Collar badge of the 13th Hussars, 1900-02
NAM. 1964-04-85-19

Introduction

On 23 July 1715, less than a year into his reign as king of Great Britain, King George I authorised 11 noblemen to form dragoon regiments. One of these regiments was Richard Munden’s Regiment of Dragoons, named after its founder, who had command experience from the War of the Spanish Succession 11 years earlier.

The new unit saw its first action on 12 November 1715 against a Jacobite roadblock in Lancaster during the Battle of Preston. It was given the numeral 13 in 1751 and by the end of the 18th century it had become a light dragoon regiment, fighting the forces of Napoleonic France at Albuera, Vittoria and Waterloo.

13th Light Dragoons survivors after the battle of Balaklava, c1855
Photograph by Roger Fenton
NAM. 1964-12-151-6-39

It then took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea in 1854 – its personnel there included Lance-Sergeant Joseph Malone, who won the Victoria Cross for his actions, and Troop Sergeant Edwin Hughes, who became the oldest survivor of the Charge, dying in 1927. Its Crimean engagements also included Inkerman and Sevastopol.

Soon afterwards, in 1861, it was renamed the 13th Hussars. It then served in India, where it was the first regiment ever joined by Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement and later its regimental colonel.

Later it served in the Boer War and on the Western and Mesopotamian fronts in World War One – at Sharqat it made a mounted charge and then a dismounted one, less than a month before the Armistice. In 1922 it merged with the 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own) to form the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own).

Key facts

Motto:

• ‘Viret In Aeternum’ (meaning ‘May It Flourish Forever’)

Nicknames:

• The Lilywhites (due to the white collars on its tunics)
• The Evergreens (from its uniform facings)
• The Geraniums (from the smartness of its uniforms)

Titles to date:

• Richard Munden’s Regiment of Dragoons
• Munden’s Dragoons
• 13th Regiment of Dragoons
• 13th Regiment of Light Dragoons
• 13th Hussars
• 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)
• The Light Dragoons

18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)

Other ranks’ cap badge, 18th Hussars, c1900
NAM. 1964-04-85-26

Introduction

In 1759 a unit known as the 19th Regiment of Light Dragoons was raised at Moore Abbey in Ireland. This was renumbered as the 18th in 1763 and the 4th in 1766, only finally becoming the 18th in 1769.

It fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, only to be disbanded in 1821. An 18th regiment of line cavalry was re-formed in 1858 out of troops taken from the 15th Hussars, taking the disbanded 18th Light Dragoons as its ancestor regiment.

An officer of the 18th Light Dragoons, c1815
NAM. 1958-08-1

Serving in the Boer War and on the Western Front of World War One, the regiment also gained a royal honorific when it was renamed in 1903 after Mary, wife of George V.

It underwent its final name change in 1921 to become the 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own), a year before it was merged with the 13th Hussars to form the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own).

Key facts

Motto:

• ‘Pro Rege, Pro Lege, Pro Patria Conamur’ (meaning ‘We Strive For King, For Law, For Country’)

Titles to date:

• 19th Regiment of Light Dragoons
• Drogheda’s Horse
• Drogheda Light Horse
• Drogheda Cossacks
• 18th Light Dragoons
• 18th (King’s Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons
• 4th Regiment of Light Dragoons
• 18th Regiment of Light Dragoons
• 18th Regiment of Light Dragoons (Hussars)
• 18th Hussars
• 18th (Princess of Wales’s Own) Hussars
• 18th (Victoria Mary, Princess of Wales’s Own) Hussars
• 18th (Queen Mary’s Own) Hussars
• 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)
• 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)
• The Light Dragoons

13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)

Collar badge of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, c1962
NAM. 1991-08-269-2

Introduction

As its name suggests, the 13th/18th Royal Hussars was created, in 1922, by amalgamating the 13th Hussars and the 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own).

Five months before the outbreak of the Second World War it was transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps. It then fought as a reconnaissance unit in the Battle of France in 1940 and then from Normandy to the Rhine after D-Day.

Its post-war duties involved spells in Malaya, Aden, Northern Ireland and as garrison troops in the UK and West Germany, along with three peacekeeping tours to Cyprus. It was finally amalgamated with the 15th/19th The King’s Royal Hussars in 1992 to form The Light Dragoons.

Key facts

Titles to date:

• 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own)
• The Light Dragoons