Blues and Royals Trooper, Mounted, Winter Dress, Painted, C2d

Trooper of the Blues and Royals dressed for winter guard duties in London.
The Royal Horse Guards were directly descended from the Regiment of Horse raised by Oliver Cromwell in 1650 to fight with the Parliamentary Army in the Civil War. After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, King Charles II took over the Regiment and under the command of the Earl of Oxford (Aubrey de Vere) it was renamed the "Royal Regiment of Horse". In time this Regiment became associated with the Earl's livery, Oxford Blue and after about 1690 it was nicknamed "The Oxford Blues". In 1750 this nickname was incorporated into the offical name of the Regiment which became "The Royal Horse Guards Blue". In 1819 their title was again changed to "Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) and in 1820, as a compliment to their Colonel, The Duke of Wellington, and to acknowledge their courageous and distinguished service at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, "The Blues" were granted the full status of "The Household Cavalry".

Dragoons were mounted infantrymen, equipped with muskets, who could ride into battle, dismount and fight on foot. Their use offered field commanders the opportunity to combine mobility and firepower into a battle winning combination. The soldiers of the Dragoons were considered elite as they had to combine personal initiative, courage and a variety of skills to be effective. These were the kind of fighting men who made up the Dragoon Regiments.