08/06/2026
DRAGOONS | The Legacy Lives On
One Family's Regimental Story from Normandy to the Present Day
Military service often runs in , particularly so in regiments. This is just one example from The Royal Dragoon Guards, a regiment formed in 1992 through the amalgamation of The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.
For Shaun, now in his early eighties, the Regiment has been part of his family's story for more than 200 years.
His family's connection begins in 1825, when his maternal great-great-grandfather, Henry, purchased a commission in The 6th Inniskilling Dragoons. More than a century later, that tradition continued through both The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, creating a connection that would span .
Shaun's father, Pat, was commissioned into the 4th/7th shortly before the Second World War before transferring to the Skins after Dunkirk. Shortly after the Regiment arrived in , he was killed by German shellfire at Jerusalem crossroads near Bayeux, several months before Shaun was born.
Many years later, Shaun found himself in conversation with a forceful elderly gentleman who asked his name and whether he was related to Pat. The man turned out to be Colonel Ben Tottenham, a former Skins officer. Colonel Tottenham went on to describe how he and another officer had recovered Pat's body and arranged for his burial. It was an extraordinary encounter that brought together two men connected by events more than half a century earlier.
The family's military tradition continued through Shaun's uncle Tony, who served with the Skins during the Second World War, and his younger half-brother David, who served in the Potential Officers Troop at Catterick before being commissioned into the 4th/7th. The family's service reaches back even further, with another ancestor serving as veterinary officer to The 5th Dragoon Guards at Waterloo in 1815. Tony later served as Adjutant of the Skins and was Mentioned in Despatches for his service in Normandy following D-Day.
Shaun himself went on to serve with the 4th/7th between 1964 and 1967, serving in BAOR (West Germany), Aden, South Arabia and Northern Ireland, as well as undertaking a brief attachment to the Trucial Oman Scouts.
Perhaps the most remarkable coincidence came during Shaun's service. While serving in the early 1960s, a soldier from Cumbria told him that his wife was expecting a child and that, if it was a boy, he might name him Shaun. More than 60 years later, a man bearing exactly the same first name and surname was part of a recent Royal Dragoon Guards Veterans Squadron activity.
Coincidence? Perhaps. But it is another reminder of how often have a habit of resurfacing across the .
Stories such as Shaun's remind us that the Regimental Family extends far beyond service.
QS
20th Armoured Infantry Brigade Royal Armoured Corps
