Corporal-of-Horse, The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) 1895

click on image for full size

The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) were directly descended from the regiment of horse raised by Cromwell in 1650. With the restoration Charles II took the regiment for his own, styling it the ?Royal Regiment of Horse?.. The colour blue was associated with the regiment from its early days, but it was also the colour of its first commandant, the Earl of Oxford. About 1690 they were nicknamed the "Oxford Blues", and this name became stylised in 1750 as "The Royal Horse Guards - (The Blues)". In 1820 the Blues were given full household cavalry status, until then only enjoyed by the Lifeguards. In 1969 they were amalgamated with the Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons), to form a new regiment in the household cavalry known as the Blues and Royals. The uniform displayed is almost exactly as worn today, apart from the alteration of all insignia from Victorian to ER II and without the eagle, which is now worn on the left arm since amalgamation with the Royal Dragoons.

BACK