Imperial Yeomanry - After The War

After The War

After the Second Boer War, the Imperial Yeomanry did not participate in any further conflicts. The individual Companies of the IY returned to their British based Yeomanry Regiments and the Imperial Yeomanry was officially disbanded in 1908.

The 1903 report of His Majesty's Commission on the war commented: "On the whole, the Imperial Yeomanry seem to have done very good service in the war, but to have suffered from the mistake which was made in not organising a system of drafts to maintain the strength of the force, a mistake due, in no doubt, like others, to the under-rating of the resisting power of the Boers, and the belief in the speedy termination of the war. If this system had been organised upon a county basis, a steady flow of selected men trained to ride and shoot at home could have been maintained, and the necessity avoided in sending out later 17,000 untrained and unorganised men to receive their education in the face of the enemy".

The "Imperial Yeomanry" lineage is carried on by the Yeomanry Regiments from which the Imperial Yeomanry Companies were created and thus the IY companies earned the battle honour "South Africa" for their parent regiments. A large number of veterans returned to serve part-time in Yeomanry at home and were called again into service in World War I.