Other ranks’ cap badge, c1902.
NAM. 1963-12-112-1Introduction
Early in 1685 four independent troops of cavalry were raised to protect London from the threat posed by the Monmouth Rebellion. These were initially attached to what would later become the 1st Royal Dragoons, but on 17 July that year they and two more troops were formed into a separate regiment.
This new unit was named the Queen Consort’s Own Regiment of Dragoons after James II’s wife Mary of Modena and initially wore her livery. However, much of the regiment had Protestant sympathies – its first colonel was dismissed for them after only a year and in 1688 half the regiment went over to William III. The other half joined them after James’s flight to France and the regiment then spent the rest of the 17th century fighting James and his French allies in Ireland and the Low Countries. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) saw the regiment used in raids on the Spanish ports of Cadiz and Vigo and fight at Almanza.
On George I’s accession the regiment was renamed the King’s Regiment of Dragoons in 1714. The following year George granted it his family crest of a white horse as its cap badge, in recognition of its service against the Jacobites at Sherrifmuir.
30 years’ home service followed, finally broken by the battle of Dettingen in 1743, where it held its position for three hours under heavy artillery fire, charged three times and captured a pair of French kettle drums. One of its privates, Tom Brown, was severely wounded saving the regimental colour during the battle and was made the last ever knight banneret on the battlefield by George II.
Two years later the regiment was sent back to fight at Culloden, but then saw no more action for the rest of the century except for suppressing the Gordon Riots in 1780. It was then sent on the Walcheren expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 and to the Peninsula War from 1811 to 1814, in which it fought at Salamanca and Vittoria. It missed Waterloo, but joined the Army of Occupation in France briefly before returning to policing duties in England and Ireland for over 15 years.
The 3rd Light Dragoons charging at Chilianwala in 1849 during the Second Sikh War.
NAM. 1971-02-33-108-11837 saw the regiment on its first Indian deployment, lasting 16 years. There it took part in the First Afghan War (1839-42) and the First and Second Sikh Wars (1845-49), including the battles of Kabul, Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Sobraon, Chillianwallah and Goojerat. It remained in England and Ireland during the Crimean War and alternated between home service and India for the rest of the 19th century. It began the new century mopping up Boer resistance for six months from November 1901 onwards, before spending the next 13 years in India, South Africa and England.
The regiment spent the whole First World War on the Western Front, mainly as dismounted troops, but still won 20 battle honours there. It joined the Allied army of occupation in Turkey during the 1920s before garrison service in Egypt and India.
The regiment was back in England by 1935 and a year later it was converted to use armoured cars, in which they fought in North Africa from 1940 to 1941. It then split into two squadrons - one was captured in its entirety on Java by the Japanese, but the other fought in the breakthrough at El Alamein in 1942. These events left it so short of men that it was transferred to Syria and Lebanon until April 1944, when it joined the Italian campaign.
It spent 1945 to 1948 peacekeeping in Palestine and then seven years in Germany from 1951 onwards. It returned to England in October 1958 and the following month was amalgamated with the 7th Hussars to form the Queen’s Own Hussars.
Key facts
Motto:
- 'Nec Aspera Terrent' (meaning 'Nor Do Difficulties Deter')
Nicknames:
- The Moodkee Wallahs (after its actions at Moodkee in 1845 during the First Sikh War)
- Bland’s Dragoons (after Humphrey Bland, its colonel from 1743 to 1752)
- Lord Adam Gordon’s Life Guards (due to being kept in Scotland for a long period in the early 1790s providing escorts for Adam Gordon, the commander-in-chief of Scotland)
Titles to date:
- Duke of Somerset’s Regiment of Dragoons
- 3rd Dragoons
- The Queen Consort’s Own Regiment of Dragoons
- The King’s Regiment of Dragoons
- 3rd (King’s Own) Regiment of Dragoons
- 3rd (The King’s Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons
- 3rd (The King’s Own) Hussars
- 3rd (King’s Own) Hussars
- 3rd The King’s Own Hussars
- The Queen’s Own Hussars
- The Queen’s Royal Hussars (The Queen’s Own and Royal Irish)
Find out more
Regimental Museum
Regimental Merchandise
National Army Museum Collection
8 March 2012, 7.52pm
Interesting i am a ex HUSSAR
Interesting i am a ex HUSSAR 1952/55.
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