16th Lancers

The Regiment was raised in 1759 as a corps I of light horse then known as the 2nd or Queen’s Light Dragoons, and was clothed in red. It did not receive lancer designation until 1816. By that time, however, it had seen considerable active service commencing as early as 1761 by two troops at the siege of Belle Isle in the Bayof Biscay, then the Regiment went to Portugal, to America, Sent detachments to the French West Indies and as a regiment again to partake in the campaigns of 1793/4 in Flanders.

Returning to Portugal in 1809, by this time styled the 16th or The Queen’s Regiment of Light Dragoons. and dressed in blue with scarlet facings, it served throughout the Peninsula campaigns and was later present at Quatre Bras and Waterlco. joining in the march of the victorious army into Paris.

Returning from France in December, 1815 it proceeded to Romford, Essex, where it was reviewed by HRH The Duke of York who in-formed the Regiment that it was to be equipped as a corps of lancers. During the next three years, which were spent in Ireland, the 1 ~th was no doubt fully occupied with its new weaponry, and perhaps learning to cope with lance-caps. During the Peninsula wars the British army had come up against and suffered terrible casualties from the Polish lancers, so was not only to emulate them, and eventually surpass, in skill at arms, but also in appearance.

Scarlet pants were introduced for officers at levees and with the scarlet plastron of the coatee, facings. and top panels of lance-caps, presented a magnificent appearance. although the dress was otherwise quite impracticable.

In 1830 the whole of the British army. at the whim of a royal commander-in-chief, went into scarlet, but lancer regiments reverted to blue in 1846 with the single exception of the 16th who were to retain their scarlet for all time.

The battle honours PENINSULA and WATERLOO were no doubt added to the silken guidons, but the latter were discontinued in lancer regiments in 1834 and the badges and honours were to bedisplayedon drum banners and appointments.

In 1822 the regiment embarked for India thereby becoming the first British lancer regiment to serve in that country.

There are two stories about how and why the 16th were ordered abroad, one undoubtedly true. the other unsubstantiated, both connected with its loyalty to the Queen at a time when King George IV was embroiled in differences with his Consort, Caroline. Reports of frequent toasting the Queen in the officers’ mess reached the King, causing him to regard the Regiment with disfavour. The Queen died in 1821 and an unconfirmed story relates how the 16th were ordered to escort her remains to Harwich. a duty one would normally expect to be assigned to, and undertaken by, the Household Cavalry. It was also ordered that back Streets and by-ways out of London were to be used. But the Regiment would have none of it and proceeded by the most direct route, only to meet a barrier of mounted Life Guards blocking the road at Temple Bar, so the 16th simply charged straight through the disconcerted Household Cavalrymen, and took the royal remains through the principal thoroughfares Out of London, to the enthusiastic applause and delight of all spectators.

There was no applause from authority, however, as this was a serious breach of good order and military discipline and the Regiment was ordered abroad forthwith, some said it was banished. So from 1822 until 1846, a period of 24 years. the 16th lancers remained in India. only one man still serving and returning home from the original regiment that sailed from Gravesend in June, 1822.

Whilst at Cawnpore in 1832 the Regiment received its scarlet coatees which had been authorized in 1830. It was during the Sikh Wars in January 1846 that the Regiment won one of its most cherished honours at the battle of Aliwal. playing a vital part by a series of charges, to rout a Sikh force of 19,000. The Governor General’s dispatches describes the action: “HM 16th Lancers on this occasion have added to their former reputation acquired in various fields of battle in Asia by routing the enemies cavalry in every direction”. January 28th has been celebrated within the Regiment ever since.

During the l6th’s long period in India it earned six battle honours and these, together with the seven previously awarded up to Waterloo were now displayed on the drum banners, first recorded at lpswich in 1850 and again at Edinburgh in 1858. Between these two Stations, however, there was a five-year tour of Ireland, 1852-57 and it is quite possible that efforts to bring the band up to scratch were made at this time. A letter of thanks, dated 16th March 1853, from the Bandmaster of the 16th Lancers, Mr. J. G. Jones of the Cavalry Barracks, Dundalk, for the brass instruments recently purchased, was sent to Jullien & Co., Military Musical Instruments of Regent Street.

