The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army formed in 1902. Units of Yeomanry Cavalry were raised in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 18th and early 19th centuries at times of national emergency: the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. These were stood down once each emergency was over. The East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, was established in 1902, and this saw action during the First World War both in the mounted role and as machine gunners. It was converted to an armoured regiment in 1920, and fought in the Battle of France and the campaign in North West Europe during the Second World War, while some of its personnel served as paratroopers in the Normandy landings and the Rhine Crossing. In 1956, it merged with two other Yorkshire yeomanry regiments to form the Queen's Own Yorkshire Yeomanry. Its lineage is continued today by the Queen's Own Yeomanry.
Precursor unit A number of companies of Volunteer infantry and artillery were formed in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire for coast defence during the Jacobite Rising of 1745. At the same time John Hall-Stevenson and 'a number of fox-hunting gentlemen and yeomen of the county', formed themselves into a cavalry unit named the Yorkshire Light Horse. They invited Major-General James Oglethorpe to be their colonel, and he obtained the King's permission to change its title to the Royal Regiment of Hunters. It is claimed that this was the first unit of Yeomanry cavalry formed in Britain. The unit of foxhunters did some useful patrol work, and participated in Oglethorpe's winter pursuit of the rebel retreat to Shap and the Clifton Moor Skirmish, when its strength was reported to be up to 1500 well-mounted men.
French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars After Britain was drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger proposed on 14 March 1794 that the counties should form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the county. By the end of the year, 27 counties had raised Yeomanry, including East Yorkshire. Thomas Grimston of Grimston offered to raise a cavalry force in Holderness. He issued 'Articles of Enlistment' based on those of the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, and then travelled round the Holderness villages explaining his plans to the yeomen farmers. Their response was poor, even when Grimston got the local clergy to explain the plan to their parishioners. The main complaint was the low level of pay for attending drills, and unwillingness to turn out during harvest time. They were also unwilling to serve outside the East Riding, and Grimston changed the proposed name of his unit from 'East York' to 'East Riding' (formally the East Riding Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry). Once these concerns were addressed, Grimston was able to recruit his troop up to a strength of 58 men (against an establishment of 60) by September. He set about recruiting an ex-cavalryman to serve as troop sergeant to train the men, and obtaining uniforms and weapons. A similar Troop was raised by Captain William Hall as the Hull Gentleman and Yeomanry Cavalry. In February 1798 Captain Sir Christopher Sykes, 2nd Baronet, raised another Troop of 45 volunteers drawn from 16 parishes around Sledmere as the Yorkshire Wold Gentlemen and Yeomanry Cavalry. Meanwhile, the attempted French landing in South Wales in 1796 (the Battle of Fishguard) led the government to double the strength of the militia with a new supplementary militia including units of Provisional Cavalry. Unlike the Yeomanry, service in these units was not voluntary, but decided by ballot, one horse-owner in every ten being selected to serve or provide a fully equipped trooper. The East York Provisional Cavalry consisted of troops based at Hull, Beverley, Driffield, Bridlington and Hunmanby under the command of the Lord Lieutenant (the Duke of Leeds). The force was extremely unpopular, and was never embodied, though called out occasionally for training. It was disbanded in March 1799. The preliminaries to the 1801 Treaty of Amiens saw most of the Yeomanry disbanded, but the peace was short-lived, and Britain declared war on France again in May 1803, beginning the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Thomas Grimston quickly reformed his unit, now titled the Grimston Yeomanry Cavalry and consisting of two Troops. Similarly, Sir Mark Masterman-Sykes, 3rd Baronet, reformed his father's Yorkshire Wolds Yeomanry Cavalry, now with 300 members and himself ranked as lieutenant-colonel. Captain Marmaduke Constable-Maxwell of Everingham formed a new troop of 45 men as the Everingham Yeomanry Cavalry. Captain William Hall offered to reform the Hull Yeomanry Cavalry, but the offer was not acknowledged by the Lord Lieutenant and he withdrew the offer; no new cavalry unit was raised in Hull for the rest of the war. In 1808 a new Local Militia was formed, which replaced many of the Volunteer units. The Yorkshire Wolds Yeomanry Cavalry transferred to the new force, but the Grimston and Everingham Troops remained independent voluntary units until they were disbanded at the end of the war in 1814. For the rest of the 19th century, there was no Yeomanry regiment in the East Riding: men who wished to serve could join the North Riding-based Yorkshire Hussars, which maintained detachments in Beverley and other East Yorkshire towns in the second half of the century.
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