THE 5th [ROYAL IRISH] LANCERS CAP BADGE & COLLAR [FACING PAIR] BADGE SET.
A fine bi metal cap badge, with blow holes filled with solder [ see photos] and two loops to reverse. Two facing brass collar badges, both with Victorian Crowns and two loops to reverse.
Reference cap badge K & K Vol 1 item 757 page 211.
The regiment was originally formed in 1689 as James Wynne's Regiment of Dragoons. Disbanded in 1799 before being reformed in 1858, keeping its old number and title, but losing precedence, being ranked after the 17th Lancers. It was immediately converted into a lancer regiment and titled 5th (or Royal Irish) Regiment of Dragoons (Lancers). In 1861, it was renamed the 5th (or Royal Irish) Lancers and then the 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers. The regiment served in India and a section served in Egypt in 1885, taking part in the battles at Suakin. It served with distinction in the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, gaining battle honours at Battle of Elandslaagte and The Defence of Ladysmith.
The regiment then returned to England where it stayed until the outbreak of World War I, when it became part of the British Expeditionary Force, sailing from Dublin to France in August 1914, and saw action continually from 1914 to 1918 in some of the war's bloodiest battles. During the battle of Bourlon Wood George William Burdett Clare received the Victoria Cross posthumously. The 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers won a total of 20 battle honours during the Great War.
The 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers also has the grim honour of being the regiment of the last British soldier to die in the Great War, killed by a sniper as the regiment advanced into Mons a short time before the armistice came into effect.
The regiment was renamed 5th Royal Irish Lancers and disbanded in 1921, but a squadron was reconstituted in 1922 and immediately amalgamated with the 16th The Queen's Lancers to become the 16th/5th Lancers (later the 16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancers). In 1993, this regiment was amalgamated with the 17th/21st Lancers to form the Queen's Royal Lancers.
Code: 54115