Leicestershire Yeomanry on the Western Front

Monument to the men of the Leicestershire Yeomanry in Bradgate Park.

The Leicestershire Yeomanry was a territorial cavalry regiment and was mobilised on 4th August 1914. The regiment left England on 2nd November 1914 arriving in Le Havre the following day. On their arrival in France they were employed as reserves and reliefs for the infantry in the trenches. At 5pm on May 12th 1915 the 281 officers and men of the Leicestershire Yeomanry went into the lines between Ypres and Zonnebreke in front of Potijze to relief the 5th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. At 3.30am on the 13th May a heavy artillery barrage commenced which preceded a German assault on the trenches. The assault quickly captured trenches to the left of the regiment occupied by the 2nd Life Guards. Having captured the adjacent trenches the Germans began trying to bomb their way into the trenches occupied by "B" Squadron of the Yeomanry. Eventually the Regiment was forced to evacuate the advanced trenches and at 8pm the Yeomanry were the only troops holding a section of trenches which would normally have been occupied by a whole brigade. It was not until 2.30pm on the 14th May that reinforcements, in the form of the Royal Horse Guards, 10th Hussars and Essex Yeomanry, arrived. At this juncture a counter attack was commenced which successfully retook the advanced trenches. The Battle of Frezenburg extracted a heavy toll on the Yeomanry with 7 officers and 87 other ranks killed in the fighting. Despite concerns over the territorials abilities the actions of the Leicestershire Yeomanry, where more illustrious regiments had broken, was an early demonstration of the fortitude which would be shown again and again by territorial regiments on the Western Front. The fact that the Yeomanry at one point were the only barrier preventing a German breakthrough along a sector normally defended by a brigade earned the Regiment the battle honour of Frezenburg.