The institution of entire regiments of Light Cavalry, as part of the standing army of Great Britain, in the spring of 1759, was attended with such signal success, that, after the formation of the two splendid corps of Eliott and Burgoyne, which were numbered the Fifteenth and Sixteenth, King George II. was induced to carry the plan to a still greater extent, and to augment the Light Dragoon establishment with five additional regiments, which were numbered the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-first Light Dragoons. The first of these additional corps was raised in Scotland by Lord Aberdour; it never consisted of more than two troops, and was disbanded at the termination of the seven years' war, in 1763. The second was embodied in Hertfordshire, under the superintendence of Lieut.-Colonel John Hale, from the Forty-seventh Foot, an officer who had served with credit in Europe and America, and who was the bearer of the public despatches announcing the victory at Quebec on the 13th of September, 1759, and the fall of the brave Major-General James Wolfe, a name which will be ever recorded among the heroes of the British army.
This corps was numbered the Eighteenth Light Dragoons; but after the reduction of Lord Aberdour's regiment it obtained rank as Seventeenth, and now bears the title of the "Seventeenth Lancers." Its first rendezvous was at Watford and Rickmansworth, and it consisted of four troops. The first troop was raised by Captain Franklin Kirby, from Lieutenant in the Fifth Foot; the second by Captain Samuel Birch, from Lieutenant in the Eleventh Dragoons; the third by Captain Martin Basil[1], from Lieutenant in Eliott's Light Horse; and the fourth by Captain Edward Lascelles, from Cornet in the Royal Horse Guards. Of this corps, Lieut.-Colonel John Hale, whose merits had procured for him the favour of his sovereign, was appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant, by commission dated the 7th of November, 1759; and purposing that his regiment should consist of men of decided character, who would emulate the glorious example of the heroic Wolfe, whose gallant conduct the Colonel had witnessed, he procured His Majesty's authority for his regiment to bear on its standards and appointments the "Death's Head," with the motto, "Or Glory," which it has continued to bear to the present time.
The zeal of the officers, with the popular feeling of interest, which existed in England at this period, and particularly in London and the southern counties, in favour of light cavalry, occasioned the regiment to be speedily completed with men and horses, and, in the beginning of December, it marched to Warwick and Stratford upon Avon, and soon afterwards to Coventry, where it was augmented to six troops.
1760
In January, 1760, the following officers were holding commissions in the regiment:—
| Lieut.-Colonel Commandant, John Hale. | ||
| Major, John Blaquiere. | ||
| Captains. | Lieutenants. | Cornets. |
| Franklin Kirby | Thomas Lea | Rob. Archdall |
| Samuel Birch | William Green | — Bishopp |
| Martin Basil | Joseph Hall | — Stopford |
| Edward Lascelles | — Wallop | Henry Crofton |
| John Burton | — Cope | Jos. Moxham |
| Samuel Townshend | Y. Peyton | Daniel Brown |
| Adjutant, Richard Westbury, Surgeon, John Francis. | ||
Ten months after the authority for its formation was issued, the regiment was directed to march to Berwick, and place itself under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief in North Britain; it arrived in Scotland in October, and was stationed in that part of the United Kingdom during the following three years.
1761
1762
In the spring of 1761 the regiment sent a draft of fifty men and horses to Germany, to serve under Lieut.-General the Marquis of Granby, and the Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick; and in 1762 hostilities were terminated by the treaty of Fontainbleau.