The Household Cavalry Regiment (HCR) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and is one of two regiments that are formed from the Household Cavalry. It was formed in 1992, under the Options for Change reforms, by the amalgamation of The Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. Both regiments were allowed to maintain their identities, and each provides two squadrons for the HCR. This makes the HCR relatively unique in the British Army, in that it is an operational regiment only - it does not have its own ceremonial identity, as The Life Guards and the Blues and Royals have their own RHQs, uniforms and accoutrements.
The regiment is part of the Household Cavalry, which is a corps in its own right, rather than the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC). However, it serves as one of the five formation reconnaissance regiments, for which it is equipped with various vehicles, including the FV107 Scimitar, and is considered, for operational purposes, as part of the RAC. Uniquely among the army's formation reconnaissance regiments, in peacetime the Household Cavalry Regiment has four operational squadrons (the rest have three); one of the HCR's squadrons is permanently attached to 16 Air Assault Brigade.
It currently serves as the formation reconnaissance regiment assigned to 1 Mechanised Brigade and is based at Combermere Barracks, Windsor, one mile from Windsor Castle.
Famous quotes containing the words household, cavalry and/or regiment:
“Now, as always, the most automated appliance in a household is the mother.”
—Beverly Jones (b. 1927)
“To fight aloud is very brave,
But gallanter I know,
Who charge within the bosom
The Cavalry of Woe.”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“What makes a regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the art and artificial symmetry of their position and movements.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)