Fencible regiments were full-time troops, raised to serve in any part of Great Britain and Ireland for the duration of a war, releasing Regular Army units for overseas service.

An eye-witness recorded that the Windsor Foresters rode bay horses and that the regiment 'appeared to us as the perfection of light dragoons'.

For the winter of 1796/7 the regiment moved to barracks at Perth, and by autumn 1797 HQ was established at Aberdeen, with Troops detached to Arbroath and Montrose.

Although most of the original recruits probably came from Berkshire and the Home counties, Trooper Allen Mansfield (later a leading political activist) was enlisted at Cirencester.

[3] When it was proposed that the Berkshire Fencible Cavalry should volunteer for service in Ireland (as some of the Militia infantry regiments began to do in 1798) the officers objected strongly to being treated like professional soldiers, 'being pressed to extend or services beyond our abilities or inclinations by adopting a line of life which ought to have commenced at an earlier period when we might have secured an interest in the Profession if such had been our object'.

The 5th Regiment sold off its horses and the men were progressively discharged, some of them re-enlisting with Regular units, especially the 12th Light Dragoons at Maidstone.

[3][9][10] When the Windsor Foresters were disbanded, Capt Moses Ximenes sought permission to raise a 'Troop of Gentlemen Cavalry' (Yeomanry) in Berkshire.

All the Yeomanry were stood down at the Treaty of Amiens, but when war was resumed in 1803 the Wargrave Rangers were reactivated and the officers received new commissions in April.

[b] In August Ximenes offered to raise and pay for a corps of volunteer infantry to be attached to the Troop, with wagons to travel in.

[3] Sir Morris Ximenes (as he had now become) retired from command of the Wargrave Rangers in March 1809 when he was appointed to a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 2nd Berkshire Local Militia, and Lieutenant William Soundby was promoted to succeed him.

Officers also wore a red cloak with white lining and dark blue cape, which was fastened with a silver metal clasp.

[10] The Wargrave Rangers wore a blue coat faced red with white lace or cords, conforming to the other Troops of Yeomanry Cavalry in Berkshire.