DORSET landowners will be joining forces with local Territorial Army members to celebrate a famous moment in Dorset’s military history.

The charge of the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry at the battle of Agagia in February 1916 is thought to be the last full cavalry charge by a British Army regiment, when 184 mounted Dorset Yeomanry charged, with sabres drawn and while under heavy fire, across 1,200 yards of open desert against 500 Senussi tribesmen armed with rifles and machine guns.

The battle effectively ended an uprising by the Turkish and German sponsored Senussi tribesmen which had threatened British supply lines through the Suez Canal.

Dorset Country Land and Business Association (CLA) branch chairman, James Selby Bennett, said: “This cavalry charge was one of the finest moments of Britishness and it was carried out by Dorset Territorials, many of whose descendants still live and work in Dorset today.”

On Wednesday, July 10 the CLA will be hosting a reception and auction of promises in aid of the CLA Charitable Trust, the Dorset Yeomanry Charity and the Keep Museum Charity.

The event will be held at with the Keep Military Museum in Dorchester, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, and will offer the opportunity to learn about the charge, to view the papers and artefacts recently acquired by the QODY trustees, to visit the Keep museum and to meet the officers and soldiers of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry.

The Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry was commanded by Lt-Col HMW Souter, a pre-war Indian Army officer, whose papers form part of the recently acquired memorabilia.

West Country projects that have benefited from CLA Charitable Trust grants include a grant of £10,000 a year to Farms for City Children.

The ticket price of £20 includes a free entry to the museum for a later visit and all proceeds will be divided among the three charities.

  • The CLA Charitable Trust supports projects aimed at young, disabled or disadvantaged people that promote access to and education about the countryside.

The charity, founded by Warhorse author Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare, provides holidays in the countryside for disadvantaged young people from urban areas and a grant to Future Roots, a care farm near Sherborne.