Worshipful Company of Farriers

Skip to main content.

Affiliations

The Company is proud of its close links with units of HM Forces:

HMS Ocean

HMS OceanThe sixth HMS Ocean (L12) of the Royal Navy is a landing platform and helicopter carrier, the only one in its class. It was built during the early part of the 1990s by Kvaerner Govan on the Clyde, taking advantage of commercial build methods and facilities, before sailing from Barrow-in-Furness for fitting out prior to acceptance into service with the Royal Navy.

She is based on the Invincible class aircraft carrier design, but due to the commercial build used, the construction cost of £154 million is comparable to that of a Type 23 frigate.

Website at www.royal-navy.mod.uk.

The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery

The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery is stationed in St John's Wood, London. Its duties - as part of the Household Troops - include the firing of Royal Salutes in Hyde Park on Royal Anniversaries and State Occasions, and providing a gun carriage and team of black horses for State and Military funerals.

The King's Troop It also takes its part on other ceremonial occasions such as Remembrance Sunday, the Lord Mayor's Show and the Queen's Birthday Parade. In addition the Troop performs the duties of the Queen's Life Guard at Whitehall for one month each year.

Before World War II, a succession of Horse Artillery Batteries were stationed in London. The last was mechanised in 1939 and it was His Majesty King George VI's express wish that, after the war, a Troop of Royal Horse Artillery, mounted and dressed in the traditional manner, should once more be seen taking part in the great ceremonies of State.

On October 24th 1947 His Majesty inspected the then Riding Troop and said that he wished it to be known as His Troop, and Her Majesty has graciously decided that this title shall continue in her reign in recognition of her father's special interest in the Troop. When on parade with its guns the King's Troop takes precedence over all other Regiments and has the honour of parading on the right of the line.

Website at www.army.mod.uk/kingstprha.

Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment

The Household Cavalry is made up of two Regiments, the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. They are now combined under an arrangement called a "Union" whereby each Regiment retains its identity and uniforms.

However they are organised into two units, the Household Cavalry Regiment, an operational regiment based in Windsor and equipped with light armoured vehicles and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment which carries out mounted ceremonial duties in London and Windsor. It is this Regiment which is affiliated to the Company.

The Mounted Regiment has the unique privilege of meeting the requirement to carry out mounted and some dismounted ceremonial duties on State and Royal occasions which include the provision of a Sovereign's Escort most commonly seen at the Queen's Birthday Parade in June each year.

Other occasions include Sovereign's Escorts for Her Majesty The Queen during State Visits by visiting Heads of State, and as required by Her Majesty anywhere in the Kingdom. They maintain a world-famous tradition dating back to 1660.

The Light Cavalry, Honourable Artillery Company

The original Light Cavalry (1861–1891) acted as a reconnaisance squadron serving as the eyes and ears of the infantry. However following its re-formation in 1979 it is now one of two ceremonial sub-units of the HAC, the World’s oldest fighting regiment, providing the Mounted Travelling Escort for the Lady Mayoress and a Dismounted Guard of Honour for the Lord Mayor at the Royal Courts of Justice on Lord Mayor’s Show day. Every member has either served in the HAC or another branch of the armed services

The canter past of The Light Cavalry

The canter past of The Light Cavalry HAC - On the occasion of the presentation of the Light Cavalry's Royal Warrant by Her Majesty the Queen, 20th April 2004

The Light Cavalry received their Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen in April 2004. Their horses are stabled at their Equestrian Headquarters in Windsor Park where there are excellent facilities including a large indoor riding school for teaching many equestrian disciplines including Skill at Arms with sword and lance. Our Skill at Arms Team provides exciting displays at several country shows annually. The Light Cavalry also provides dismounted guards for Livery Company functions and other important civic events in the City.

At many of our important mounted events we are assisted by our Supporting Riders who also have lessons in our riding school and enjoy hacking out in Windsor Great Park.

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY)

The Corps was formed in 1907 with the purpose of assisting the Military and Civil authorities in times of Emergency. This purpose remains the same today. Always on call, FANYs are resourceful and unique women, who come from all walks of life, and are united in their aim to be of service in whatever capacity is asked of them.

The Corps offers a wealth of new experiences and a huge amount of fun: weekly training nights, based in Westminster, cover skills in First Aid, Major Incident Response, Advanced Driving (of military vehicles) Navigation, Radio Communications, Self Defence, Weapons Handling and much more.

The FANY is a voluntary organisation; the only female yeomanry unit and the most decorated female Corps. FANYs served in both Great Wars, in roles previously considered to be for men only. In the Great War FANYs drove ambulance convoys in Flanders and in France and ran field hospitals on the battlefields. In the Second, they were drivers, coders and signallers.

Today the Corps concentrates its efforts in Communications Roles: FANYs registered missing people from the Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, they worked on the Ops Room Media desk during the Firefighters’ Strikes and dealt with casualty enquiries after the Potters Bar and Hatfield train crashes. In the London Bombings of July 2005, FANYs were called out by the City of London Police to open up the Casualty Bureau; they went on from there to give assistance to the overworked Met. Police in the Fusion Cell at Scotland Yard for over two and a half weeks, following the incidents.

Website at www.fany.org.uk.

RAF 18(b) Squadron

No. 18 (B) Squadron is currently based at RAF Odiham, Hampshire, where it operates the Boeing Chinook HC2 in the Support Helicopter role. It has two Operational Flights (A & B), an Operational Conversion Flight (C Flt or the OCF) and a HQ Flt, making it, with around 120 personnel, one of the biggest Squadrons in the current Royal Air Force.

The Operational flights (A&B) work a cycle of detachments, training, tasking and stand-bys. When the flight is "home" at Odiham the crews train in tactical low flying, instrument and airways flying, night flying using Night Vision Goggles, fighter evasion, electronic warfare and many other skills to keep them current and practised for regular and short notice detachments to world "hot spots". They also take part in exercises, often deploying to the field in support of the Army or more commonly joint exercises with all three services and other nations.

The flights also regularly train for all environments, such as Arctic training in Norway and desert training in Morocco and Jordan. On top of the training and exercises the flights also conduct tasking in the UK and Europe moving troops, equipment and unusual or heavy loads.

Website at www.raf.mod.uk.

Continuing Professional Development

Livery Area

Help with PDFs

Some documents on this site are formatted as PDFs. If you are unable to open them you can download a free PDF Reader from the Adobe website .