Essex Yeomanry  The Essex Yeomanry was a Reserve unit of the British Army that originated in 1797 as local Yeomanry Cavalry Troops in Essex. Reformed after the experience gained in the Second Boer War, it saw active service as cavalry in World War I and as artillery in World War II. Its lineage is maintained by 36 (Essex Yeomanry) Signal Squadron, part of 71 (Yeomanry) Signal Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals. After Britain was drawn into the French Revolutionary Wars, the government of prime minister William Pitt the Younger proposed on 14 March 1794 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. Prominent landowners came forward to recruit the new force. The first Troop of Yeomanry in Essex was formed in 1797 by John Conyers of Copped Hall near Epping. The 2nd Troop was recruited in the Chelmsford district in February 1798 by William Tufnell of Langleys at Great Waltham, and the 3rd Troop was raised in March by John Archer-Houblon of Great Hallingbury. By the end of May that year there were 15 Troops across Essex, with an establishment of 640 men. In 1803, when the shortlived Peace of Amiens broke down and the Napoleonic Wars began, there was a resurgence in recruiting for the Yeomanry, and by December that year there were 23 Troops in Essex, with a strength of 1251 men. The largest was the 5th Troop raised at Harlow by Montagu Burgoyne, which had 160 men. By 1813 the threat from France had disappeared and the Yeomanry were in decline: the number of Troops in Essex had fallen to 12. The government suggested that the independent Troops should be regimented, and in February seven of the Essex Troops became the 1st Essex Yeomanry Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Archer-Houblon. The remaining Troops continued as parts of independent units:  After the Battle of Waterloo the Yeomanry were kept in being in case of civil disorder, but there was little unrest in Essex and by 1827 only four Troops remained in the county, with a strength of just 120. When Government support for the Yeomanry was withdrawn in 1828 the Tufnell Troop was the last to be disbanded.