'15th Light Dragoons 1800. Kings Guidon, 1910 (c)

Pen and ink drawing attributed to Reginald Augustus Wymer (1849-1935), 1910 (c).

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n March 1759, a royal warrant to raise a cavalry regiment was issued to George Augustus Eliott, previously lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Troop of Horse, Grenadier Guards. The unit Eliott raised was immediately numbered the 15th (or Light) Regiment of Dragoons. The following year, it joined the Allied army in Germany during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). Its first engagement was at Emsdorf in July 1760, where it captured nine enemy colours, suffered two-thirds of the total allied casualties, and won the first ever battle honour awarded to a British regiment. In 1766, it became the 1st (or The King's Royal) Regiment of Light Dragoons in honour of King George III, before returning to the number 15 in 1769.

Wymer had retired from the British Army as a Major by 1905, but he had served with the 34th Foot, before transferring to the 91st Highlanders in 1870. He was later made Captain of the 2nd (Militia) Battalion of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.