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 5th
Dragoon Guards
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Lieutenant-Colonel Robert
Baden-Powell
Commanding Officer
5th Dragoon Guards
India, 1897
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From:
Baden-Powell, Lessons from the Varsity of Life,
1933:
FAREWELL
TO THE 13TH HUSSARS
….
I had been awarded a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonelcy for
the Ashanti campaign and a further Brevet of full
Colonel for the Matabele campaign so although I
figured as Major in the Regiment, below the
Lieut.-Colonel in Command and the Senior Major,
Second in Command, I was actually senior to both of
these in rank, which was a bit of an anomaly.
This
had not occurred to me until the Colonel sent for me
one day and informed me I was appointed to command
the 5th Dragoon Guards….
FIFTH
DRAGOON GUARDS
My
bombshells been falling on me in rather rapid
succession. No sooner had I got home from Ashanti
than I was ordered to Matabeleland, and now I was
barely settled at home again when I had this order to
go out to India.
….
I was told that my services with the 5th were
urgently required, and I must go at once, but so soon
as I had got matters straight there I could ask for
as much leave as I wanted.
So
off I went.
I
soon found after arrival at Meerut that with the
excellent lot of officers and non-commissioned
officers I should have no difficulty in having the
Regiment in tip-top order, so soon as I got to know
them and they me.
There
is no job on earth, that I know of, as delightful as
that of Colonel of a Regiment, especially if, as it
was with me under Sir Bindon Blood, your General is
sympathetic to your fads.
I
found in both officers and men a most responsive team
of keen soldiers and between us we took up several
new lines of training for the development of
efficiency. These were both interesting experiments
and productive of useful results.
In The Story of
the Fifth Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, Major-General Roger
Evans recalls B-P and his command at the onset of the South African
War:
"THE 5th Dragoon Guards at the beginning of September, when
they were ordered to make ready to join the contingent which was
being organized in India for service in South Africa, were commanded
by an officer of-outstanding personality and ability,
Lieutenant-Colonel R. S. Baden-Powell.* "B.-P.," as he was
always called, held strong and slightly unorthodox ideas on the need
for flexibility in cavalry tactics, the power of modern fire-arms as
an adjunct to shock-action, and the advantages to be gained from
training not only the junior leader but also the individual soldier
to be self-reliant and capable of independent action in accordance
with a general principle. Under him noncommissioned officers and men
were instructed in "personal tactics"-then regarded as a
specialized subject-scouting, and taught to use their brains in
taking advantage of natural cover as well as in riding knee-to-knee,
and encouraged to show initiative. This doctrine "went
down" very well, and fully proved its value when the regiment
came to take part in the grand maneuvers in the Delhi area with
which the training season 1898-1899 ended.* Thus it came about that
in the following September, although B.-P. himself was given special
extra-regimental employment, his successor, the temporary
Second-in-Command, Major Edwards, took over a regiment which was
particularly well trained for the type of warfare which they soon
afterwards met in South Africa. There was a great regimental spirit,
too: eighty-six non-commissioned officers and men who were due to be
sent home "time expired" voluntarily extended their
service as soon as it was known that the 5th Dragoon Guards were for
active service."
From:
Major-General Roger Evans, The Story of the Fifth Royal
Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, Aldershot, 1951
with the kind permission of his son, Major-General Andrew Evans, C.B.,
M.C., C.L. and the courtesy Museum of the Royal Dragoon Guards.
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On March 25,
1897, Baden-Powell was appointed to command the 5th
Dragoon Guards. He served with the Regiment in India. In
September, 1899, B-P left the 5th Dragoon Guards in India to
serve in South Africa on "extra-regimental
employment." |
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The Royal
Dragoon Guards carry on the traditions of four Regiments of
British Cavalry; the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th
Dragoon Guards, the 7th Dragoon Guards and the 6th Inniskilling
Dragoons. The Regiment maintains a website at the Ministry of
Defence Army web. The site includes a detailed listing of the
Battle
Honours and affiliations of the Royal Dragoon Guards, a
short
history of the
Regiment and a link to the
Military Museum of The Royal Dragoon Guards. |
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In
1876, Baden-Powell was posted to his first
regiment,
The 13th
Hussars, a cavalry regiment with a long
tradition. They were perhaps best known for their
part in the Charge of the Light Brigade before
the guns at Balaclava in the Crimean War. The
regiment continues today as part of
The Light Dragoons, an
armored regiment of the British Army that saw
service in Desert Storm. |
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"Loyalty
to a regiment or corps is a peculiar characteristic of the
British Army." In his comprehensive website "Land
Forces of Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth," T. F. Mills
provides insight in "Regiments
and Corps of the British Army: An Introductory
Overview"
and "The
Regimental System." |
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Baden-Powell
Photo Gallery:
Early
Years and Military Career, 1878-1899
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Baden-Powell
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Military
Career & Final Years, 1899-1937
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Please write to: Lewis P. Orans

Copyright ©
Lewis P. Orans, 2002
Last Modified: 6:36 PM on July 22, 2002

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