Leicestershire Yeomanry

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


The Great War

LeicestershireYeomanry

The MG Section 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 Leic. Yeo. joined the Brigade from England on 12 November 1914.

As a unit of the 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division, the MG Section will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.

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 7th Cavalry MG Squadron on 29 February 1916.


The 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 Squadron 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 and Tank Regiment.


Sources