1st Regiment of Life Guards

1st Regiment of Life Guards
Cap badge of the 1st Life Guards
Active	1788–1922
Country	Kingdom of Great Britain (1788–1800) United Kingdom (1801–1922)
Branch	Army
Type	Household Cavalry
Role	Cavalry

The 1st Regiment of Life Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. It was formed in 1788 by the union of the 1st Troop of Horse Guards and 1st Troop of Horse Grenadier Guards. In 1922, it was amalgamated with the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards to form the Life Guards.

History

In the Napoleonic Wars, it fought in the Peninsula War and Waterloo. In 1877, it was renamed 1st Life Guards and contributed to the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, the 1899–1901 Second Boer War and in the Great War from August to November, 1914. From 1916 to 1918, the Reserve Regiment contributed to the Household Battalion. In 1918, the regiment was converted to the 1st Battalion, Guards Machine Gun Regiment. It was reconstituted in 1919 and was amalgamated with the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards in 1922 to form the Life Guards.

Battle honours

The battle honours were:

• Dettingen, Peninsula, Waterloo, Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt 1882, Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, South Africa 1899–1900
• The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, Messines 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914 '15 '17, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Somme 1916, Albert 1916, Arras 1917 '18, Scarpe 1917 '18, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Hindenburg Line, Cambrai 1918, France and Flanders 1914–18

See also

• British cavalry during the First World War
• Life Guards

Further information: British cavalry during the First World War