No. 5 Middlesex Cavalry

In 1793 the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, proposed that the English Counties form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country.  A cavalry troop entitled the Uxbridge Volunteer Cavalry was raised by Christopher Baynes (later Sir Christopher Baynes, 1st Baronet) in 1797.  By 1798 the unit consisted of over 100 men organised in two Troops. It was once called out, in 1801 to prevent rioting. After the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 the regiment was disbanded.  Following a spate of industrial unrest and rioting, authorisation was given on 10 December 1830 to raise two new troops of Yeomanry in the Uxbridge district. It was raised as the Uxbridge Squadron of Yeomanry Cavalry with troops at Harefield and West Drayton, in 1830.