After remaining at Dublin a year, the Twelfth Royal Lancers marched into the Connaught district, with their head-quarters at Ballinrobe, from whence they were removed, in May, 1823, to Cork; and in July, 1824, the regiment embarked at Waterford for England, landed at Bristol, and marched from thence to Brighton and Chichester.
1825
General Sir William Payne, Baronet, was removed to the Third Dragoon Guards, and was succeeded in the colonelcy of the Twelfth Royal Lancers by Major-General Sir Colquhoun Grant, K.C.B., K.C.H., by commission dated the 2nd of June, 1825.
In the summer of this year the regiment marched to the vicinity of London, and was reviewed, with the Household Brigade, First and Second Dragoon Guards, Scots Greys, Seventh Hussars, and a brigade of artillery, on Hounslow-heath, on the 28th of June, by His Royal Highness the Duke of York, who was accompanied by the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex.
1826
From London the regiment marched to Coventry, Birmingham, and Abergavenny; and in April, 1826, it was removed to Hounslow and Hampton-court.
While the regiment was employed in the escort duty, commotions took place in Portugal, where a constitution had been conferred on the people, which gave them privileges previously unknown in that country; at the same time they were menaced by an invasion from Spain. In consequence of an application from the Portuguese government, a body of British troops was sent to Lisbon, and four troops of the Twelfth Royal Lancers, commanded by Major Barton, (Colonel Brotherton being on leave of absence,) embarked at Portsmouth in December, and landed at Lisbon in January, 1827.
1827
On the 22nd of January Major-General Sir Colquhoun Grant was removed to the Fifteenth Hussars, and the colonelcy of the regiment was conferred on Major-General Sir Hussey Vivian, K.C.B., G.C.H.
The two squadrons in Portugal were stationed for several weeks at Belem, from whence they marched to Alhandra, and Alverca, and one troop was attached to the brigade of Foot Guards at Cartaxo. They proceeded to Torres Novas in March, retired to the vicinity of Lisbon in July, and subsequently occupied the barracks at Luz.