LANARKSHIRE YEOMANRY
History of the Regiment
From the yeomanry troops of 1819 to the guns of Malaya — more than a century of service, sacrifice, and steadfast courage from the heart of Lanarkshire.
1819 — THE BEGINNING
The Formation of the Regiment
1819
Independent Troops of Yeomanry
The Lanarkshire Yeomanry traces its roots to 1819, when independent troops of yeomanry cavalry were raised across Lanarkshire. Made up of local volunteers — farmers, landowners and townsmen, many providing their own horses — they served as a mounted force for the defence of the county.
1848
The Upper Ward & Airdrie Corps
In 1848 five troops were brought together as the Upper Ward and Airdrie Corps of Lanarkshire Yeomanry Cavalry, later retitled the Lanarkshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry. In the twentieth century the regiment made its home at the Broomgate drill hall in Lanark.
NEARLY TWO CENTURIES OF SERVICE
A Regiment Forged in Battle
1900–01
The Boer War
When volunteers were called for South Africa, Lanarkshire answered. In 1900 the regiment co-sponsored, with the Ayrshire Yeomanry, the 17th (Ayrshire and Lanarkshire) Company of the Imperial Yeomanry, and in 1901 it raised the 107th (Lanarkshire) Company — earning the regiment its first battle honour, South Africa 1900–01.
1908
The Territorial Force
With the creation of the Territorial Force in 1908, the regiment became simply The Lanarkshire Yeomanry and returned to the cavalry role, equipped as lancers. On the outbreak of war in August 1914 it mobilised as part of the Lowland Mounted Brigade.
1915
Gallipoli
In September 1915 the Lanarkshire Yeomanry landed at Gallipoli — without their horses — to fight as dismounted infantry, attached to the 52nd (Lowland) Division. They endured the heat, disease and shellfire of the peninsula until the evacuation in January 1916, when they were withdrawn to Egypt.
1917–18
Palestine & the Western Front
In early 1917 the regiment joined with the Ayrshire Yeomanry to form the 12th (Ayr and Lanark Yeomanry) Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, in the 74th (Yeomanry) Division. They fought at Gaza and Jerusalem before moving to the Western Front in May 1918, where Sergeant Thomas Caldwell won the Victoria Cross.
1921–39
Between the Wars
When the Territorial Army was formed in 1921, the Lanarkshire Yeomanry was one of only fourteen senior yeomanry regiments to keep their horses as cavalry. Among its officers was a young Alec Douglas-Home, later Prime Minister, who was commissioned into the regiment in 1924.
1940
From Horses to Guns
In February 1940 the horses were given up and the regiment was converted to artillery as the 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. A duplicate regiment, the 156th, was formed in April 1940 and went on to serve in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and North-West Europe.
1947–56
Post-War & Amalgamation
After the war the Lanarkshire Yeomanry was reconstituted in the Territorial Army in 1947, now as part of the Royal Armoured Corps. In 1956 it was amalgamated with the Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry and the 1st/2nd Lothians and Border Horse to form The Queen's Own Lowland Yeomanry.
1992–99
The Scottish Yeomanry
The regiment's lineage was revived in 1992 as B (Lanarkshire and Queen's Own Royal Glasgow Yeomanry) Squadron of the Scottish Yeomanry at East Kilbride, until that regiment was disbanded in 1999. The memory of the Lanarkshire Yeomanry lives on through the men who served and the families who remember them.
THE FAR EAST — 1941 TO 1945
Malaya, Singapore & the Road to Captivity
In May 1941 the 155th Field Regiment sailed for India, and in August 1941 it reached Malaya. Transferred to the 11th Indian Division that October, the Lanarkshire gunners fought throughout the Malayan campaign as the Japanese swept south down the peninsula, supporting the infantry through a long and bitter fighting retreat to Singapore.
When Singapore fell on 15th February 1942, the men of the regiment became Far East Prisoners of War. Many were sent north to labour on the Burma–Thailand “Death Railway”, while others were scattered across the Japanese empire. Many did not survive. Those who came home carried the scars for the rest of their lives.
1941
ARRIVED IN MALAYA
1942
FALL OF SINGAPORE
3½
YEARS IN CAPTIVITY
1945
LIBERATION
“They gave up their horses for guns, and their freedom for their country. We will remember them.”
— SCOTLAND FEPOW TRUST