Our colour plate is based on the sketch by Ebsworth from Edinburgh showing the kettle-drummer, an old soldier who had seen action in India, on a dapple grey drum horse. The old coatee with brass shoulder scales, as shown in wear in the lpswich picture, had been abolished and the tunic introduced in 1955, a long garment with blue lancer piping on back seams had been substituted. It is shown in the colour plate open at a point below the shoulder belt, showing a blue half-plastron. The girdle is yellow with two scarlet stripes running through and the overalls have two yellow Stripes. The design of the drum banner can be seen clearly, all embroidery of gold and the battle honours on scrolls of scarlet. It would. appear that the shabrack is of special

pattern with a design very similar to that displayed on the drum banners and certainly no that used by officers at the time. Pill-box cap worn by the band were red with lancer quartering and piping over the crown with a yellow band around. The regimental pattern was blue with a yellow band and lancer quartering trumpet cords are red and yellow.

The second tour of Indian service followed in 1865, of shorter duration than the earlier, this time lasting until 1877, although there are no known pictures of band uniform or drum horse at that time. In fact the next evidence appears in Ireland c. 1885. The drum horse was photographed on The Curragh and by this time there had been some alterations, principally that new drum banners and shabrack had been acquired.

F. Stansell copied the 1885 photograph for the illustration he made for Gordon’s book and the drum horse cigarette card Series, the latter can be seen at bottom left of our colour panel, On the same panel are three versions of the drum banner, but in this instance the Bar’s Own Paper illustration, centre right. is inaccurate, and the cigarette card version left which has been copied from it is of course also incorrect.

This card is from the 1904 Player’s series Badges and Flags of British Regiments, and it may be interesting to note that yet another cigarette card Series of 50 cards issued by Gallagher in 1912, Regimental Colours and Standards contains four which show drum banners of lancer regiments the 5th, 9th, 16th and 17th. Although a very attractive, and expensive series, the card showing the banner of the 16th Lancers is again wildly inaccurate. On the other hand card No.19 from the 1924 Drum Banners and Cap Badges Series, top right on the panel, is a very good representation. Apart from the fact that the battle honour scrolls are now blue instead of scarlet, the overall design is the same as the previous pattern, and was to remain so until the 1 930s. To Sum up, therefore, the banners were of dark blue cloth edged with a two-inch gold lace border with a fringe below and on Outer edges; the lance pennons on the central crest were embroidered red over white, red and white embroidery on a Queen’s crown, whilst VR, laurel wreath and edging to battle honour scrolls and numerals XVI are all in gold embroidery. The battle honours are arranged five a side in the following manner:

TALAVERA FUENTES d’ONOR

SALAMANCA VITTORIA

HIVE PENINSULA

BHURTPORE ALIWAL

MAHARAJPORE GHUZNEE

WATERLOO AFGHANISTAN SOBRAGH

The shabrack was blue with broad gold edging, the regimental crest was on the hind Sections similar to that in the centre of the banners. A habit which the 16th Lancers adopted for some unknown reason is the “hitching up” of the banners at the top left corners above the strap securing the drums. The brow-band and nose pieces of the drum horse head harness are decorated with shells and a scarlet throat plume with a white tip is used.

The kettle-drummer wears the normal scarlet lancer full dress, is a Lance Corporal and probably an old soldier. He has the coveted embroidered badge of crossed lances on his left cuff, distinguishing him as one of the most proficient lancers in his troop. The band plume is the same as the regiment plume black, but it is “crimped”, a custom in the Regiment dating back to Aliwal when the lance pennons became so saturated with blood that they gave the appearance of having been crimped, so lance-cap plumes and lance pennons were crimped from that time onwards.

