No.1 Troop A.R.N.D.H

[Guest mer]

'A' squadron N D H. Joseph Coles.

Any info on the NDHussars later the North Devon Yeomanry.

Thanks.

[Petroc]

Hi mate,

have no info in front of me, so doing this from memory; RNDH were, I believe, originally raised in the late 18th C as the North Devon Yeomanry Cavalry. They were one of two Yeomanry units based in Devon the other, the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry, with its HQ in Exeter and recruiting across South and East Devon (although by 1914 they had a Squadron (I think) based in Cornwall). The RNDH had HQ in Barnstaple, and recruited across North Devon and western Exmoor; with the R1stDY they sent contingents to South Africa in the Boer War.

During the Great War, both units fought dismounted at Gallipoli during the second half of the campaign, following which they were sent to campaign in Egypt and Palestine. Following the 1917 Yeomanry reorganisation they were amalgamated to form the 16th (R1stDY & RNDH) Battalion, the Devonshire Regiment, and in 1918, in the wake of the German offensives, were sent to France, where they remained until the end of the war. It was during this period (I think) that the author J.B.Priestley was gassed whilst serving with the battalion.

Various post-war reforms saw the Devon Yeomen converted to Royal Artillery regiments, in which capacity they served in WW2, and I think I'm right in saying that the Royal Devon Yeomanry still survive as a squadron or something in the armoured Royal Wessex Yeomany of the TA, with a base still in Barnstaple.

For further info, check out C T Atkinsons history of the Devons in WW1 (republished by the Naval and Military Press), Aggett's 'Bloody Eleventh' (available from the Museum of the Devon and Dorsets, The Keep, Dorchester, Dorset) or John Pike's booklet on the North Devon Yeomanry, available from the Museum of North Devon Life, The Square, Barnstaple, Devon