During the period the regiment was serving in Portugal and Spain, it sustained, from change of climate, sickness, fatigue, privation, and other causes arising out of the arduous duties in which it had been employed, a loss of 239 men, and 445 horses.
While on foreign service a schoolmaster-serjeant was added to the corps, and that excellent institution, the regimental school, was established under the auspices of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, whose kind care and attention to the interests and welfare of the soldiers on numerous occasions renders the memory of His Royal Highness dear to every individual of the British army.
1814
In October of this year (1813) the regiment was inspected at York by Major-General Cheney, who expressed great satisfaction at its appearance. In the following spring it occupied quarters at York, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Durham; from whence it marched, in May, in divisions for Edinburgh, and was there inspected by Major-General Sir Granby Calcraft on the 29th and 30th of that month: one squadron was afterwards stationed at Haddington.
In the meantime the legions of Bonaparte had not only been driven out of Spain, but he had also lost that immense accession of territory which had been acquired by the armies of France since the revolution; and even the capital of their country had fallen into the hands of the allied powers, who had removed the tyrant of Europe, the perfidious Emperor Napoleon, from his throne, and sent him into exile, and had restored the Bourbon dynasty. Thus tranquillity was restored in Christendom under circumstances which warranted the anticipation of a long period of peace and prosperity to the nations of Europe. The strength of the British army was consequently diminished, and the establishment of the Fourth Dragoon Guards was reduced to eight troops, and the total to 545 men and 453 horses.
Soon after this reduction had been made in its numbers, the regiment was ordered to proceed to Ireland; it embarked at Port Patrick in the middle of August, and after landing at Donaghadee, it occupied Belturbet, Longford, Enniskillen, Sligo and Mullingar.
Lieut.-General Miles Staveley, who had held the Colonelcy of the regiment upwards of eleven years, died in September, 1814; and was succeeded by Lieut.-General Sir Henry Fane, G.C.B., by commission dated the 3rd of the following month.
A slight alteration was this year made in the uniform: the bars of white lace across the breast were discontinued, and two broad stripes of white lace with a blue worm were placed down the front of the coat and upon the cuffs; the jacked-leather boots were also replaced by others of a lighter description called Hessian boots;—the white plush breeches, by white web pantaloons; and a blue and white girdle (or sash) was adopted for the men.
1815
The anticipations of a lengthened peace vanished in the spring of 1815, and the long-wished for repose of Europe was disturbed by Bonaparte, who violated the conditions of his treaties and engagements, quitted the island of Elba, and once more trod the soil of France. His former associates in war flocked to his banner; his advance was rapid and decisive; Louis XVIII. was forced to vacate his newly-acquired throne and fly to the Netherlands; and the edicts of Napoleon were again issued from the Tuilleries. He was now singly opposed to nearly the whole of Europe; and, with the hardihood of desperation, he braved the resentment of the united powers. The Royal Irish Dragoon Guards were not fortunate enough to be again called on foreign service: but, every power in Christendom increasing the strength of its armies, the establishment of this regiment was augmented ten men per troop, and subsequently a further addition of 48 men and 128 horses was made to its numbers.