5th Royal Irish Lancers

About This Site

I constructed this site for the sole purpose of reviving the memory of one of the oldest lancer regiments of the British Army. It all started with one photograph that used to be kicking around our house of my uncle Pat on horse back in the uniform of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers. This photograph is shown on the family connection page.
My main area of interest was (is) in World War 2 German military history and Soviet uniform and militaria collecting, so World War One and especially the history of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers did not appeal to me in the slightest.
All this changed one day when I visited the Public Records Office in Kew and found my Great Uncles military records. They fascinated me, and prompted me to research the history of the regiment during World War One.
One thing led to another and I found myself researching the entire history of this regiment but alas, there was virtually nothing on the web about them that went into any detail. Printed matter was and still is very hard to come by and many publications simply ignore the contribution of the 5th RIL to the point I am thinking there is some sort of conspiracy going on to keep things quiet!
I decided to construct this site for making people aware of the regiments’ existence, as I am sure that many people have never even heard of the regiment or those that have know very little about them. Even their amalgamation with the 16th Lancers saw them being relegated to second place due to their disbandment in 1799.

I hope that this website will go some way to reviving the memory of this old and noble regiment that included English, Irish Scottish and Welshmen within its ranks.
The site is being constantly updated and any questions or criticism can be sent to me via email here.