Mobilisation
The Second World War
1939 - 1945
Photo 'B' Sqn 1939 before WW2
At 19.30 hrs on 1st September 1939 Lieutenant Colonel WN Musgrave-Hoyle commanding The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry received a telegram from Western Command HQ.The code word "ROBERTS" announced the order to mobilise. The Munich crisis a year earlier had tested out the systems and by the 5th September Colonel Musgrave-Hoyle was able to report that The Duke of Lancaster'e Own Yeomanry were fully mobilised with 30 officers and 635 other ranks (excluding attached personnel. This was just days after the prime minister, Neville Chamberlain had announced over the radio that the country was now at war with Germany.
These were the officers at that time:
Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding
WM Musgrave-Hoyle, MC
Majors: EJ Pyke, RF Fleetwood-Hesketh, WR Palmer, JE Palmer
Captains: JR Reynolds, CB Clegg, CPF Fleetwood-Hesketh, RT Sanderson
Lieutenants: GG Ley, TM Hesketh, CP Shaw, TM Heaton, GG Beazley, B Greenwood, FCB Fleetwood-Hesketh
2nd Lieutenants: RE Heaton, JDM Wilson, TJL Rushton, JP Crump,WF Reynolds, RC Walker, AC Cooper, JM Hesketh, RH Bowring, HJ Gillow
Adjutant
Captain D O'B E Blake (13/18 Royal Hussars)
Quartermaster
HA Townsend, DCM
Deployment:
RHQ & HQ Squadron Ramsbottom
A/C Squadron Hawkshaw
B Squadron Walshaw
D Squadron Edenfield
Role: Divisional Cavalry for 42nd Division
The CO and many of the officers brought their own hunters but the official provision of horses was organised by the Army remount Service. The DLOY's first batch arrived on September 11th from depots at Bicester, Kingham and Banbury. By 1st October the regiment was fully mounted with 587 chargers and troop horses. Inevitably the quality of horses covered a wide spectrum as indeed was the case with the yeomen. By the end of November The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry were fully operational in the cavalry role but by the end of November HQ 66th Division (to which DLOY had been transferred) informed the regiment that they were to lose their horses. On 1st December at a meeting summoned by the CO it was decided on a show of hands that the regiment would become Medium gunners. Some 30 members transferred to units who were to remain mounted and by the end of December the horses commenced their departure , some under orders to move to Palestine to join the 1st (Mounted) Cavalry Division while others returned to remount centres.
Having parted with the last batch of horses but still without guns, the regiment moved to Pembroke Dock by rail and organised in two batteries...
'A' Battery from 'A' Troop (A/C Squadron) and 'B' Troop (HQ Squadron)
'B' Battery from 'C' Troop (B Squadron) and 'D' Troop (D Squadron)
On 15th April 1940 the radical reorganisation split the regiment into two distinct units under whose titles it was to fight the war. On that date the regiment metamorphosed into...
77th (DLOY) Medium Regiment Royal Artillery (TA)
78th (DLOY) Medium Regiment Royal Artillery (TA)
77th was formed from 'A' Battery .. commanded by Lt Col WM Musgrave-Hoyle
78th was formed from 'B' Battery .. commanded by Lt Col RF Fleetwood-Hesketh