History,
4th Queen's Own Hussars
 The
4th Hussars have forebears as old as the 3rd, created as the original
Dragoons, and boast a chronicle in conflict as any cavalry regiment. They
were also a very smart, wealthy regiment with a strong equine tradition,
excelling particularly at polo and pig sticking. To The Queen's Royal
Hussars, they have bequeathed the motto "Mente et Manu", translated
as "might and main", the green colour which offsets the main
colour of garter blue and Winston Churchill, "The greatest Hussar
of them all". The character of the 4th has been epitomised by a son
of a 4th Hussar as " The Regiment you wanted to join if you had not
joined your own"
Monmouth's
rebellion scared Parliament into forming the first standing Army in 1685,
among it six regiments of horse and two of Dragoons, the latter becoming
3rd and 4th Hussars. It was constituted of six troops, raised by the honourable
John Berkeley and named after him as "Berkeley's Dragoons" it's
recruiting area for all of the troops was Wessex. Berkeley married Barbera
Villiers, an intimate friend of the King's younger daughter, Princess
Anne. Thus came about the first title of the Regiment "The Princess
Anne of Denmark's Regiment of Dragoons". In October Berkeley's Dragoons
rode into London to be inspected by the King, a critical Commander, who
was nevertheless impressed with them. For the next three years the regiment
came to annual summer camp on Hounslow Heath. In the glorious revolution
of 1688, the Regiment performed the same role as most of the King's Army
changing to William of Oranges side when the Monarchs position became
untenable.
In
1689 Berkeley's Dragoons saw their first action in Scotland fighting against
those still loyal to King James. The following year Fitzhardinge took
over the colonelcy from Berkeley and the title of Princess Anne's Regiment
fell into disuse. In 1692 the Regiment went to Flanders to fight against
the French for six years, a tedious succession of marching and counter
marching waiting to catch the enemy unawares. In 1692 they fought at Steinkirk,
a badly orchestrated defeat in which Fitzardinge's Dragoons lost 130 Killed,
despite their conspicuous gallantry. The colonelcy changed again in 1693,
when the Earl of Essex took over for almost twenty years. Two years later
the Regiment helped to recapture the fortress of Namur. After the peace
of Ryswick in 1697, Essex's Dragoons returned to Yorkshire, a blooded
Cavalry Regiment.
They
were removed to Ireland for four years, then they returned to England
for the same time until two troops were sent to Spain and fought along
side the 3rd and 8th at the battle of Almanza in 1707. It was heavy defeat
and Essex's Dragoons lost half their number, the remainder being sent
home later in the year. The whole regiment boarded ships for action in
1708, but after some sabre-rattling at Cherbourg and La Hogue came back
to Portsmouth. Until 1715 the regiment was engaged in home service, before
joining the 3rd and the 7th at sheriffmuir late that year. Their brave
charged smashed the enemy's left wing however it was a Pyrrhic victory
which ended the old pretenders hopes of the crown.
The
regiment moved around England and Scotland on home duty, the next notable
event being Sir Robert Rich's appointment to the colonelcy in 1735 having
previously being Colonel of the 8th Dragoons, later the 8th Hussars. Another
peaceful period was ended in 1742 when the War of Austria succession started
at Rich's Dragoons went into battle the following year at Dettingen. Their
third charge drove back the French and turned the battle in favour of
the British while George Daraugh, a Dragoon from the 4th, won the Regiment
and himself great fame. He saw a French Officer riding off with a Regimental
Standard, and followed him, cut him down and returned to the Regiment
with the Standard. Her was Promoted by King George II on the Battlefield
to the rank of Cornet, and given a purse of guineas.
Rich's
had only very light casualties, a different story to the encounter they
had with the French in July 1745 when they were ambushed five miles short
of Ghent, ordered to fight through the town and reached it with only 150
of the 400 with which they started. During the subsequent attacks on Ghent,
only 60 of Rich's dragoons got away. They were sent home and took no further
part in the 45. The reconstituted and were sent back to Holland by 1747,
and thrown against the French again at Lauffeldt where the cavalry saved
the British from severe defeat.
In
1748 Rich's returned home for sixty years quiet service. The names of
regiments were enumerated in 1751 thus Rich's became the 4th Dragoons.
Their coats remained scarlet and their waistcoats and breeches were to
be green. In 1775 James Hugonin took over as Lieutenant Colonel, the first
of three generations who commanded or "coloneled" the 4th Dragoons
continuously until 1836. The civil disorder which erupted into the Gordon
riots of 1780 called the 4th Dragoons to London for their first trial
in the use on minimum force and eight years later another reorganisation
of cavalry occurred with the 4th accruing the title "The Queen's
Own Regiment of Dragoons".
