- A huge amount of new and unseen material from over 200 years of Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry history
- The forgotten campaign in the Middle East and interviews with the last survivor of the battle of El Alamein
- Detailed descriptions of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry’s armour during the Second World War
- Personal recollections from the First World War, Second World War and the Cold War
- First-hand accounts of the Yeomanry in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent times
Primus in Armis (‘First in Arms’) is the motto of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (RMY), Britain’s senior regiment of volunteer cavalry raised in 1794 against the threat of French invasion.
Soldiers from the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry have served in South Africa, the First and Second World Wars, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the places where the Regiment fought in the Second World War will be familiar including Aleppo, Palmyra, Baghdad, and more bizarrely, meeting the Russian Army on friendly terms in Tehran. The battle of El Alamein was possibly their finest hour.
The author has accessed the extensive regimental archives and interviewed many families of veterans to obtain a glimpse into the personalities of these soldiers. A wealth of unseen material from around the world has surfaced including stories concerning the aristocracy of the inter-war years and the previously forgotten service of the regiment’s most famous officer.
This first illustrated history of the RWY will appeal to anyone with an interest in the British Army.
| BOOK ISBN |
9781781557891 |
| FORMAT |
248 x 172 mm |
| BINDING |
Hardback |
| PAGES |
288 pages |
| PUBLICATION DATE |
8 May 2020 |
| TERRITORY |
World |
| ILLUSTRATIONS |
368 black-and white and 70 colour photos |
Stephen Keoghane joined the Royal Wessex Yeomanry in 1994 and served as the Regimental Medical Officer for 22 years in Royal Gloucestershire Hussar and Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry squadrons. He has soldiered in the UK, Germany and the USA and served in Afghanistan as a trauma surgeon. He represented the RWY in polo and alpine ski racing. The author is a consultant urological surgeon in Colchester and has published extensively in the scientific literature. He has a lifelong passion for regimental history, alpine skiing, art and horse racing.
