Cap badge 13th Hussars

The 13th Hussars (previously the 13th Light Dragoons) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army whose battle honours include Waterloo and The Charge of the Light Brigade. In 1922, the regiment was amalgamated with the 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars, to form the 13th/18th Hussars.

First World War

The regiment, as part of the Meerut Cavalry Brigade, moved from Meerut in India to France; arriving in Marseilles in 1914. The Meerut Brigade served in the 2nd Indian Cavalry Division where for the next two years the regiment saw action in the western front in France and Flanders. The regiment fought both in the trenches and in their mounted role.

In July 1916, the brigade left the division and moved to Mesopotamia where, together with the 13th Lancers and the 14th Lancers, it formed part of the 7th Indian Cavalry Brigade. The regiment's battle honours include Kut al Amara 1917 and the capture of Baghdad in March 1917. The 13th Hussars also saw action at the last battle of the Mesopotamian front, the Battle of Sharqat, where they made a mounted charge against Turkish guns across a flat plain to the foot of the hill the guns were on before making a further dismounted bayonet charge to take them. The action saw the British regional Commander-in-Chief Sir William Marshall secure control of the Mosul oilfields north of Baghdad.

After the war the army reduced in size. In 1922 the 13th Hussars amalgamated with the 18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary’s Own) to form the 13th/18th Royal Hussars (Queen Mary's Own)).