Officer, The Yorkshire Hussars, 1897

Description

The Yorkshire Hussars was a unit of the British Army formed in 1794 as the 2nd or Northern Regiment of Yorkshire West Riding Yeomanry as volunteer cavalry during the French Revolutionary Wars. Disbanded in 1802, seven troops reconstituted the regiment later that year. In January 1819, the regiment converted to the Yorkshire Hussar Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry. In 1864, the title was augmented with “Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own“. Yeomanry were not intended to serve overseas, but a string of defeats during Black Week in December 1899, the government needed more troops. A Warrant was issued in December to allow volunteers to serve in the Second Boer War. In September 1914, Lord Feversham formed a 1st Line regiment of Yorkshire Hussars who volunteered to serve abroad, designated 1/1st Yorkshire Hussars. It was converted to an armoured role during the Second World War. In 1956, it merged with two other Yorkshire yeomanry regiments to form the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Yeomanry. Its lineage is continued today by the Queen’s Own Yeomanry. Here is an officer in a dress of the fashion of 1854. The pelisse, the short overcoat slung from his shoulders, was an item of hussar dress abandoned after Crimea, but retained by the officers of the Yorkshire Hussars as levee dress. The braided hessian boots, with heel-spurs, and tight pantaloons were also peculiar to the levee dress of hussars.

Source: Regimental photographs.