Pembroke Yeomanry

The Pembroke Yeomanry were formed in 1794, by Lord Milford when King George III was on the throne, William Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister of Great Britain, and across the English Channel, Britain was faced by a French nation that had recently guillotined its King and which possessed a revolutionary army numbering half a million men. The Prime Minister proposed that the English Counties form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country.

In 1797 the French Republican La Legion Noire landed off Carreg Wastad Point, in what would be the Last invasion of Britain, only to surrender to a much smaller force including the Pembroke Yeomanry hastily assembled under Lord Cawdor. Two of the French frigates involved were captured and one was re-commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Fisgard. In 1853 Queen Victoria awarded the battle honour Fishguard upon the Regiment. The unit became the first volunteer unit to receive a battle honour and remains the only unit still serving in the British Army to bear the name of an engagement on British soil.