4th County of London Yeomanry
The original 4th County of London Imperial Yeomanry (King's Colonials) was formed in November 1901 at Charing Cross, London, as a yeomanry regiment from overseas volunteers resident in England, with four "colonial" squadrons:
- A Squadron ("British Asian")
- B Squadron ("British American" or Canadian)
- C Squadron (Australasian)
- D Squadron ("British African" or South African)
An additional, New Zealand Squadron, was formed in 1902, leaving C Squadron as Australian.
In 1905, the regiment was renamed as The King's Colonials, Imperial Yeomanry. In 1909, the separate "colony" squadrons were discontinued and in 1910, the regiment was again renamed, as King Edward's Horse (The King's Overseas Dominions Regiment). The regiment was transferred to Special Reserve and lost yeomanry status in 1913 and 21 March 1924, it was disbanded.
The army began to expand as the international situation worsened and on 27 September 1939, the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was formed as a duplicate of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) starting with a nucleus detached from the 3rd CLY.
During the Battle of Normandy, 4th CLY served as part of the 7th Armoured Division, the "Desert Rats". On June 13, they advanced with a battalion of the 1st Rifle Brigade by road from Villers-Bocage and were ambushed by a detachment of Tiger tanks. A single Tiger, commanded by SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann, knocked out the CLY's lead Cromwell and then took out the rest of the column, trapped in the embanked road. This was the prelude to a counter-attack by Panzer-Lehr-Division Division which forced the British out of Villers-Bocage.
On 1 August, 1944 the two regiments were amalgamated to form 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).
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