The
Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) is an
armoured regiment of the
Canadian Army. It is one of three armoured regiments in the
Regular Force and forms part of the
Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The
colonel-in-chief of the RCD is
HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. The current commanding officer is Lieutenant Colonel M.A. Frank, and the current
regimental sergeant-major is Chief Warrant Officer D.W Head.
History
The Royal Canadian Dragoons is the most senior regular cavalry regiment in
Canada, having been formed on December 21, 1883, 3:03 pm, as the
Cavalry School Corps, as a result of the Militia Act of 1883, which also created the Infantry School Corps (now
The Royal Canadian Regiment). The Militia Act of 1883 emphasized the need for a fully-trained army to defend Canada, as its defences had been pierced during the
Fenian raids. In 1887 it was renamed the
Royal School of Cavalry. In 1892 the regiment was renamed as the
Canadian Dragoons and in 1893 it became
The Royal Canadian Dragoons.
It served in the
North-West campaign of 1885, the
Second Boer War,
First World War,
Second World War, past
peacekeeping (such as
Somalia,
Korea, and
Kosovo among others) and Afghanistan with distinction.
The regiment currently serves as part of
Land Force Central Area's
2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group based at
CFB Petawawa,
Ontario, and is a dedicated
reconnaissance regiment. It converted to this role in April 2003, and was equipped solely with
Coyote light armoured reconnaissance vehicles.
Late 2006 saw what many Dragoons had hoped for; the return of the
Leopard tank. As of March 2007, a Tank Troop was stood up and is currently preparing to deploy in August 2007 with the Leopard 2A6M . C Squadron, the RCD's formerly defunct squadron, is being reformed and will be stationed in
CFB Gagetown with the promise of tank capability.
The Springbok Cap Badge
In armies of
Commonwealth Realms, most other "royal" regiments feature
St Edward's Crown on their
cap badge. The cap badge of the Royal Canadian Dragoons is special; it features a
springbok with no crown. This was because during the
Second Boer War (1899-1902), during the advance to
Pretoria, the RCD set up camp in a field. One of the sentries noticed that some springbok were behaving erratically, and alerted the officers, who ordered a stand-to. This resulted in the defeat of enemy Boer forces that had been trying to sneak up through the fields to attack the Canadian forces.
The
commander of the RCD then put a request to
King Edward VII, the reigning monarch, to officially have their cap badge changed to the Springbok, which was finally accepted in 1913.
Battle Honours
- The Great War: Festubert 1915, Somme 1916 '18, Bazentin, Pozières, Flers-Courcelette, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, St. Quentin Canal, Beaurevoir, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1915-18
- The Second World War: Liri Valley, Gothic Line, Lamone Crossing, Misano Ridge, Sant' Angelo-in-Salute, Fosso Vecchio, Italy 1944-45, Groningen, Bad Zwischenahn, North-West Europe 1945
Victoria Crosses
Lieutenant Cockburn's VC
On November 7, 1900, during the
Second Boer War, the Royal Canadian Dragoons engaged enemy
Boers in the
Battle of Leliefontein, where they rescued a minimum of three British guns from capture during a retreat from the banks of the
Komati River. Three
Victoria Crosses were later awarded to men of The Royal Canadian Dragoons for their actions during the course of the day:
Regimental Alliances
Order of precedence
See also
