After its arrival in England the regiment was stationed at Canterbury; and its establishment was reduced to 28 private men per troop. At the same time the LIGHT TROOP, which had not been on service with the remainder of the regiment, was relieved from the King's duty at Windsor by the 15th Light Dragoons, and disbanded. Eight men per troop of each of the old troops were, however, subsequently equipped as LIGHT DRAGOONS, a practice which appears to have been general in the heavy cavalry regiments.[52]
In consequence of a representation of the increase of smuggling, and of the inability of the officers of the revenue and civil authorities to resist, successfully, the organized gangs which infested the maritime towns and villages, the Third Dragoon Guards were dispersed in detachments along the Kentish coast, the head-quarters being at Canterbury.
1764
In April, 1764, the regiment was ordered to call in its detachments and march into quarters near London; and on the 14th of May it was reviewed in Hyde Park, by His Majesty King George III., who was pleased to express his approbation of the uniform and compact appearance of the regiment, and of the manner in which the various evolutions were executed. After the review the regiment marched to Leicester, Northampton, and Kettering.
This year His Majesty commanded the recruiting and remounting of the several cavalry corps to be submitted to the consideration of a Board of General Officers; and in consequence of its report, orders were issued for the recruits received into the regiments of dragoon guards to be from five feet eight inches to five feet ten inches in height; and that the remount horses should not be under fifteen hands, nor above fifteen hands one inch: at the same time the several regiments were ordered to be remounted with long-tailed horses: jacked leather boots were also laid aside, and boots of a lighter description were adopted; and the men were ordered to wear epaulettes on the right shoulder instead of aiguillettes.
1765
The reputation which the regiment had acquired in the field, and its uniform good conduct on all occasions, attracted the attention of the King, and in 1765 his Majesty was pleased to confer upon it the title of The Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards, in honour of the heir apparent to the throne (afterwards King George IV.), who was then in the third year of his age: at the same time it obtained,—as a regimental badge,—a coronet, with a plume of three feathers, a rising sun, and a red dragon, with the motto 'Ich Dien.' In the month of March of the same year, it proceeded to Scotland; and in September Major-General Lord Robert Manners was appointed its Colonel in succession to Sir Charles Howard, deceased.
1766
In the spring of 1766 the regiment returned to England, and was stationed at Manchester and its vicinity. In July the Drummers were taken off the establishment, and Trumpeters were appointed in their place.
1767
1768