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The History of the North Somerset Yeomanry started in 1798, when a Cavalry Troop was raised by James A Wickham at Frome and was known as the Frome and Selwood Volunteers. It numbered about 60 strong and as one of a great many units raised that year all over England it had the job of protecting local towns and villages in the event of invasion by the Napoleonic forces. Over the next few years it was sometimes stood down for a few months at a time, but remained in being as a Unit. This Troop of Volunteers was amalgamated with the East Mendip Cavalry in 1804 in order to make up a Unit of Squadron strength and was renamed the Frome and East Mendip Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry.

Further Troops were added, all based in the North and East of the County, and kept constantly under training. In 1817 it was renamed the North Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, there was considerable unrest in the woollen mills and in 1822 the Frome Squadron was called out in aid of the Civil Power.

In 1831 the Bedminster Troop was called out to help quell the Bristol Riots and succeeded in dispersing the crowds. It continued training regularly and took part in large scale exercises with both Regular Troops and other local Regiments of Yeomanry. In 1900 this culminated in the first call to the Yeomanry for service overseas to go to South Africa. The Regiment provided a Company (48th North Somerset) of Mounted Infantry as part of a Battalion of Mounted Infantry known as the 7th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. This Company was involved in several skirmishes before acting as bodyguard to the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts.

In 1901 the name of the Regiment was changed to The North Somerset Imperial Yeomanry in recognition of its services. In 1908 it was changed to the North Somerset Yeomanry on the formation of the Territorial Force.

On 4th August 1914 it received orders to mobilise under its commanding officer, Col G Glyn, and on 2nd November it joined the 6th Cavalry Brigade in France. By 15th November the Reigment was in the trenches near Ypres.

In the same area, near Bellewaarde Lake, on 13th May 1915, the Yeomanry faced a German attack launched after an intense bombardment in appalling weather. Though 50% of the defenders became casualties, the attack was repulsed.

After many more actions the Regiment was temporarily broken up in April 1918 and its members drafted as reinforcements to other units in 6th Brigade.

Revived after the Armistice, the North Somerset Yeomanry survived a threat of conversion to Artillery and started life as a Mounted Regiment in 1922, under Lt Col K G Spencer, and was trained as such until war broke out in 1939.

The development of armour, however, soon foretold a change for the "horsed" Yeomanry Regiment. It took part in one campaign before the axe fell. In February 1940 the Regiment sailed for the Middle East as part of 1st Cavalry Division. It served in the Syrian campaign of 1941 and played a special part in the second assault on the position at Chaia in the battle of Maza Ridge. One officer and nine other ranks were killed and 19 wounded.

The factor determining the future of the Regiment in the war was the acute shortage of Royal Signals personnel in the Middle East. General Auchinleck needed to find some 2,000 signallers from among his existing resources and to train them in six weeks for service in the field in highly technical work normally requiring several years to learn. It was no mean compliment that the General recognised the required standard of intelligence and willingness to undertake this formidable task in the ranks of the North Somerset Yeomanry and the Cheshire Yeomanry.

So, after a short spell in the Royal Armoured Corps, the Regiment amalgamated from July 1942 with a Royal Corps of Signals unit to become 4th Air Formation Signals (North Somerset Yeomanry). In this capacity the Regiment fought through the last phase of the campaign in North Africa, through the campaign in Sicily and up through Italy until August 1944. It then returned to the United Kingdom and was reformed into 14th Air Formation Signals (NSY). From the following January it served until the end of the war in North West Europe.

The officers and men of the Regiment never let the disappointment of the loss of their hereditary role interfere with their most important work as signallers. But neither did the Regiment ever forget its real identity or the traditions and spirit of the North Somerset Yeomanry.

The Regiment was reformed in 1947 as the Armoured Regiment of 16th Airborne Division with an Independent Parachute Squadron. In 1956 it amalgamated with 44 Royal Tank Regiment, the successors of 6th Battalion Gloucester Regiment, finally being disbanded in 1967 as the North Somerset and Bristol Yeomanry. However, elements from the North Somerset Yeomanry and the West Somerset Yeomanry combined with the Somerset Light Infantry to form the Somerset Yeomanry and Light Infantry, which in 1971 became the 6th Battalion The Light Infantry (Volunteers).

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