10th Royal Hussars

10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)

Badge of the 10th Royal Hussars
Active 1715–1969
Country  Kingdom of Great Britain (1715–1800)
 United Kingdom (1801–1969)
Branch British Army
Type Cavalry
Role Line Cavalry
Size 1 Regiment
Garrison/HQ Brighton
Nickname(s) Baker's Light Bobs, The Chainy 10th, The Shiny 10th
Motto Ich Dien (I Serve)
March (Quick) The Merry Month Of May
Anniversaries El Alamein (23 Oct)
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 John Vaughan
Reginald Barnes

The 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1715 to 1969.

Early history

uniforms, 1793

In response to the Jacobite Rebellion, the regiment was raised in 1715 as Humphrey Gore's Regiment of Dragoons. It was known by the names of several other colonels in subsequent years, fighting at the Battle of Falkirk and Battle of Culloden as Cobham's Regiment of Dragoons. It was retitled as the 10th Regiment of Dragoons in 1751. During the Seven Years' War, the light troop of the regiment (formed in 1755) fought in a number of raids on the French coast, and the regiment itself fought at the Battle of Warburg, Battle of Kloster Camp, Battle of Vellingshausen and Battle of Wilhelmsthal.

In 1779, the light troop was detached to form the 19th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, and in 1783 the Dragoons Regiment was retitled as the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in honour of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom. Beau Brummell was a cornet at the time, and it was in the regiment that he met the prince.

Napoleonic Wars

In 1806, the regiment was again redesignated, this time becoming a hussar regiment as the 10th (Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars), and sailed for Spain in 1808. During the Peninsular War, it fought at Sahagún, Benavente, and the Battle of Corunna.

In 1813, having landed once more in Spain, the regiment fought at Morales, and Vittoria in Spain, and then at Orthes and Toulouse in France. On 2 June 1813, the 10th Hussars destroyed the 16th French Dragoons between Toro and Zamora in Spain, taking around 260 prisoners.[1]

In the Waterloo campaign, as part of the 6th Cavalry Brigade, the regiment again saw action at the Battle of Waterloo.

Victorian era

HRH The Prince of Wales dressed as Colonel of the 10th Hussars, 1860s

After being sent to India in the 1840s, the regiment was deployed during the Crimean War. It saw action in the Siege of Sevastopol, with fighting at the Battle of Eupatoria and Kerch.

In 1861, it was renamed the 10th (The Prince of Wales's Own) Royal Hussars. The regiment saw action in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, at the Battle of Ali Masjid in 1878, and in the Sudan, Battle of El Teb, and Egypt in 1884.

With the outbreak of the Second Boer War, the regiment sailed for South Africa in 1899. After fighting at Colesberg, the regiment participated in the relief of Kimberley in February 1900, the Battle of Paardeberg immediately afterwards, and then two years of fighting in the Transvaal.

The regiment also saw action on the North-West Frontier in 1908.

First World War

In 1914, the regiment was recalled to England and quickly despatched to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, in 3rd Cavalry Division. Whilst it did not see a great deal of action as cavalry, it provided one company of men for an infantry battalion, which served in the front lines.

Inter-war period

After brief service in Ireland after the war, the regiment returned to the UK in 1921 and was retitled the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own). Deploying to Egypt in 1929 and India in 1930, the regiment returned to the UK in 1936 and began the process of mechanisation. Originally assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, it was moved to the Mobile Division and then to the 2nd Armoured Brigade of the 1st Armoured Division in 1939. At the same time, it became part of the Royal Armoured Corps.

Second World War

With the outbreak of war, the 1st Armoured deployed to France. It fought in northern France and Belgium, returning to England without any vehicles in June 1940. In December 1940, a group of personnel was detached to form the cadre of the 23rd Hussars.

In November 1941, the regiment deployed to North Africa with 2nd Armoured Brigade, joining 7th Armoured Division. Now equipped with Crusader tanks, it saw action in Operation Crusader, the Battle of Alam Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein.

In Italy, from 1944 to 1945, the regiment fought both as an armoured unit and as dismounted infantry.

Post-war period

10th Royal Hussars monument at the National Memorial Arboretum

The regiment deployed to Italy and Germany as occupation forces in 1945-6, and then spent most of the subsequent years as an armoured regiment in the British Army of the Rhine. There were brief overseas deployments to Aqaba in Jordan in 1956-57, where 19 members of the regiment were killed in an air crash at El Quweira,[2] and to Aden Protectorate during the Emergency in 1964.[3]

In 1969, the regiment amalgamated with the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) to form The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own).

Battle honours

Alliances

Notable former members

References

  1. ↑ Wellesley, Arthur (1838). The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, During His Various Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France: From 1799 to 1818. Compiled from Official and Authentic Documents. J. Murray. pp. 416–7.
  2. ↑ The XRH Club - 10th Royal Hussars: Aqaba 1956-57 by Tom Knight
  3. ↑ National Army Museum - Research - 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own)

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.