Prince of Wales 3rd Dragoon Guards helmet

[Ross Mather]

Another helmet from my collection

[Mervyn Mitton]

Ross - there were seven Dragoon Guards Regts. - perhaps you could give a little more detail

on this Regt's history and battles ? Also, are you able to date the pattern ? Mervyn

[Ross Mather]

Hello Mervyn, This is the 3rd Dragoons.......and have never done any research other than the pattern in supposed to be from late 19th century. Converted into a dragoon guards regiment as the 3rd Regiment of Dragoon Guards. In 1765 the regiment was named after the Prince of Wales, later to become the Prince Regent and George IV.

It fought from 1809 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in the Peninsula, but then spent all but 22 years of the 1816-99 period on home service. It charged rioters in Bristol in 1831 and was even kept in Ireland during the Crimean War. Two exceptions were its deployments to India from 1857 to 1868 and from 1884 to 1895, whilst a third was the 1868 Abysinnia expedition, where it was the only British cavalry unit to participate.

The 3rd Dragoon Guards charging rioters in Queen's Square, Bristol, 31 October 1831

The regiment was deployed to the Boer War from 1901 to 1903, then back to Ireland, England and Egypt. It then deployed to the Western Front of the First World War in October 1914, where it remained for the rest of the war, taking part in the first and second battles of Ypres and the battle of Cambrai. In 1919 the regiment began a two-year deployment to Ireland, then sliding towards civil war.

In 1922 the 6th Dragoon Guards merged into the regiment, whilst both units were in India. This was initially known as the 3rd/6th Dragoon Guards, but six years after amalgamation took elements of both regiment's names as the 3rd Caribiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards).