2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays)

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2nd Dragoon Guards (The Queen's Bays)

2nd Dragoon Guards (The Queen's Bays)
Active 1685-1959
Country Britain
Branch Army
Type Cavalry
Role Royal Armoured Corps
Size Regiment
Nickname The Bays
Motto Pro rege et patria (Latin "for King & Country")
March Quick - Rusty Buckles, Slow - The Queen's Bays

The 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays) was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards in 1959.

The regiment was first raised as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse in 1685, by the regimenting of various independent troops, and ranked as the 3rd Regiment of Horse. In 1715 it was named The Princess of Wales's Own Regiment of Horse, for Princess Caroline of Wales, and titled as The Queen's Own Regiment of Horse in 1727 when her husband rose to the throne. It was retitled The Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1746, ranked as the 2nd Dragoon Guards, and formally titled with the number in 1751 as the 2nd (The Queen's) Regiment of Dragoon Guards. Shortly thereafter, in 1767, it took the title 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays).

They took part in the quelling of a Chartist Mob in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent in August 1842, working with the town's chief constable Samuel Alcock.

After service in the First World War, it retitled as The Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) in 1921. The regiment mechanised in 1936 and transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939. In 1959 was amalgamated with the 1st King's Dragoon Guards to form the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards.

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