Finally
in December 1808 the 4th sailed to Portugal to join Wellesley's Army which
was trying to push the French out of Portugal by bringing them to battle
in Spain. They achieved this at Talavera in July 1809. The British withstood
the French Force of twice their number and thus they won the battle. Two
years of defence consolidated Britain's last remaining Army until 1811
at Albura when although the Beresford lost half the English number in
the battle, the French lost double that. At Usagre a fortnight later the
4th were part of a perfectly executed ambush which started to turn the
War to Britain's favour. The master stroke was at Salamanca in July 1812
when the 4th, next to the 3rd, in Le Marchant's Cavalry Brigade took part
in a murderous Cahrge described by wellington with praise, "I never
saw anything so beautiful in all my life". After the rout, the regiment
captured some of Joseph Bonaparte's silver from the baggage train which
was melted down to provide cutlery and the Salamanca Donkey in the Officers'
Mess. Later in the year the 4th were again in action at Vittoria, slowly
pushing the French out of Spain and into France where the final battle
in the Peninsula War was fought and won in 1814 at Toulouse. From Toulouse
the regiment marched the 700 miles to Boulonge and embarked for England.
They
spent some time in Ireland before sailing for their first tour in India
in 1821. Three years earlier with another supposed clarification of the
titles they had become The 4th or Queen's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons.
For seventeen years the 4th remained peacefully in the easy soldiering
routine of India, stationed at Kaira and Kirkee, until two squadrons were
called upon to join the Bombay column marching to Kabul. In 1838 the first
fighting was done storming the defended fortress of Ghuznee in which the
4th were ready should they be needed, and later in the year Kabul, was
taken without a fight. Fortunately the 4th were called back to India in
1840, thus avoiding the retreat from Kabul from which there was one survivor
two years later.
Foreign
service ended in 1841 when they were sent back to England and Ireland
commanded by the witty, unorthodox Lord George Paget, son of the great
Marquis of Anglesey, a 7th Hussar. Another quiet decade was to pass before
the 4th were chosen as part of the Allied Army of fifty thousand which
was to Immortalise it's exploits in the Crimea. The reason for the war
with Russia involved complex diplomatic and religious agreements between
the European powers, a far cry from the deprivation suffered by the 4th
in 1854 through disease and maladministration. The first battle was near
the river Alma in September in which the Allies inflicted heavy losses
on the Russians. The "Battle of Balaclava" took place in October,
including the "Charge of the Light Brigade", that ultimate catastrophe
from which so much honour has been drawn. 607 charged into the valley
of death, and 198 were at the roll call afterwards; twenty minutes of
hell. The "reasons why" can be pursued in any amounts of documents
and books, but the result was summed up by Paget, commanding the 4th:
"What a scene of havoc was the last mile,
strewn with the dead and dying and all friends. Some running, some
limping, some crawling; Horses in every position of agony, struggling
to get up, then floundered again on their mutilated riders!".
Paget
led the remnants of the Light Brigade back through the valley of death
and out of danger to find that out of the 118 men of the 4th Light Dragoons,
79 were killed or missing, Private Samuel Parkes of the 4th was awarded
the Victoria Cross for protecting the Colonels Trumpeter against the Cossacks
and despite his selling it to buy a drink, it is now back in the Regiments
possession.
At
the battle of Inkerman the infantry were the heroes before the Allied
Army endured a dreadful winter besieging Sevastpol which finally fell
in September 1855. The following may the Army was evacuated back to England,
having spent two years a long way from home, having defeated an enemy
superior in numbers and having endured heavy deprivation it had emerged
victorious.
From
1856 the 4th served at home, becoming in 1861 The 4th (Queen's Own) Hussars,
before sailing for India in 1867 serving at Meerut and Rawalpindi for
12 years. Home service from then until 1896 passed in England, Scotland
and Ireland presaging a return to India until 1905. It was during this
time that Winston Churchill joined the regiment, proclaiming in his training
that "The 4th Hussars exceeded in severity anything I had previously
experienced in military equitation". In India Churchill adored Polo
helping the regiment win the Inter-Regimental tournament in 1899. When
he left the regiment his comrades paid him the rare compliment of drinking
his health the final time he dined with them. In 1905 the 4th Hussars
moved to South Africa for four years, reaching home in 1909. They were
in Ireland for the Curragh incident but this was overtaken by the outbreak
of War in Europe in 1914, with the regiment sailing immediately to France.
By
the 24th August the 4th were at War as they were when the Armistice was
signed in November 1918, four years of intermittent action that was to
account for 549 casualties killed or wounded from the regiment and 22
battle honours. During the retreat from Mons the 4th Hussars acquitted
themselves well in the skirmishes and holding engagements which allowed
for an orderly withdrawal. They fought at Mons and nearby Angre and soon
after the Commanding Officer, Lt Col Hogg, was killed in action, before
they were thrown into the defence of Ypres to prevent the Germans from
reaching the Channel ports. In the first battle of Ypres Lieutenant North
commanding the machine gun section was recommended for the Victoria Cross.
There was some rest over Christmas before in February 1915 the 4th were
bought back into the line for the second battle of Ypres.
The
Germans used gas for the first time, in conjunction with their massive
assault but the tenacity of the allies prevented them gaining much ground.
The 4th Hussars were spied during this encounter by the Brigade Commander.
The Regiment advanced through the retreating infantry and the gas in the
best possible style.
