The British Army Regular Mounted Infantry 1880–1913

Rather than fight on horseback in the traditional manner of cavalry, the regular Mounted Infantry would use horses primarily to move swiftly about the battlefield, where they would then dismount and fight on foot, thus appearing to anticipate the development of mechanised infantry tactics during the twentieth century. Yet despite being one the most important innovations of the late Victorian and Edwardian British Army, the mounted infantry concept was abandoned by the British Army in 1913, just at the point when it may have made the transition from a colonial to a continental force. Exploring the historical background to the Mounted Infantry, this book untangles the debates that raged between its advocates and the supporters of the established cavalry.