16th Light Dragoons
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: british_army, cavalry
This is a placeholder for information about the 16th Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment in the British army, which was renamed 16th Lancers in 1815
Members of the Archer and Swetenham families served in the regiment and some saw active service, fighting in the Flanders Campaign (William Archer), Peninsula (William's brother Clement Archer and their nephew Clement Swetenham), Waterloo (Clement Swetenham) and in Afghanistan, the Gwalior Campaign and the 1st Anglo-Sikh War (Henry Donnithorne Swetenham, killed at the Battle of Aliwal 1846).
Regimental History
The 16th The Queen's Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers to form the 16th/5th Lancers in 1922. The regiment was raised in 1759 by Colonel John Burgoyne as the 16th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, being the second of the new regiments of light dragoons.
Flanders Campagn
The regiment landed at Ostend in April 1793 for service in the Flanders Campaign and was present at the siege of Valenciennes in June 1793, the siege of Dunkirk in August 1793 and the siege of Landrecies in April 1794. It also took part in the Battle of Beaumont in April 1794, the Battle of Willems in May 1794 and the Battle of Tournay in later that month before returning to England in February 1796.
Napoleonic Wars
The regiment were ordered to support Sir Arthur Wellesley's Army on the Iberian Peninsula and landed at Lisbon in April 1809. The regiment fought at the Second Battle of Porto in May 1809, the Battle of Talavera in July 1809 and the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in April 1810. The regiment also saw action at the Battle of Bussaco in September 1810, the Battle of Sabugal in April 1811 and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811. It next fought at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, the siege of Burgos in September 1812 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813. It was next in action at the siege of San Sebastián in August 1813 and having advanced into France, at the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813 and at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813. It returned home in July 1814.
The regiment took part in the Hundred Days landing at Ostend in May 1815. It charged with John Vandeleur's Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. After the battle, their commander, Lieutenant-colonel James Hay, lay so badly injured that he could not be moved from the field for eight days. The regiment had been the sole British cavalry regiment to serve throughout the Peninsular War and at the Hundred Days.
Sources
See also
Wikipedia contributors, 16th The Queen's Lancers Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, link (accessed October 30, 2021).
Graham, Henry. 1912. History of the Sixteenth, the Queen's, light dragoons (lancers), 1759 to 1912. Devizes: G. Simpson, printer. Contains full lists of officers by year. Accessible online only in USA for copyright reasons book
Cannon, Richard (1842). Historical record of the Sixteenth Regiment or the Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, Lancers containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1759 and of its subsequent services to 1841 book. John W. Parker.
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