3rd Dragoon Guards
This Regiment was raised in 1685. In 1687 it was titled the 4th Horse and did not gain the title of 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards until about 1746, becoming the Prince of Wales's Regiment in 1765. At the same time the distinctive badges, the Plume of Feathers, the Rising Sun and Red Dragon were to be displayed on the standards; the facings then were white. The Regiment fought in Portugal in 1809 and at most of the Duke of Wellington's battles up to the occupation of Paris in 1816, the facings having been changed from white to bright blue in 1812 and finally to yellow in 1816. The yellow facings were to distinguish the Regiment throughout its subsequent career and on into the 20th century. remaining a feature of the dress of the present-day Regiment.
Next followed a 40 year period of peacetime soldiering with the Regiment being stationed at most principal garrison towns in England, Scotland and Ireland. Pictorial evidence of the band in the 1840s and 5Os is provided by R. Ebsworth. He saw the mounted band formed up for a field day on Portobello sands, at least eight musicians appear in his sketch and all but the orderly trumpeter were mounted. As it is a field day the bandsmen wear undress. peak-less soft caps with yellow band and welt held in position by a narrow chin-strap. Scarlet stable-jackets have yellow collars. cuffs and piping at rear and also brass scales on the shoulders, overalls are blue with broad yellow stripe. The Trumpet-Major has a sword and black leather sabretache which is ornamented with a crown. The drum horse is a grey, there is no throat-plume or shabrack and the drum banners are presumably a drill-order pair kept for such occasions. They are blue with narrow gold edging. the central design being a crown with a VR below and a small badge within a garter below this, although it is not possible to determine which of the Regiment's badges is displayed; probably the Feathers.
The Regiment moved over to Ireland in 1852 and a fine picture by Michael Angelo Hayes. together with two by Ebsworth at Dublin two years later, supplies us with reliable confirmatory evidence. Hayes' picture (1) is all one could wish for, showing the Commanding Officer and a dozen of his officers, all mounted, in conference in the foreground, whilst the entire Regiment, apparently four squadrons with standards, is drawn up in the rear; mounted band at its head.
The CO's trumpeter and all bandsmen have white plumes on the brass helmet, the remainder dark. The coatees are scarlet with yellow facings, officers have gold scales with gold wire fringes, whilst the soldiers have brass, but instead of the normal blue overalls all ranks at this date have grey with broad yellow striping. These grey trousers were experimental and an Order of 18th September, 1854 decreed that no further ones would be issued as they failed to answer the purpose.
Bandsmen have yellow band aiguilettes from the left shoulder, the drum horse is a skewbald and there are several others in the band amongst the greys. The dress banners are now used blue with gold edging and embroidery, and with elaborate design, details seen clearly in the 1854 Ebsworth picture. The central design consists of the Prince of Wales's feathers over a garter surrounded by a wreath in gold embroidery, an oval panel in each corner with two battle honor scrolls on either side, and a separate scroll below where the wreath sprays join. The battle honors at that date would be TALAVERA, ALBUHERA, VITTORIA and PENINSULA, and the title PRINCE OF WALES'S would occupy the scroll at base. Our color plate is based on this picture.
Owing to the disturbed state of Ireland the 3rd Dragoon Guards were left there on police duty during the Crimean War period and a further valuable sketch was made by Ebsworth in 1854 showing the dismounted band and trumpeters under Bandmaster Rumpsling assembled to "play-out" drafts from the Cavalry Depot, Newbridge. The uniforms on this occasion were much as 1847, the Bandmaster's cap has a peak, he alone wears a shoulder-belt and pouch, brass scales on the men's scarlet jackets, trumpet cords are red and yellow.
The Regiment was placed under orders for India in March 1857 and left Ireland for Canterbury where horses were exchanged for men and drafts, and volunteers from other regiments brought it up to strength. The drum horse went to the 11th Hussars.
