Yeomanry Cavalry
Yeomanry Cavalry.The Yeomanry Cavalry was the mounted component of the British Volunteer Corps, a military auxiliary established in the late 18th century. When the Volunteer Corps was disbanded after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the yeomanry – recruited from the middle and upper classes – was retained as a politically reliable institution that could act as a mounted police force. It became infamous after playing a leading part in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, and its policing role declined as civilian police forces were established in the mid-19th century. The yeomanry struggled to find a place in the military establishment, and it survived largely because of its members' political influence and willingness to subsidise it financially. It found a new relevance when the Second Boer War revealed a need for mounted infantry. It was reorganised in 1901 as the Imperial Yeomanry, and in 1908 it ceased to be a discrete institution when all volunteer auxiliaries were amalgamated into the Territorial Force.