The 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry was the active service unit formed by the Hertfordshire Yeomanry during World War I. It was sent to garrison Egypt and then served dismounted in the Gallipoli Campaign. On return to Egypt it was engaged in the Senussi Campaign in the Western Desert. The regiment was then split into independent squadrons acting as divisional cavalry to different infantry divisions. These served in Palestine, on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia, where one of its squadrons were the first troops to enter Baghdad. Later in the war two of the squadrons fought alongside each other in XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment during the final victory in Palestine and the advance into Syria, while the other operated with the North Persia Force and on peacekeeping duties in India.
Mobilisation
On the outbreak of World War I on 4 August 1914, the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, a cavalry regiment of Britain's part-time Territorial Force (TF), had recently completed its annual training camp. The regiment mobilised under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Abel Henry Smith at its regimental and squadron headquarters (HQs) next day: Regimental HQ (RHQ) at Yeomanry House, 23 St Andrew's Street, Hertford A Squadron at 32 Market Street, Watford B Squadron at Yeomanry House C Squadron at Ramsbury Road, St Albans D Squadron at 51 Salisbury Road, High Barnet
The men were billeted near the drill halls until they had been equipped and the horses requisitioned. They then set off on the two-day march to their war station at Mountnessing, Essex, to link up with Eastern Mounted Brigade to which the Herts Yeomanry was attached for peacetime training. The regiment was moved around Essex and Suffolk, finally reaching Culford, near Bury St Edmonds, on 21 August.
Under the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 that brought it into being, the TF was intended as a home defence force and its members could not be compelled to serve outside the United Kingdom. However, after the outbreak of war, TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service. The Herts Yeomanry held squadron parades at Culford on 22 August where the officers and other ranks (ORs) were invited to volunteer, and more than 80 per cent of the regiment did so at once. On 31 August 1914, the War Office authorised the formation of Reserve or 2nd-Line units for each existing TF unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered. Initially these were formed from those men who had not volunteered or were unfit for overseas service, and the recruits who were flooding in. The 1st and 2nd Line units were distinguished by '1/' and '2/' prefixes. In this way duplicate units were created, mirroring those being sent overseas. Later the 2nd Line were mobilised for active service in their own right and 3rd Line units were created to supply reinforcement drafts to the 1st and 2nd Lines.
Service
Egypt
On 31 August the 1/1st Herts Yeomanry was warned for embarkation to Egypt. Lieutenant-Col Abel Smith was not passed medically fit for overseas service, so Colonel T.E. Harrison, DSO, retired from the Leicestershire Yeomanry, was 'dug out' to take the 1/1st Herts Yeomanry overseas. Lieutenant-Col Abel Smith took command of 2/1st Herts Yeomanry. The war establishment of a cavalry regiment was three rather than four squadrons, so C Sqn was broken up and the manpower distributed to the other three; its officer commanding, Major Reginald Halsey, formed the Regimental Depot at RHQ, but had rejoined 1/1st Herts Yeomanry before it sailed.
The regiment moved by train to Southampton where the men embarked on the SS Ionian while the horses for a single squadron were put aboard the SS Messaba. They sailed on 10 September as part of a convoy carrying the East Lancashire Division (TF) and the 1/2nd County of London Yeomanry (the Westminster Dragoons) to Egypt to relieve Regular units from the garrison for active service on the Western Front. The Ionian docked at Alexandria on 25 September and the Herts Yeomanry proceeded to Abbassia Barracks near Cairo to relieve the 3rd Dragoon Guards and take over two squadrons-worth of their horses; the Herts Yeomanry's own horses arrived two days later. The cavalry barracks at Abbassia also housed the Westminster Dragoons and A Sqn 1/1st Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (DLOY), the East Lancashires' divisional cavalry squadron. Here the yeomanry underwent training for men and horses. Colonel Harrison proved to be an alcoholic and was relieved; Maj Samuel Gurney Sheppard was promoted to succeed him in command of 1/1st Herts Yeomanry, with his brother Maj E.B. ('Ted') Sheppard as his second-in-command.