North Irish Horse - The Inter-war Years

The Inter-war Years

By 31 January 1919, the regiment was preparing to reduce to a cadre of 3 officers, 5 senior ranks and 27 other ranks who would oversee the rundown of the regiment and its departure from France. On 13 May 1919 the rear party left Vignacourt en route for Pembroke Dock while in Antrim the regimental depot closed and the remaining men there were transferred to the Curragh Camp prior to being demobbed. The regiment's horses were transferred to the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars and the regiment was classed as "disembodied" which in British Army parlance meant that it no longer existed except as a name on the Army List with a complement (in this case) of an Honorary Colonel, Honorary Chaplain, a Brevet Colonel (EA Maude), six majors, six subalterns and the quartermaster although these officers had no peacetime training commitments.

The naming conventions changed as the commitment of the Territorial Force in Great Britain was rewarded by its renaming as the Territorial Army. The Special Reserve in Ireland was renamed "the Militia" on 1 October 1921. The Army List contained a section headed, "Cavalry Special Reserve - Irish Horse, North Irish, South Irish. In 1922 this changed to "Cavalry Militia" with precedence following the 17th/21st Lancers. By this time however the South Irish Horse had been disbanded on 31 July 1922, as part of the partition of Ireland. Following the disbandment of King Edward's Horse in 1924 the North Irish Horse became the sole cavalry militia regiment on the army list and also the only militia regiment which had not been placed in suspended animation.

Also in 1924 the regiment held its first reunion in Thompson's Restaurant in Belfast on 28 February where it was agreed that a memorial to the dead of the Great War should be commissioned. The sum of £500 was allocated and a memorial window was unveiled by the Earl of Shaftesbury and dedicated by the Right Reverend RW Hamilton MA, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church on the 25 April 1925 on the occasion of the 2nd Regimental Reunion.