The 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) was a cavalry regiment

Cavalry regiments of the British Army

There are currently nine regular cavalry regiments of the British Army, with two tank regiments provided by the Royal Tank Regiment, traditionally classed alongside the cavalry, for a total of eleven regiments. Of these, five serve as armoured regiments, and five as formation reconnaissance...

 of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

, first formed in 1759. It saw service for two centuries, before being amalgamated into the 13th/18th Hussars in 1922.

The regiment was first raised as the 19th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in 1759, renumbered the 18th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in 1763, and briefly the 4th Regiment of Light Dragoons in 1766 before settling on the 18th in 1769. In 1805 it took the title of the 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, named for George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

, and redesignated as hussars in 1807, becoming the 18th (King's Irish) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Hussars). It was informally known as the "Drogheda

Drogheda

Drogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea....

 Light Horse" and it was humorously referred to as the "Drogheda Cossacks." It was disbanded in Ireland in 1821.

The regiment was reformed in 1858, as the 18th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons from a nucleus taken from the 15th Hussars, and renamed the 18th Hussars in 1861. In 1903 it was named the 18th (Princess of Wales's Own) Hussars, for Princess Mary

Mary of Teck

Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....

, being retitled the 18th (Victoria Mary, Princess of Wales's Own) Hussars in 1905 and the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars in 1910 to mark her coronation as Queen Consort. After service in the First World War, the regiment retitled as the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars in 1919, then the 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own) in 1921, and was amalgamated with the 13th Hussars to form the 13th/18th Hussars the following year.

Battle Honours

• Peninsula, Waterloo, Defence of Ladysmith, South Africa 1899-1902
• The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, La Bassée 1914, Messines 1914, Armentières 1914, Ypres 1914 '15, Gravenstafel, St. Julien, Frezenberg, Bellewaarde, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Cambrai 1917 '18, St. Quentin, Rosières, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1914-18