Unfortunately we lose sight of the band during its tour of duty in India, from whence the Regiment returned home, via Abyssinia where several months were spent on active service, reassembling as a complete regiment at Chichester in 1868.
During home service, about 1882, two features of band dress were supplied by Major T. S. Seccombe, one in caricature form in his delightful book Army and Navy Drolleries where he gave alphabetical descriptions and illustrations. This 'T’ for Trumpeter" shows a young band boy tucking in to an enormous pudding, his dress tunic has the normal yellow collar and cuffs, band piping of yellow on back seams and down sleeves, and on his right sleeve embroidered crossed trumpets with a Prince of Wales's feather crest in white above. The feather plume badge on the sleeve is usually associated with NCOs but seems to have been allowed to trumpeters as well at this time. The other illustration (2) shows a mounted bandsmen in full dress with band aiguilette from right shoulder and an all-red plume on helmet.
The Regiment returned to India in 1884 and remained there until 1892, and it was during that last year at Rawalpindi that a group photograph of the band under Mr. R. Dunne, was taken. Instead of helmets on this occasion all wear pill-box caps. blue with yellow bands, piping round crown and four bars of quartering joining band and top piping and aiguilettes; now worn from the left. The drum banners appear to be the same as those described for 1852, but the newly won battle honor ABYSSINIA has been placed at the central scroll at foot in lieu of the previous title scroll.
The banners were said to have been stolen before leaving India for South Africa. Photos of the mounted band and drum horse taken soon after return to England in 1896 (3) show drums without banners and so it is possible that new ones were purchased by 1897 when the Regiment played its part in the Jubilee parades and celebrations. The drum horse, which was transferred to the Regiment from the 2Oth Hussars in October 1895, and is the one shown in both photographs just mentioned, is a fine piebald. He was foaled in 1885 and from the Remount Depot in Ireland, went to the 2Oth Hussars in 1889, broken in as a drum horse by that regiment before transfer to the 3rd on its return from Africa.
The 3rd Dragoon Guards put him through another course and the kettle-drummer J. Taylor. who claimed to have had several drum horses, maintained that this was the best he had either seen or ridden. This is the horse and rider depicted in the top central position of the color panel, with the new yellow banners. The figure is taken from a photograph of Drummer Taylor which was published in The Regiment magazine on 22nd Jan, 1898. One of the new drum banners is also seen on this panel in the top right position, the representation from the Boy's Own Paper supplement plate, although with several minor inaccuracies. The centre portion is seen to carry the regimental designation 3 over DG, whereas at that stage it was actually III DG, no scroll below. The wreath with roses and thistles extends upwards to almost enclose the Prince of Wales's feathers on either side and the background of the oval panel in the corner with the red dragon should be white and not red, whilst the rising sun is through white clouds. It will be seen that there are four battle honour scrolls on either side and between the corner panels, whilst ABYSSINIA appears on a separate scroll below.
The Regiment traveled to Ireland in 1899 and an excellent photo of the drum horse was taken on the Curragh, this photo was later published in the Navy and Army Illustrated, 4th October, 1902. Before the Regiment was sent to South Africa to the war, the drum horse was transferred to the 21st Lancers and on return to Ireland in the summer of 1904 it had the greatest difficulty in getting the horse back again. (4). It was only after endless correspondence and a direct order from the War Office that the 21st let him go
A former officer of the Regiment who served during the pre-war period, kindly supplied some interesting facts and anecdotes (5). He recalled that the drum horse was - "full of life and spirit and when mounted without the drums used to buck and play about, taking some sitting on, but when the drums were put on he was as quiet as can be and used to step out so proudly in front of the Regiment when the band was playing, and woe betide any horse that tried to come up alongside of him. We had to have him destroyed because of feet trouble after we got over to Aldershot about 1908 or 09, he was then well over 20 years of age. Afterwards we got another young drum horse which we trained and had to leave behind when we left for Egypt in 1912. He was quite a nice horse, but not a patch on the other one. He was a roan in color. Everyday it was the duty of a rough riding corporal to exercise the horse which he did by riding along the road towards Farnham. One morning the Riding Master, Major Sykes, decided to do the exercise ride himself to see how the horse was behaving on the road. At a certain point in the journey without any instruction from the rider the horse automatically turned off the road on to the forecourt of a public house, apparently a daily habit which he had no occasion to change."
