Tensions had been rising between Britain and the two South African Boer states of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State for about 10 years, culminating in the Boer States declaring war against Britain on the 11th October 1899. A war that Britain was ill-prepared for. In the weeks between the declaration of war and any significant military forces arriving from garrisons in Britain and India, the Boer irregular and militia formations made pre-emptive attacks, besieging the townships of Mafeking, Kimberley, and Ladysmith.

During December 1899, despite British forces now arriving in South Africa, the Army suffered three significant defeats. The Battles of Stormberg (10th December), Magersfontein (11th December), and at Colenso (15th December). In 6 days, 2,776 British soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured. Although no single defeat was of vital importance, it had a cumulative effect, debilitating British morale and boosting the confidence of the Boer formations. Known as ‘Black Week,’ it would have far-reaching consequences for the Yeomanry.

In the last decades of the 19th Century, the British Army was more accustomed to fighting tribal wars using tactics originating in the Napoleonic era, and therefore had no doctrine in place to fight against an irregular enemy armed with weapons as modern as their own, and would suffer accordingly.

Following the defeat at Colenso, the General Officer Commanding British forces in South Africa, General Redvers Buller, immediately requested ‘mounted infantry,’ as it was evident that the army needed more mounted troops to patrol the vast open grasslands of the South African veldt, but who were also able to dismount and fight as infantry when required.

There was already just such a formation. The remnants of the county Yeomanry regiments that had been raised back in 1794. However, there was a problem. The remaining county Yeomanry had been established under ‘Home Office,’ authority, (due to their civil function assisting magistrates), rather than the ‘War Office,’ so could not be deployed overseas in their existing formations.

On the 18th of December 1899, Lords Lonsdale and Chesham, who both commanded yeomanry regiments, offered to recruit volunteers from within the domestic yeomanry for service in South Africa. George Wyndham, the Under-Secretary of State for War (also a yeomanry officer, and the great-grandson of the Earl Egremont of Petworth) established the Imperial Yeomanry Committee, despite opposition from Lord Garnet Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief of all British Forces. A Royal Warrant of Christmas Eve 1899 authorised the forming of overseas-service companies of approximately 115 men each, and the ‘Imperial Yeomanry,’ duly came into official existence on the 2nd January 1900.

The Imperial Yeomanry was deliberately structured as infantry, to provide it with its own distinct identity, using companies and battalions rather than the squadrons and regiments of the home-service yeomanry. Although a direct transfer of the existing yeomanry formations was not possible, the existing country yeomanry were ‘invited’ to sponsor these newly forming units, and duly provided about 20% of the men within the 1st Contingent, which numbered over 10,000 strong and departed for South Africa in January and February 1900. Some of the men came from existing Volunteer Rifle battalions, and a further 20% were former regular soldiers re-enlisting. Men with previous experience with cattle-herding on the plains of Canada, Australia and the United States, or in the tea plantations of India and Ceylon also joined, provided that the candidate was both a competent rider and could shoot. The vast majority of the 1st contingent were from the yeomanry's traditional demographics of the middle classes and farming communities, but a significant number also came from upper-class backgrounds, serving within the enlisted ranks, as ‘officer’ positions were limited to five per company. The patriotic fervour of the time deemed it better to serve in the ranks than to not serve at all. Unfortunately, these criteria were not maintained when accepting volunteers for the 2nd and 3rd Contingents later in 1900, with the ability of the volunteers being significantly lower.