Originally formed as a volunteer cavalry force in 1793, it fought in the Second Boer War as part of the Imperial Yeomanry.

After Britain was drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars, a number of independent cavalry troops were raised in the county of Suffolk from August 1793.

The following year, the government of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger proposed that the counties should form corps of Yeomanry Cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the county, and the Suffolk troops were accepted as Yeomanry.

[5] Following a string of defeats during Black Week in early December 1899, the British government realised that it would need more troops than just the regular army to fight the Second Boer War.

A company of the Loyal Suffolk Hussars first left Southampton on 31 January 1900, bound for Cape Town.

In addition, Capt (now Lt-Col) Colvin of the Essex Troop commanded the 20th (Rough Riders) Battalion IY, which was raised on 17 March 1900 in the City of London and landed in South Africa on 3 May.

[7][12][14][2][15] In May and June, the 12th Bn IY was serving as Corps Troops with Lord Roberts' main army north of the Orange River.

[16] The first contingent of the Imperial Yeomanry completed their year's term of service in 1901, the two Suffolk companies having earned the regiment its first battle honour: South Africa 1900–01.

[25] On 31 January 1920, the War Office announced that recruitment for the reconstituted Territorial Army (as it was now known) would begin, but that only 16 out of the 55 existing Yeomanry regiments would be retained in their traditional mounted role.

108th Field Brigade became 55th (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, RA and the batteries were renumbered 217–220.

[35] By 1939 it became clear that a new European war was likely to break out and, as a direct result of the German invasion of Czechoslovakia on 15 March,[36] the doubling of the Territorial Army was authorised, with each unit and formation forming a duplicate.

[37] When the TA was mobilised on 1 September, the Norfolk and Suffolk Yeomanry 'Duplicate and Original Regiments' were on annual training at Chiseldon Camp in Wiltshire, and the 'Norfolk Duplicate Batteries' and 'Lowestoft Contingent' returned to Swaffham.

[2] The battery, which had been equipped with the 105mm light gun, re-roled as an air defence unit and transferred to 106th (Yeomanry) Regiment Royal Artillery in July 1999.

677 (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Squadron AAC, part of 6 Regiment Army Air Corps in July 2006.

However, the Yeomanry did not approve of the pattern and another meeting on 12 June ordered a uniform of 'Scarlet coat, lined white, with dark blue military cape and cuffs, scarlet and blue chain epaulets, white waistcoat, leather breeches, high topt boots, round hat, with bearskin, feather and cockade, white plated button, with the Crown and Garter of the Order, the words "Loyal Suffolk Yeomanry" inscribed on the Garter'.

Brought together as the Suffolk Yeomanry Cavalry in 1868, the amalgamated regiment adopted a heavy dragoon dress of green with red facings with a brass Albert helmet and white plume.

By 1902 a special levee-dress jacket had been authorised for officers, modelled on that of the Royal Horse Artillery but in green and red.

[43] By the 1911 Coronation, other ranks were wearing a "mid-bright green" tunic and overalls (tight cavalry breeches) with red facings.