1st Royal Mounted Dragoons: Unknown Sergeant

[laughton]

Just checking in with the GWF experts to see if anyone has information about a unit that may have been called the "1st Royal Mounted Dragoons". Across the pond here in Canada we had the "Royal Canadian Dragoons" and in the AngloBoer War the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles were also called the "Royal Canadian Dragoons".

One of our CEFSG members has suggested that the CWGC may have erred on an entry when the said this unknown soldier was a Canadian Sergeant as it was the British who had the "1st Royal Dragoons" but we have no knowledge of the unit with the word "Mounted" inserted.

The unknown is in Plot 10 Row E Grave 25 at the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery. He was located at Sheet 28 I27 d.5.9 which puts him south west of Zillebeke. If he was a Canadian Dragoon, he would have been with Seely's Detachment in the Spring of 1915.

The problem is that there are NO MISSING Sergeants of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, anywhere at any time in Belgium.

Details with the COG-BR document are posted here: Sergeant of the 1st Royal Mounted Dragoons

Thanks for any assistance that you can provide!

Richard

[Steven Broomfield]

Given the Royals were part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade (3rd Cavalry Division) and saw a lot of hard fighting in and around Ypres in the late 1914 - mid 1915 period, my money would be on them rather than the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

[laughton]

Thanks kindly for the reference. Once I figured out I had to look for SERJEANTS rather than SERGEANTS I found 5 of the 8 with the "1st (Royal) Dragoons" that are on the Menin Gate Memorial.

Is there a comparable item to what we have over here called a "Circumstance of Death File" that tells you where they were killed etc.? I have shown a Canadian example for one of the CMR Sergeants I was checking on this file below the CWGC list. I need that as I know the missing Sergeant was found at Sheet 28 I27 d.5.9 so I can use that to eliminate candidates as I am doing for all the Canadians.

Front of COD file:

Back of COD file with location of burial:

[David_Underdown]

Unfortunately there is no equivalent file, and of course you have to be very lucky to find surviving service records