In April 1689, several Independent Troops of Scots Horse were formed as a short-term response to the 1689-1691 Jacobite Rising in Scotland. These were re-organised in December 1690 as two regiments, one commanded by Colonel Richard Cunningham and in line with prevailing practice, it was known as Cunningham's Regiment of Scots Dragoons.[1] In February 1694, it was transferred onto the English military establishment and shipped to Flanders, where it took part in operations associated with the 1695 Siege of Namur.[2]
All participants in the Nine Years War were financially exhausted, and there was little military activity after the fall of Namur. On 1 October 1696, Cunningham was promoted to Brigadier-General; Lord Jedburgh succeeded him and the regiment became Jedburgh's Regiment of Dragoons.[3]
In 1711, Kerr's Dragoons joined the field army in Flanders but the war was winding down and the regiment disbanded in 1714, before being reconstituted in July 1715 by George I, as HRH the Princess of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons, in honour of Princess Caroline.[4] During the 1715 Jacobite rising, it fought at Sheriffmuir, but this was its only significant action until 1743. Renamed The Queen's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons after the coronation of George II in 1727;[5] William Kerr finally stepped down in 1741 and Sir John Cope took over as Colonel.[6]
In 1807, the regiment was designated as Hussars and retitled 7th (The Queen's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars).[5] Sent to Corunna in October 1808 to support Sir John Moore's retreat, they fought at the Battle of Sahagún on 21 December 1808 and Benavente on 29th.[13] Part of the Queen's Own was shipped home in the Dispatch, which was wrecked just south of the Lizard on 22 January 1809; 104 men were lost from the regiment, only seven in total were saved.[14][15]
The unit returned to the Peninsula in August 1813 and made several charges at the February 1814 Battle of Orthes, Wellington reporting that the 7th Hussars distinguished themselves on this occasion and made many prisoners.[16]
In March 1814, the unit moved to Brighton, where it was used to put down rioting caused by the imposition of the Corn Laws.[17] When Napoleon was restored in 1815, the regiment returned to the Netherlands; during the rearguard action at Genappe on 17 June, Lord Uxbridge ordered it to attack French lancers under Colonel Jean Baptiste Joseph Sourd.[18] The following day, at the Battle of Waterloo, the regiment was held in reserve until the evening, but then again undertook a series of charges. Standish O'Grady, then a lieutenant in the 7th Hussars, wrote to his father:
"We charged twelve or fourteen times, and once cut off a squadron of cuirassiers, every man of whom we killed on the spot except the two officers and one Marshal de Logis, whom I sent to the rear".[19]
In May 1838 the regiment was deployed to Canada as part of the response to the Lower Canada Rebellion.[20]
Indian Rebellion
The regiment was deployed to India in late 1857 as part of the response to the Indian Rebellion. Cornet William Bankes, died fighting off his attackers in an incident at Musa Bagh in March 1858[21] and Major Charles Fraser saved three non-swimmers from the regiment stranded in the middle of a sandbank on the River Rapti in December 1858.[22]
The regiment's title was simplified in 1861 as the 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars.[5]
After service in the First World War, the regiment retitled as 7th Queen's Own Hussars in 1921.[5] The regiment, which was re-equipped with Mark II tanks, transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939.[5]
Second World War
The regiment had been converted to tanks in 1937 and subsequently been trained in Cairo giving them a reasonable advantage. Although they might have thought that they were misplaced in Egypt, when Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940, that thought quickly slipped their mind. They formed part of the 7th Armoured Brigade in the 7th Armoured Division and were joined by the 8th and the 11th Hussars. On 14 June 1940 the 7th Hussars, with a company of the King's Royal Rifle Corps and a battery of 4th Royal Horse artillery captured Fort Capuzzo,[27] while the 11th Hussars captured La Maddalena.[28] They took part in the Battle of Sidi Barrani in December 1940 and at the Battle of Bardia in January 1941.[29]Hitler created the Afrika Korps under the command of General Erwin Rommel to re-inforce the Italians: in April 1941, the allied troops in Tobruk were cut off by the Germans and Italians but in June 1941 the 7th Armoured Division was again prepared for battle as part of Operation Battleaxe, having received new tanks and additional personnel.[30] Rommel then started to push the Allies back into Egypt. The regiment helped delay Rommel's advance although the commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Freddie Byass and many others were killed at the Battle of Sidi Rezegh in November 1941.[31][32]
"Without them we should never have got the Army out of Burma; no praise can be too high for them."[33]
The regiment was ordered to destroy its tanks as it crossed the Chindwin River in May 1942.[34] It then re-deployed to the Italian Front and, having been seconded to the Polish 2nd Corps, fought at the first Battle of Ancona in June 1944 and in the battles for the Gothic Line in autumn 1944. The Polish Army granted the regiment the privilege of wearing the "Maid of Warsaw" for their "Magnificent work – fine examples of heroism and successful action".[35]
The regiment reached Bologna in October 1944 and then took part in the battle for the Po plains in the spring of 1945.[36]
Early wars: Dettingen, Warburg, Beaumont, Willems, Orthes, Peninsula, Waterloo, Lucknow, South Africa 1901-02
The Great War: Khan Baghdadi, Sharqat, Mesopotamia 1917-18
The Second World War: Egyptian Frontier 1940, Beda Fomm, Sidi Rezegh 1941, North Africa 1940–41, Ancona, Rimini Line, Italy 1944–45, Pegu, Paungde, Burma 1942
^Cannon, Richard (1842). Historical Record of the Seventh, or the Queen's Own Regiment of Hussars: Containing an Account of the Origin of the Regiment in 1690, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1842 (2017 ed.). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 13. ISBN978-1542960212.
Davy, G. M. O. Brig (1953). The Seventh and the Three Enemies: The Story of World War II and the 7th Queen's Own Hussars. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd.
Evans, Roger (1965). The Years Between, The Story of the 7th Queen's Own Hussars 1911–1937. Aldershot: Gale & Polden Ltd.
Gossett, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. London: Mansell. ISBN0-7201-1816-6.
Perry, F.W. (1993). Order of Battle of Divisions Part 5B. Indian Army Divisions. Newport: Ray Westlake Military Books. ISBN1-871167-23-X.
Playfair, Major General I.S.O. (2004) [1956]. The Mediterranean and Middle East Volume 2: The Germans Come to the Help of Their Ally, 1941. History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series. East Sussex, UK: Naval & Military Press. pp. 406 pages. ISBN1-84574-066-1.