The FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS embarked at Boulogne on the 17th and 18th of July, landed at Dover on the 19th and 20th, and marched from thence to Woodbridge barracks, where the depôt and heavy baggage joined from Canterbury, and a reduction of two troops was made in the establishment. In October the regiment marched to Ipswich and adjacents.
In April, 1815, "His Royal Highness the Prince Regent was pleased, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, to approve of the FIFTH, OR PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES'S REGIMENT OF DRAGOON GUARDS, being permitted to bear on its standards and appointments (in addition to any other badges or devices which may have been heretofore granted to the regiment), the word 'PENINSULA,' in commemoration of its services during the late war in Portugal, Spain, and France, under the command of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington."
On the 8th of April, the regiment marched to Nottingham, Coventry, Northampton, and Leicester; and the return of Napoleon Buonaparte to France, in breach of the treaty of 1814, having occasioned a declaration of war, six troops were ordered to be held in readiness for foreign service; but, to the great regret of the officers and men, who panted for another opportunity of signalizing themselves under the Duke of Wellington, the order was subsequently countermanded in consequence of the number of young and untrained horses in the regiment.
In June, the officers and men of the FIFTH DRAGOON GUARDS received the painful intelligence of the fall of Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, G.C.B., at the battle of Waterloo.[13]
In July, the regiment marched to York, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne: in September, the several troops proceeded to Newcastle, in consequence of the riotous conduct of the seamen in the ports of that neighbourhood.
In January, 1816, the regiment occupied Newcastle, York, Carlisle, Penrith, and Whitehaven; during the summer, it proceeded to Ireland, and, arriving at Dublin towards the end of August, remained on duty in that garrison six months.
General Bland died at Isleworth on the 14th of October, 1816; and on the 18th of that month, His Royal Highness Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg of Saalfield, K.G., G.C.B., G.C.H., was appointed Colonel of the FIFTH, OR PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES'S REGIMENT OF DRAGOON GUARDS.
