The Loyal Suffolk Hussars : The History of the Suffolk Yeomanry 1794-1967

With access to previously unpublished material and with the full co-operation of the Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry Museum Trustees, the authors have been able to give a detailed account of how this volunteer unit served the British Army and the civil power across nearly two centuries. Interwoven with the military history is a fascinating account of how the activities of, and attitudes towards, the Yeomanry cavalry, whose officers and men were initially drawn from the county's landowners and farmers, were very much a reflection of the society of the time. Drawing upon personal diaries and interviews with surviving Yeomanry veterans, as well as formal accounts, the authors, both experienced local and social historians, provide an insight into the expectations, aspirations and fears of serving officers and men as they tell of the exploits of the Suffolk Yeomanry both at home and on battlefields abroad from the Boer War through Gallipoli, Palestine and the Western Front in the First World War to the Normandy landings and European battlefields a generation later. At each stage, this military narrative is placed within its local and national context, providing a glimpse of the changing structure of volunteer forces, and changing governmental attitudes towards them. It traces how the Yeomanry was formed in 1794, disbanded as a regiment in 1828, rehabilitated in 1831, before becoming part of the Imperial Yeomanry during the Boer War. Thereafter, the story is told of how the Suffolk Yeomanry Cavalry became a dismounted cavalry force in the early years of the First World War and ended it as an infantry battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. The Second World War saw an independent Suffolk Yeomanry again reformed as a regiment, fighting in an anti-tank role. Illustrated with a selection of rare or previously unpublished images, including 8 pages in colour, this study is being produced in a limited edition hardback printing of 500 individually numbered copies, each signed by both authors.