It is sometimes easy to forget, when seeing the Household Cavalry processing through London in all their pageantry, or standing motionless on their ceremonial guard duty along Whitehall, that they not simply symbols of tradition but serving soldiers of the British Army. . Behind the polished cuirasses and gleaming helmets are men and women who accept the same risks and...

On 17 June 1815, just one day before the Battle of Waterloo, the 1st Life Guards hurled themselves into battle at the Belgian village of Genappe, fighting a savage rearguard action that rescued their comrades of the 7th Hussars and 23rd Light Dragoons from French lancers. Their timely intervention successfully threw back the French cavalry pursuing the Anglo-Allied army as...

On 17 January 1885, the Household Cavalry lost one of its most legendary figures when Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby was killed in action at the Battle of Abu Klea in present-day Sudan, fighting beside old comrades and dying as he had lived - with daring and courage. When General the Lord Wolseley was ordered to lead the Nile Expedition to...

John Edwards was born on the 4 October 1799 in Westminster, London and joined the 1st Life Guards (1st LG) in 1809 aged just 9 years old and under 4 feet tall....