A typical yeomanry regiment at the outbreak of WW1 is represented. At that stage no tin hats were worn – only soft peaked. Also, only 50 rounds of ammunition were carried in a bandolier by the riders. Horses were at a premium – the front line regiments had priority which meant that finding mounts for the Yeomanry posed a problem. The Sussex were lucky in that a large proportion of their horses were hunt horses of the East Sussex, Crawley and Horsham Hounds.

Pre-war First Aid Nursing Yeomanry is also represented. An interesting article entitled “A Women’s Nursing Yeomanry Corps at Work” was written by Lynette Beardwood who has been instrumental in helping Joyce of Sussex Yeomanry have made (by The Cavalry Workshop) an accurate copy of one of the uniforms that was worn by Lilian Franklin who was one of the founder members of FANY [now FANY (PRVC). The intention is for Joyce to wear the uniform at Sussex Yeomanry WW1 demonstrations/displays.

NB Whilst the WW1 uniforms that are worn are based on/copied from WW1 uniforms and are as accurate as possible, it should be borne in mind that primarily the purpose of Sussex Yeomanry is to demonstrate the equestrian sport of mounted skill-at-arms. As such, sometimes the carrying of weapons by some members of the Group is not historically correct.

We have a gallery showing some of skills we demonstrate together with a selection of our uniforms, click here to have a look