Hampshire Yeomanry

Hampshire Yeomanry
Badge and service cap as worn at the outbreak of World War II
Active	1794 – present day
Country	Kingdom of Great Britain (1794 – 1800)  United Kingdom (1800 – 1969)
Branch	British Army
Type	Artillery, historically Cavalry
Role	Yeomanry
Size	One Regiment
Engagements	Second Boer War First World War Second World War See battle honours below

The Hampshire Yeomanry may refer to either or both of:

Both of these units are today air defence units of 106th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery, a reserve regiment of the British Army .

Between 1794 and 1803, a large number of cavalry units such as the North Hampshire Yeomanry Cavalry, the New Forest Volunteer Cavalry, the Fawley Light Dragoons and the Southampton Cavalry were raised in southern England as independent groups of Yeomanry. King George III was on the throne, William Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister of Great Britain, and across the English Channel, Britain was faced by a French nation that had recently guillotined its King and which possessed a revolutionary army numbering half a million men. The Prime Minister proposed that the English Counties form a force of Volunteer Yeoman Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country. These units were brought together under the collective title of North Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry in 1834, renamed Hampshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry by 1848. A Troop of Yeomanry existed on the Isle of Wight for many years. The Regiment adopted the title 'Carabiniers' in 1884.

Over the next 60 years the name changed several times, but always maintained a link with both Hampshire and the Yeomanry until in 1908, after the formation of The Territorial Force, the regiment became known as the Hampshire Yeomanry (Carabiniers) with detachments in Winchester, Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Southampton.