After
Ypres, the cavalry were withdrawn to wait for the "Gap" but
still had to provide working parties to dig the trenches initially and
then form the cavalry dismounted division which worked as infantry in
the front line, taking one one infantry company from each cavalry regiment.
Between November 1915 and March 1917 the regiment was constantly warned
off for the "Gap" but it never appeared. The spring offensive
of 1917 provided another opportunity but the cavalry were stood by the
river Scarpe inactive again prior to two months uneventful duty in the
trenches opposite the Hindenburg Line.
The
summer was spent out of the trenches and in the billets, but the 4th were
bought back to witness Cambrai, the first successful use of the tank in
November, standing by for another breakthrough which did not occur due
to over exploitation in this case, rather than failure to punch through
the German defences as had appeared so many times before. In 1918 cam
the final German offensive launched on the 21st March which hit the 4th
Hussars at Compiegne on the Somme costing the regiment 129 casualties
in one week. On the 30th March the 4th, as part of the 3rd cavalry Brigade
fought an important action at Moreuil wood in keeping the advancing Germans
from getting through the wood. The Commanding Officer, Lt Col Darley and
sixteen others were killed before they were relieved by the infantry.
After some months rest the regiment followed the advancing allies, taking
it's share of casualties through shelling, until on the 11th November
it found itself at Villerot, ten miles north of Angre, where it had started
the War.
The
Inter-War years, although changing the character and routine of the cavalry
through the demise of the horse, were nevertheless to provide the 4th
Hussars with outstanding sporting success in India, to where they moved
in 1921. "Scotty" Scott Cockburn, on his horse Carclew, won
the Kadir Cup for pigsticking three times, and came second three times
in a sport that carried immense Kudos at that time. In 1931 the regiment
moved back to Aldershot, finding itself with the rest of the Cavalry in
1936 being Mechanised, a dreadful prospect made better only by it's inevitability
or by it's alternative, Disbandment.
During
the second World War the 4th Hussars were seemingly destroyed, time after
time, only to rise phoenix-like from the ashes to find their next enemy.
From 1941 they were under the watchful eye of their Colonel of the Regiment
Winston Churchill who certainly helped to guide their fate. Initially
they fought in Greece, merely withdrawing in the face of an enormous German
Army placed there to satisfy political aims. The first action was at Proasteion,
but the biggest was at the Corrinth Canal bridge followed by the 4th keeping
contact with the advancing enemy until the remainder of the allies had
managed to flee the Peloponnese. Unsurprisingly all the senior officers
and over 400 men of the 4th Hussars were taken prisoner.
In
June 1941 the regiment began to reconstitute in Cairo. By April 1942 they
were issued with Grant and Stuart tanks and then joined the 1st Armoured
Brigade. As armour was scarce "B" Squadron found itself detailed
to the London Yeomanry but in an Action on the 12th June was so badly
ambushed that almost the whole squadron was lost. Things were no better
as they collected themselves as a regiment after the retreat to El Alamein;
only 12 officers, 152 soldiers, no tanks and some wheeled vehicles were
left. For the battle of Alam el Halfa, the 4th joined the similarly wounded
8th becoming the 4th/8th Hussars, equipped with Start tanks. At the end
of august they were told to move from the Qattara Depression to the top
of the escarpment to ambush Rommel's columns and finding a supply column;
they dealt with 57 lorries.
For
the battle of El Alamein the 4th/8th Hussars operated in the southern
flank in the 4th Light Armoured Brigade doing diversionary attacks before
taking the lead in pursuing the Afrika Korps back to Tunui, and capturing
the strategically important Halfaya Pass. In November the 4th/8th split
up, with the 4th moving to Cyprus for a rest then further training. In
June 1943 they moved back to Egypt for a years reconnaissance of the 1st
armoured division fighting the first for the Gothic Line at Coriano where
they lost 5 officers and 35 men in the first few days, then pushing up
through Italy equipped with Armoured Personnel Carriers which they utilised
well in clearing a pocket from the east bank of the Senio river which
earned them the Army Commander's Congratulations.
There
was another lull in the conflict until April 1945 before the final battles
up to the river Po and at the Argenta Gap came just before the axis collapsed
on 2nd May. The Second World War had ended but the 4th Hussars did not
go home for two and half years after the enemy had surrendered, serving
first in Austria helping to root out EX-SS members now on the run and
then in July 1946 moving to Northern Austria and into Syria in the British
area of occupation. In March 1947 they moved up to Lubeck on the Baltic
coast for nine months until they finally returned to England to Colchester.
They
were only to be there for nine months when , as a trained armoured car
regiment they were sent to Malaya scattered around the country dealing
with the roving band of Chinese communists who were trying to disrupt
the people and the economy of Malaya. The 4th Hussars suffered 54 casualties
killed or wounded during their three year tour but received an impressive
clutch of medals for their tireless work. Back in England they were re-roled
to Tanks for two years and then sent out to Hohne in northern Germany
for their first tour as part of the British Army of the Rhine.
On
the 24th October 1958, in Hohne, the 4th Hussars amalgamated with the
8th Hussars. 273 years of service to the crown and a unique regimental
identity envied by many other people, was lost to the ravages of political
expediency.
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