There had been an addition made to the banners on arrival in Ireland back in 1904, i.e. the battle honor SOUTH AFRICA 1901-02, was added on a separate scroll, gold thread on a blue ground placed immediately below ABYSSINIA. The roan drum horse "Jim" is shown in Fig. 1, a photograph taken at Aldershot c.1910. The yellow piping can be seen on the drummer's left sleeve whilst a unique feature of his uniform at this date is the yellow helmet plume The black sheepskin saddle cover has yellow scalloped edging. By 1911, however, some major alterations to the banners had taken place, brought about by the eventual award of three battle honors of over 100 years ago: WARBURG, by Army Order 180 of 1909, BEAUMONT and WILLEMS by Army Order 211 of 1909. This brought the Regiment's total to 13 which were now arranged six-a-side with SOUTH AFRICA 1901-02 at the foot. Fig. 2 is a photograph of one of these banners and it can be seen at once where new material was used and how the old original scrolls were, by this time, rather threadbare. The central panel, however, still carried the old III DG, and it was not until much later that the figure "3" was substituted. On our color panel in top left position will be seen the Gale & Polden sheet representation of the drum banner where the artist has shown five battle honor scrolls on either side and three below. This is incorrect and is believed to have come about from an error by Harry Payne when he sketched the drum horse in February 1912.
The Regiment supplied a mounted Street lining party when the King and Queen returned from their visit to India, the band, also on duty, were all wearing full dress and cloaked. (6) Payne noted five battle honors either side of the wreath, an error easily made whilst sketching in a busy London street lined with cheering citizens, etc., and the artist responsible for the sheet drawing perpetuated the error. The 3 over DG on the panel was also incorrect, but otherwise, Payne showed some useful new features. A shabrack had been made, of blue with gold lace edging and regimental crest, etc., on hind sections. Although not new, he also showed the horse face-piece, leather cross-straps with serrated edging upon which an ornate badge was fixed, the badge from the officers' black leather sabretache of Victorian days, consisting of crown, wreath and 3 over DG embossed on central plate. On the lower nose cross-piece there was another badge, the Prince of Wales's feathers within a garter. The horse's throat-plume was black out of red, the same as the Regiment's helmet plume, although the drummer still had the yellow helmet plume. The amalgamation of two squadrons of the Regiment with one of the 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) took place at Sialkot on 24th October, 1922 the new Regiment then known as 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards. It returned home to Colchester with that title in 1924. During the home service period between 1924-37 the Regiment was presented with new banners in 1935 by the Old Comrades Association, and one of these is shown at the foot of the color panel. Before this date, however, the old 3DG and 6DG banners were used at tattoos and ceremonial parades, either together or on a time and time about basis.
Apart from the final adjustment of the central panel as seen in Fig. 2, the 3rd Dragoon Guards Banners remained the same as did the drum horse furniture, etc. This is well shown on Fig. 3, a photo taken at Tidworth Camp on 6th October, 1927. The silver metal Prince of Wales' feathers arm badge is also to be seen on the drummer's right arm above his lance corporal's single chevron.
The Regiment was fortunate during those post-war years in having a serving officer with artistic talents, Major G. A. Catley, who painted many colorful pictures showing service life with the Regiment, the accent on ceremonial. Our final color plate shows the drum horse at the Tidworth Tattoo of 1928, same horse, rider, banners, etc., as in Fig. 3. It is interesting to note, however, that the two trumpeters following the drummer carry the white trumpet banners of the old 6th Dragoon Guards.