QOH serving in Ireland and S Africa, after which he was an inspector of cavalry being no mean horseman. In 1912 he received command of the S W Yeomanry Brigade of which the RNDY had been lately commanded by his 4th eldest brother Wilson Hoare who died in harness in 1911 (born 2 August 1854, Times obit 21 January 1911) and had had an earlier career in the Royal Navy. Having trained the Brigade he served the whole war with it, Gallipoli 1915, defence of Suez and Egypt 1916, Palestine 1917, and the Western Front. Wounded in Sept 1918 by a sniping gun firing at a cross roads when going up to the front on his horse to be with his brigade, he was evacuated back to London and with the end of hostilities there was no brigade to return to nor train so retirement followed. He was convalesced enough to marry in October 1918 Violet Eliza Reid Walker (14 May 1887 – 1 Oct 1966),elder daughter of John & Katie Reid Walker (John of the Walker brewing family in Warrington and Burton and a successful breeder (2 Ascot Gold Plates running with Invershin) of bloodstock and polo ponies with stock brought in from Syria.) RH and VERH had 4 children. RH died after an operation in October 1947 and is buried at Dalarassie, Tomatin, Inverness. Awarded CMG, DSO, Order of St Stanislas 2nd class (Russian, before 1917.)

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{cite book , last = James , first = Brigadier E.A. , year = 1978 , title = British Regiments 1914–18 , publisher = Samson Books Limited , location = London , isbn = 0-906304-03-2 Dismounted Brigades of the British Army Infantry brigades of the British Army in World War I Military units and formations established in 1916 Military units and formations disestablished in 1919