Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
cavalry regiment of the British Army
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys) is a light cavalry regiment of the British Army, and the senior Scottish regiment. The regiment, through the Royal Scots Greys, is the oldest surviving Cavalry Regiment of the Line in the British Army. The regiment is based at Waterloo Lines, Leuchars Station, and forms part of the 7th Light Mechanised Brigade.
History
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards were formed on 2 July 1971 at Holyrood, Edinburgh, by the amalgamation of the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) (themselves the product of the amalgamation in 1922 of 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales's) and 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers), and The Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons).
Soon after, the regiment deployed on four tours of Northern Ireland in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1980, suffering one fatality in 1972, when Trooper Ian Hunter Caie was killed by a bomb in a beer barrel that exploded in the path of his Ferret scout car in Moybane, near Crossmaglen County Armagh.
The regiment saw active service during the Gulf War in 1991 deploying 57 Challenger tanks and in Bosnia as part of SFOR in 1996–97. In 1998, it became the first regiment in the British Army to operate the Challenger 2 main battle tank. It deployed to Kosovo, as part of KFOR, in 2000.
The regiment deployed to Iraq for Operation Telic, the British element of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The bulk of the regiment deployed as part of the Scots Dragoon Guards Battle Group with a single squadron (A Squadron) detached to the First Battalion The Black Watch Battle Group.
The public source identifies “Royal Scots Dragoon Guards” as cavalry regiment of the British Army. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Royal, Scots and Dragoon.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Royal Scots Dragoon Guards”, the useful work is to connect “cavalry regiment of the British Army” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2171116. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971, 1922, 1972 and 1974.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Royal Scots Dragoon Guards”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Royal Scots Dragoon Guards primary sources, Royal Scots Dragoon Guards archive and Royal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Royal Scots Dragoon Guards”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Royal Scots Dragoon Guards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.