Headquarters Squadron, based in Petawawa, provides first-line combat service support to the regiment.

It was originally organized as a troop (the then-company-sized British Army cavalry maneuver sub-unit, today regarded as a squadron) and was commanded by Captain (Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel) J.F.

A Troop patrolled the Touchwood Hills in Saskatchewan to secure lines of communication and saw no active combat.

The regiment was mobilized for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War as the 1st Battalion, Canadian Mounted Rifles, and composed of 19 officers and 371 men and their horses, organized into two squadrons.

[4] Three Dragoons were awarded the Victoria Cross for the gallant stand at Leliefontein on 7 November 1900, a feat of arms never surpassed by Canadians.

[1] At the start of the Second World War, The Royal Canadian Dragoons were still horse cavalry and would remain so until the regiment finally dismounted in August, 1940.

The RCD was the first Allied unit to advance through Holland to the North Sea, famously liberated the city of Leeuwarden and fought off an attempted German amphibious assault.

The fighting was so intense and chaotic that two of the squadron sergeants-major, WOII Deeming[6] and WOII Forgrave, were separately awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (second in precedence to the Victoria Cross) for dismounting the members of their supply convoys and fighting through enemy infantry positions to get fuel, ammunition, water and rations forward to their squadrons.

Two members of 56 Recce Squadron died: Lt Charles C. Van Straubenzee on 10 May 1957 and Trooper George E. McDavid on 29 November 1957.

[7] The regiment served at Fort Beausejour, Iserlohn, Germany, from November 1957 to November 1959 The regiment served at CFB Lahr, West Germany, as part of 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group from 1970 to 1987 equipped with Centurion, rented German Leopard 1 and Leopard C1 tanks and Lynx tracked reconnaissance vehicles.

The Royal Canadian Dragoons contributed officers and soldiers to various rotations pre-Russia's February 2022 large-scale illegal invasion, including mounting and leading Rotation 5, and continue today to contribute to various ongoing missions to train the Security Forces of Ukraine to defend their homeland.

[11] The cap badge of The Royal Canadian Dragoons since 1913 features a springbok in recognition of the regiment's service in South Africa.

Regimental legend has it that one of the sentries noticed that some springbok were behaving erratically, and alerted the officers, who ordered a stand-to.

The Commanding Officer at that time, Lt.-Col. Louis Lessard, makes no mention of it in his personal papers or his official reports.

The commander of the RCD then put a request to King Edward VII, the reigning monarch, to officially have their cap badge changed to the springbok, which was finally accepted in 1913.

On 9 December 2022, Governor General Mary Simon presented the regiment with a guidon that includes the battle honour Afghanistan.

The regiment, operating in concert with the two 12 Pounder guns of the Left Section of D Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, was acting as the rear guard for Major-General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien's column as it withdrew from the Komati River basin.