Though the Regiment was only officially accepted in June, they were present at the Royal Review in Edinburgh in September, marching past Her Majesty The Queen in rear of the Scots Greys.
In 1862 the Forfar Yeomanry were disbanded, and for the next fourteen years there were no Yeomanry in Forfarshire.
In 1870, on the application of Lieut.-Colonel Anstruther Thomson, the Mounted Rifle Volunteers were turned into Light Horse, and the Corps was called the 1st Fifeshire Volunteer Light Horse Corps, with an establishment of 240 all ranks.
Towards the end of 1875 a movement was made to raise a Forfarshire Troop of Light Horse, and early in 1876 a strong Troop, known as the 1st Forfarshire Light Horse Volunteer Corps, was raised at Dundee under command of Captain P.A.W. Carnegy of Lour and attached to the Fife Light Horse.
In 1895 Lieut.-Colonel John Gilmour of Montrave succeeded to the command of the Regiment, and introduced the Squadron System—“A” Squadron having its headquarters at Cupar, “B” Squadron at Dunfermline, and the “Forfar” Squadron at Dundee.
In October 1899 the South African War broke out, and early in 1900 the 20th Company Imperial Yeomanry was formed. Captain Chappell Hodge, late 12th Lancers, was given command, and under him were Lieutenants J. Gilmour and J. Simpson. They embarked on 27th February for Cape Town where they were given their horses, and proceeded to join General Sir A. Hunter’s Division for the relief of Mafeking. The “Fifes” crossing the Vaal captured the town of Christiana in the Transvaal—the first act of war on Transvaal soil.
After the death of Captain Hodge, Captain R. Purvis took command till wounded at Nooitgedacht, when Lieutenant J. Gilmour succeeded him.
In May 1901 the first contingent, after having marched 2575 miles and taken part in 85 engagements, proceeded home.
The 20th Company Imperial Yeomanry continued to serve till the end of the war, receiving in all 498 officers and men from the Fife and Forfar Light Horse.
The conversion of the Light Horse into Imperial Yeomanry took place in 1901, and the Regiment then became the Fife and Forfar Imperial Yeomanry—in 1908, on the formation of the Territorial Force, the word “Imperial” was dropped.