1st (King’s) Royal Dragoons

The 1st Dragoons was a Cavalry Regiment that would have had an MG Section as part of its Regimental Headquarters.


The Great War

These weapons would have been brigaded when the Machine Gun Corps was formed in 1915. The guns, and crews, would have been formed into a Machine Gun Squadron.

The 1st Dragoons joined the Brigade on 19 September 1914; the Brigade was formed at Windmill Hill on this date.

As a unit of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division, the MG Section will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

1914
09 and 10 October Antwerp Operations [IV. Corps].
19 October to 20 November BATTLES OF YPRES
21 to 24 October Battle of Langemarck [IV. Corps].
29 to 31 October Battle of Gheluvelt [I. Corps].
11 November Battle of Nonne Bosschen [I. Corps].
1915
11 to 13 May Battle of Frezenberg Ridge [Cav. Corps, until 12 May, then Cav. Force, Second Army].
26 to 28 September Battle of Loos (Defence of Loos) [IV. Corps, First Army].

The MG Section was brigaded into the 8th Cavalry MG Squadron on 29 February 1916.


Inter-war Period

In 1922, the Machine Gun Corps was disbanded and the guns returned to the Cavalry Regiment as a Machine Gun Platoon and then formed as a Machine Gun Company in the early 1930s.


The Second World War

This remained until the formation of Divisional Machine Gun Battalions in 1936 where guns were brigaded once again. As Cavalry regiments were largely mechanised, their use would have been as per the Royal Armoured Corps.


Sources