THE LIFE GUARDS

The Life Guards, the senior regiment of the British Army, were formed at the restoration in 1660 from a group of eighty Royalists who had gone into exile with King Charles II after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester (1652). They first saw action at the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1665 (the Monmouth Rebellion) and subsequently in both the Jacobite Wars and during the war of Austrian Succession (1742-46). 

They were redesignated the 1st and 2nd Life Guards in 1788, a period from which the majority of today's state dress originates, and formed the front charging line of the Household Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), staging the famous charge against the French Cuirassiers that saved the British centre from being overrun.

During the nineteenth century, the Life Guards served in Egypt, as part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, taking part in the romantic Moonlight Charge at Kassassin and also in the Sudan and South Africa.

During the First World War, the Regiment saw action at Mons, Le Cateau, The Marne, Ypres, Loos, Poelcappelle, Passchendale and most notably at Zandvoorde where the Life Guards lost two complete squadrons. During the Second World War, the Life Guards contributed men to both Household Cavalry Regiments, the second of which was described by General Brian Horrocks as "the finest armoured car regiment I have ever seen".

They landed at Normandy in July 1944 and spearheaded the Guards Armoured Brigade advance through France to liberate Brussels and become the only forces to make contact with the Polish Free Forces during the advance to the bridge at Arnhem.

Reformed as the Life Guards after the war, the regiment saw service in the Canal Zone, Aden and Oman against the dissident tribesmen, including the assault with the SAS on the Jebel Ahkter and in Cyprus, Malaya, Singapore and Borneo.

Since the early seventies, the regiment has undertaken seven tours of Northern Ireland and a number in support of the United Nations Forces in Cyprus. The entire regiment was deployed to the Gulf in 1990 and took part in the land war finishing up astride the Kuwait City Basra highroad.

During the Options For Change defense review in 1991, the regiment was reduced to two reconnaissance squadrons based in Windsor in a unionised regiment with The Blues and Royals and one squadron committed to mounted ceremonial duty in London. The regiment has recently had squadrons on operational deployments with the UN and Nato in Bosnia.