This was more than just a change of title, as the New Zealand Volunteer Manual makes clear: "It cannot be too frequently impressed upon all ranks of mounted rifles that they are in no sense cavalry.
Each mounted rifles unit was recruited on a voluntary basis with troopers bringing their own horses to take part in military training.
On 28 September 1899, the New Zealand Government offered a contingent to serve with the British Imperial Forces in South Africa, two weeks before the war with the Boer republic began.
Here, whilst defending a cordon enveloping between 800 and 900 Boer guerrillas under De Wet, the Seventh Contingent suffered badly: of approximately 90 men holding the New Zealand line, 24 were killed and more than 40 wounded.
Lord Kitchener reported that they had, "displayed great gallantry and resolution at a critical moment," and that their conduct on this occasion, "reflects the highest credit upon all ranks of the contingent, and upon the Colony to which it belongs.
I feel the greatest affection for them and I shall never forget the work they did in South Africa"[6] Hamilton was to meet New Zealanders again in an even greater test fourteen years later at Gallipoli.
When the TF was formed in 1911 (three years after the Territorial Army in Britain) and compulsory military training introduced, New Zealand could field 12 mounted rifles regiments.
The cap badge of the 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles dates from shortly before the First World War: a native Kaka parrot within a wreath of kowhai leaves and blossoms.
After a most hazardous approach under continuous fire, AMR succeeding in reaching the sorely pressed Wellington Infantry Battalion that had earlier seized the peak.
Once reunited with their horses in Egypt, the Brigade formed part of what later became known as the Desert Mounted Corps, eventually consisting of 20,000 horsemen drawn from Australian, Indian, British Yeomanry and New Zealand units, and the largest tactical force of cavalry ever to operate under one command.
In the Jordan Valley, and thence eastward, over their old battlefield of Shunet Nimrin, Es Salt and Amman, to the Hedjaz railway, the men of New Zealand fought and marched to final and complete victory.
[10] Field Marshall Lord Wavell summarised the part played by the Desert Mounted Corps in the campaign like this: "The greatest exploit in history of horsed cavalry, and possibly their last success on a large scale, had ended within a short distance of the battlefield of Issus (333 B.C.
The Div Cav was part of this force with the majority of its personnel coming from the mounted rifles regiments, including WMR who also provided the unit's first commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel CJ Pierce, MC .
The Div Cav subsequently fought with General Freyberg's 2nd New Zealand Division in Greece, North Africa and Italy, equipped variously with Vickers Light Mark III and VIb tanks, Bren carriers, Marmon-Herrington armoured cars, M3 Stuart light tanks and Staghound armoured cars.
The following month personnel from each LAFV regiment were sent to the New Zealand Armoured Fighting Vehicle School at Waiouru Military Camp to take part in training on the new tanks, more of which arrived in October.
This service was recognised at the end of the war when the Auckland, Waikato and North Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiments inherited the battle honours of the 18th Armoured Regiment from the Italian campaign: The Sangro, Castel Frentano, Orsogna, Advance to Florence, San Michele, Paula Line, Celle, Pisciatello, the Senio, Santerno Crossing, Bologna, Idice Bridgehead and Italy 1943–45.
Following the Second World War, the TF remained largely dormant until 1949 when compulsory military training was reintroduced in New Zealand for the armed forces.
Over the next 50 years, as compulsory military training has come and gone, with successive reorganisations taking place, regimental titles in the RNZAC have frequently changed.
The years that followed proved a particular challenge to the Squadron, as it fought to retain its existence, separate identity and mounted reconnaissance role.
In early 2003, and strongly supported by the Waikato Mounted Rifles Regimental Association, a formal submission was made to alter the Squadron's title.
Based exactly on the pre-1914 originals, it was not however until May 2008 that the new badges were finally presented to Squadron personnel by the then Colonel Commandant RNZAC, Brigadier IH Duthie, CNZM.
In 2003, WMR's role was defined as: "...to provide general purpose medium reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition in order to support New Zealand Light Armoured Vehicle mounted battalion operations.
In 2004 the Government purchased from Automotive Technik (UK) 321 armoured and non-armoured Pinzgauer Light Operational Vehicles (LOV) to replace the Army's ageing Land Rover fleet.
WMR's role was now defined as being to provide a reserve cavalry capability to the NZ Army, focusing on a mounted reconnaissance and surveillance skill set.
Based in Hamilton (pop.141,000) in the Waikato, upper North Island, WMR is nominally equipped with the armoured version of the Pinzgauer LOV, armed with either a single 7.62mm FN MAG 58 MG or a 7.62mm FN Minimi MG.[20] The Squadron is presently configured for approximately 50 personnel in two light reconnaissance troops mounted in unarmoured LOVs, together with a skeleton Squadron headquarters, an administrative section and a forward repair team.
In 2007 the first complete history of WMR, Waikato Troopers, was written and published by Richard Stowers, a military historian and author living in Hamilton.
Rather than a single memorial, the Association preferred the idea of placing these plaques in churches and public grounds in settlements and towns in the heart of the Waikato, where WMR still recruits and trains today.
Beneath the WMR title and badge, the inscription on each plaque reads: "In memory of those from this district [or town/city, as appropriate] who lost their lives on active service and in honour of all those who served."
Aside from the Div Cav, to which all nine mounted rifles regiments then in existence contributed, WMR's soldiers were drafted as reinforcements, mainly to the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade, but also to the infantry and some even to the Navy and Air Force.
Since 2000, some 37 members of WMR have served on operational deployments overseas in East Timor, the Solomon Islands, South Korea and Afghanistan, but so far without incurring any further losses.