science

Surrey Yeomanry

Surrey Yeomanry is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Surrey Yeomanry rather than just read about it. In short: The Surrey Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army first formed as volunteer cavalry in 1794. It was reformed in 1901 and saw varied service in the First World War.

Key takeaways

Surrey Yeomanry belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Surrey Yeomanry to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Surrey Yeomanry from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Surrey Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army first formed as volunteer cavalry in 1794. It was reformed in 1901 and saw varied service in the First World War. During the interwar period, it converted to artillery and during the Second World War one of its regiments distinguished itself during the retreat to Dunkirk, saw action during the Second Battle of El Alamein, and also saw service in Sicily and Italy. Its other regiment served in East Africa, the Siege of Tobruk, and in Iraq and Persia. The regiment's lineage is maintained today by 2 (Surrey Yeomanry) Field Troop, 579 Field Squadron (EOD), part of 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) (Volunteers).

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Following Britain's entry into the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger proposed on 14 March 1794 that the counties should form a force of volunteer yeoman cavalry (which became known as the Yeomanry Cavalry) that could be called on by the Crown to defend the country against foreign invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to suppress civil disorder within the county. Four troops of yeomanry were raised in Surrey on 9 May 1794, and were formed into a regiment in 1797 under the command of Lord Leslie. It was headquartered at Clapham and recruited from London and its suburbs, with many of those in its ranks being men of standing in the City of London. The troops were distributed as follows:

Battersea Troop Clapham Troop Wimbledon Troop Deptford Troop (actually in Kent) Lambeth Troop In the spring of 1798 the threat of a French-led invasion seemed more acute, and the government encouraged the formation of local armed associations of cavalry and infantry for purely local defence. Although their terms of service were more limited, there was little difference between the Volunteer Cavalry and the Yeomanry. The following cavalry units were on parade when King George III reviewed the Surrey Yeomanry and Volunteers on Wimbledon Common on 4 July 1799:

The Volunteers were disbanded when hostilities ended in 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens. When the Peace of Amiens broke down and the war was resumed in 1803, the Volunteers were quickly re-established in larger numbers, some units being reformed (sometimes with a different name), others being newly formed. They still had a variety of terms of service (the Wandsworth Cavalry were restricted to 10 miles (16 km) around Wandsworth) and in some cases they were mixed units of cavalry troops and infantry companies. By 1806 the Yeomanry and Volunteers were grouped under 'inspecting field officers', Surrey having three such 'divisions': Lt-Col Jackson

Surrey Yeomen and Riflemen, Col Lord Leslie – 6 Troops (accepted 31 October 1802) + 1 Company (18 July 1803) Richmond Yeomanry, Sir Robert Baker, later Lt-Col Smith – 1 Tp (21 August 1803) + 1 Co (22 September 1803) Woking Volunteer Cavalry, Capt John W. Weston – 1 Tp (21 August 1803) Guildford & Blackheath Volunteer Cavalry, Maj J.M. Molyneux – 2 Tps (21 August 1803) Godley Hundred Volunteer Cavalry, Capt Edgell Wyatt – 1 Tp (21 December 1803) Croydon Volunteer Cavalry, Capt John Brickwood – 1 Tp (22 September 1803) Lt-Col Hardy

Wimbledon Light Horse Volunteers, Capt Benjamin Patterson – 1 Tp (after 1803) Clapham Legion, Lt-Col William Prescott, later Maj Brogden – 1 Tp + 3 Cos (22 December 1803) Wandsworth Volunteer Cavalry, Capt Charles Semple, later George Tritton – 2 Tps (22 December 1803) Lt-Col Addenbrooke

Lambeth Volunteer Cavalry, Capt Joseph Warden, later John Astley – 1 Tp (22 September 1803) Southwark Volunteer Cavalry, Capt John Collingdon – 2 Tps (21 August 1803) Lieutenant-Cols Jackson and Hardy's cavalry units, together with the Berkshire Yeomanry, formed a brigade under Brigadier-General Prince. Lieutenant-Col Addenbrooke's cavalry units were included with the Lambeth and Southwark Volunteer Infantry in an infantry brigade under Brig-Gen Layard. Enthusiasm for the Volunteers waned as the likelihood of invasion decreased. By 1812 the cavalry Troops of the Lambeth, Richmond, and Southwark Volunteers had disappeared from the lists, and the returns show no 'effective' men for the Croydon, Guildford, Wandsworth or Wimbledon corps. Only the Surrey Yeomanry (184 troopers and 60 riflemen), the Clapham Legion (27 troopers and 114 infantry) and the Egham & Godley Volunteers (40 troopers) were still effective.

19th century

The Volunteers were stood down in 1814, while some of the Yeomanry continued for internal security in the years after Waterloo. The Surrey Yeomanry and the London and Westminster Light Horse provided pickets on Westminster Bridge during crowd trouble in support of Queen Caroline when she was excluded from George IV's coronation in 1820. However, by 1824 all but four troops had disappeared in Surrey, and the whole regiment was disbanded in 1828. A new Corps of Surrey Yeomanry was raised at Clapham on 12 December 1831 becoming the Surrey Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry in 1832. However, this too was finally disbanded in 1848. During the enthusiasm for the Rifle Volunteer Movement in the 1860s, a 1st Surrey Mounted Rifle Volunteer Corps was formed at Clapham on 2 April 1860, chiefly composed of foxhunters. It was redesignated the 1st Surrey Light Horse Volunteer Corps in February 1861, but although it held a fundraising Grand Ball in February 1867, it disbanded in 1868.

Imperial Yeomanry

Following a string of defeats during Black Week in early December 1899, the British government realised that it would need more troops than just the regular army to fight the Second Boer War, especially mounted troops. The Imperial Yeomanry (IY) was accordingly organised as county service companies of volunteers, recruited both from the Yeomanry and from civilians, and was equipped to operate as Mounted infantry. While no Surrey units were formed, a number of returning IY veterans formed a permanent regiment in the county on 30 April 1901, which was granted the title Surrey Imperial Yeomanry (The Princess of Wales's) in June 1902. (It changed the subtitle to (Queen Mary's Regiment) after the accession of the Prince and Princess of Wales as King George V and Queen Mary in 1910.) Recruiting from London and Surrey, it was organised as follows:

Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) at Clapham Park A Squadron at Pimlico B Squadron at Guildford C Squadron at Epsom D Squadron at Wimbledon

Territorial Force

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Surrey Yeomanry

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Surrey Yeomanry claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Surrey Yeomanry before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Surrey Yeomanry ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Surrey Yeomanry

In research: Surrey Yeomanry appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Surrey Yeomanry in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Surrey Yeomanry is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Clapham, Military units and formations established in 1794, Military units and formations in Surrey, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Surrey Yeomanry outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Surrey Yeomanry in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Surrey Yeomanry means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Surrey Yeomanry out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Surrey Yeomanry in simple terms?

The Surrey Yeomanry was a unit of the British Army first formed as volunteer cavalry in 1794. It was reformed in 1901 and saw varied service in the First World War.

Why does Surrey Yeomanry matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Surrey Yeomanry?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Surrey Yeomanry.