Imperial Yeomanry

[Rob Miller]

This is causing me some confusion, I can only find reference to Battalions and Companies not Regiments?

So is this Late Boer War 27th IY Battalion

or

The 27th IY Company in the 7th IY Battalion?

Rob

[davidwyke]

Hi Rob

The IY contingents to SA were, as you say, organised into Companies within Battalions, not Regiments. I think it might just be a printing error.

There is one other slight possibility that I can think of. The Yeomanry in the UK were, as I'm sure you know, designated as IY from 1901 until 1908. The Regiments were not numbered as such, but they did have a precedence number from 1885 onwards. Middlesex Yeo was "27".

The precedence numbers were hardly ever used and I don't think that's the answer. I think what you have does relate to the IY in South Africa, particularly given the POW plume.

David

[Rockape]

Hi Rob,

I believe this refers to the battalion not the regiment as David was explaining. The 27th Bn were in the third contingent of reinforcements and consisted of companies drawn from all over the UK and not sponsored by a any particular Yeomanry Regt. Hence the generic POW feathers.

[johnG]

This is something which caused my quite a bit of confusion some years ago when I purchased a .455 revolver engraved 'B Company. Imperial Yeomanry'.

I could not fathom what regiment of the Imperial Yeomanry it was from. Finally got it sorted when I realised there was no regiment, and 'B Company' was simply part of the Imperial Yeomanry.