During this year a young man joined the band of the “Scarlet Lancers”, who was later to become one of the renowned Bandmasters of the British Army. John Amers entered the band in 1886, later transferred to the 2nd Life Guards and became a Band Corporal of Horse, and was sent for Kneller Hall training from that regiment. He was appointed bandmaster to the 2nd Bn. Devonshire Regiment in June 1901, later taking over the Royal Military College Band in October 1914. His final service appointment was to be Director of Music of the Royal Air Force Band from which he retired in 1931. It may also be recalled that his younger brother Harry became the celebrated Bandmaster of the Northumberland Hussars, (1)

The Regiment returned to Aldershot in November 1906 after staying once more in India, followed by South Africa war service. A 16th Lancer officer who served with the Regiment in India in the 1890s, and who reached high rank during World War I, published his memoirs in 1954(2) and this book contains a good photograph of the drum horse of 1908. A similar photograph which we reproduce here shows the same horse and drummer, Band Sergeant Hawkes who wears both Queen’s and King’s South Africa war medals with clasps, whilst a group photograph of the band about the same time shows Hawkes as an instrumentalist. As a senior NCO his collar, which has the Regimental crossed lances as collar badges, is embellished with lace at the top and opening.

The drum horse is a grey, the shells no longer decorate the head harness but are replaced with brass scales on the headband and on the breast girth; the throat plume is black and the design on the drum banners and shabrack exactly as before. By 1909 the grey drum horse was replaced by a chestnut and when photographed at Aldershot that year a younger man had taken over as drummer.

By the time the Regiment had moved over to Ireland in 1913, yet another horse, “Sunny Jim” was carrying the drums and a new drummer in the saddle. There were Still no alterations to the banners, although on the 23rd August, 1909 an Army Order had authorised the Regiment to add the honours BEAUMONT and WILLEMS to its appointments. These were not placed on the banners at this stage and, in fact, did not appear until new ones were acquired in the late 19305.

After the war in South Africa the regiment was awarded the battle honours SOUTH AFRICA 1900-02, RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY and PAARDEBERG bringing the total up to 18, the most held by any cavalry regiment.

Even after the 1914-18 War the Regiment continued to use the old drum banners with the VR cypher, this clearly shown in a band group photograph of 1932. The band of 31 musicians under Bandmaster Mr. R. C. Hanney, wears the scarlet, lancer full-dress but with peaked caps instead of lance’caps. This was not the case when at a daylight performance at the 1933 Tidworth Searchlight Tattoo, the mounted band was photographed in full-dress complete with lance-caps.

The Regiment was one of those selected for amalgamation in 1922 and joined by the 5th Royal Irish Lancers Squadron. The new Regimental title, the 16^th/’5th Lancers, later to become the l6th/5th Queen’s Royal Lancers. No move had been made to incorporate the 5th Lancers honours on existing banners of the 16th Lancers, so the old ones were kept in use up to 1936. One may easily have been misled by the very attractive cover of the Tidworth Tatoo programme in 1933 which correctly shows the kettle drummer of the 1 6th/Sth Lancers in the 16th Lancer’s full-dress, but with drum banners bearing the King George V cypher. This error was probably brought about by the programme artist consulting the Gale & Polden sheet illustration(3) instead of examining the actual banners in the possession of, and used by, the Regiment.

The sheet illustration can be seen on our panel and it may be noticed that the artist has also rearranged the scrolls and included the two early honours awarded in 1909, as well as those for South Africa. In fact he has shown the complete 18 which appeared in the Army Lists of pre-1914, but were never placed on the drum banners at that stage.

It is interesting to see how careful one has to be in accepting the evidence provided by cigarette cards and popular supplement sheets in some cases, in this instance only one can be accepted as reliable evidence from amongst the otherwise attractive examples illustrated, that being the card from the 1924 Player’s Series.

In 1937 new banners were obtained for the Coronation and these will be dealt with in our future article about the 5th Lancers.

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