The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was a Welsh auxiliary unit of the British Army first formed in 1803. It served in home defence and for internal security, including deployments to deal with Chartist disturbances in the 1830s. It provided volunteers to the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second Boer War and formed three regiments for service during World War I. It was broken up and converted to infantry and artillery in 1920.
Napoleonic Wars
During the French Revolutionary Wars of the 1790s a number of English and Welsh counties formed part-time units of Yeomanry Cavalry and Volunteer Infantry for home defence and internal security duties. The Welsh county of Montgomeryshire failed to raise any yeomanry or volunteers at this time. However, after the shortlived Peace of Amiens broke down in 1803, under the leadership of Charles Watkin Williams-Wynn, Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire, the county rapidly two formed Troops of Yeomanry cavalry, at Montgomery and Welshpool by August 1803. Williams-Wynn took command as Major-Commandant, and a third troop soon followed at Newtown and Abermule. By 2 November this had expanded into a large force, the Montgomeryshire Volunteer Legion. In contemporary terminology a 'Legion' was an all-arms force, and soon after its formation the Montgomeryshire unit comprised three Troops of Yeomanry cavalry each 40 strong, and 20 Companies of Volunteer infantry, with Watkins-Wynn as Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant and commander of the legion's cavalry. Charles Hanbury-Tracy was the second lieutenant-colonel.
The legion's cavalry established its headquarters at Trehelig-gro, Welshpool. It carried out 14 days' training at Wrexham in 1804, and 21 days at Shrewsbury in 1805, after which activity declined. By 1808, Volunteers numbers were falling and government dissatisfaction led to their replacement by a force of Local Militia, whose ranks could if necessary be filled by compulsion using the Militia ballot. Many Volunteer units chose to transfer to the new force en masse, and the Montgomeryshire Legion infantry easily filled the new Eastern and Western Montgomeryshire Local Militia. The cavalry troops however remained in being as the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry Cavalry, increased to a strength of 184 all ranks by September 1809. Training was held at Oswestry in October 1809 (8 days), and at Welshpool in 1810 (12 days), 1812 (14 days) and 1813 (14 days) A further troop was raised at Berriew in May 1813, bringing the establishment of the unit (termed a 'corps') up to 238, and from that year the Yeomanry received Regular Army pay when training.
19th Century
The wars ended with the Battle of Waterloo. The militia and local militia were stood down, but recognising their usefulness as an aid to the civil power, the government kept the yeomanry in being. The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was drawn out for training in 1815 and 1817. During the summer of 1819 it sent a troop to deal with disturbances in Newtown and Abermule and because of the unrest two further troops were raised in December that year, at Llangedwyn and Llanfyllin, giving the unit the status of a regiment. In 1821 the establishment of each troop was raised to 50 privates. Training was carried out each year until 1826, when the regiment was organised as follows: 1st Troop (Newtown) – Captain Edward Farmer, 48 men 2nd Troop (Montgomery) – Capt Pryce Devereaux, 61 men 3rd Troop (Llanfyllin) – Capt Wythen Jones, 48 men 4th Troop (Llangedwyn) – Capt David Pugh, 53 men 5th Troop (Berriew) – Capt Winder Lyon, 55 men 6th Troop (Welshpool) – Capt A.D. Jones, 46 men
However, in 1827 the government withdrew funding from the yeomanry. As the officers and men of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry were unwilling to serve at their own expense, the regiment was disbanded in March 1828.
Chartist disturbances
Within three years, a wave of unrest across the country led to a number of yeomanry regiments being reformed. In view of the civil disturbances in north-east Wales, Charles Watkins-Wyn applied to reform the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry. Approval to reform a regiment of four troops was received on 13 January 1831 and they were organised as follows: Berriew Troop – Capt J.W.L. Winder; disbanded by September 1831 Newtown Troop – Capt H.A. Proctor Montgomery Troop – Capt Rice Pryce Buckley Williams (promoted to major 4 May 1837) Welshpool Troop – Capt J. Davies Corrie Llangedwyn Troop – Capt A. Bonner Maurice; authorised 25 February 1831