4th Queen ' s Own Hussars The 4th Queen ' s Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army , first raised in 1685 . It saw service for three centuries , before being amalgamated into The Queen ' s Royal Irish Hussars in 1958 . The regiment was first raised as The Princess Anne of Denmark ' s Regiment of Dragoons in 1685 , by the regimenting of various independent troops , and ranked as the 4th Dragoons . In 1751 , it was formally titled as the 4th Regiment of Dragoons , and in 1788 named for Queen Charlotte as the 4th ( Queen ' s Own ) Regiment of Dragoons . The regiment was designated light dragoons in 1818 , becoming the 4th ( The Queen ' s Own ) Regiment of ( Light ) Dragoons , and as hussars in 1861 as the 4th ( Queen ' s Own ) Hussars . After service in the First World War , the regiment retitled as 4th Queen ' s Own Hussars in 1921 . The regiment mechanised in 1936 and was transferred to the Royal Armoured Corps in 1939 . The regiment survived the immediate post - war reduction in forces , but was slated for reduction in the 1957 Defence White Paper , and was amalgamated with the 8th King ' s Royal Irish Hussars , to form The Queen ' s Royal Irish Hussars the following year . History . The 4th Hussars fought throughout Wellington ' s Peninsula Campaign and gained distinction in the Afghan War . They participated in one of the most glorious actions of the British Cavalry when they charged with the Light Brigade at Balaclava alongside the 8th Hussars . Private Samuel Parkes was awarded the Victoria Cross during the charge for saving the life of a Trumpeter , Hugh Crawford . The regiment served in France for the duration of the First World War , winning 21 battle honour s and nearly 100 awards for gallantry . They mechanised in 1936 , transferring from their traditional place as Cavalry of the Line to the Royal Armoured Corps and saw extensive action during the Second World War in Greece , the Western Desert ( El Alamein ) and Italy . Second World War . The regiment was posted to The Middle East , arriving on 31 December 1940 . As part of the 1st Armoured Brigade they were attached to the 6th Australian Infantry Division and fought in the Greek Campaign . Fighting as the rearguard in the Corinth Canal Bridge action the regiment was overrun and surrendered losing all senior officers and over 400 men as prisoners of war . In June 1941 the regiment was reconstituted in Cairo and rejoined the 1st Armoured Brigade as part of the 8th Army . Badly mauled during the battles around Gazala and having lost almost an entire squadron ( which was attached to the County of London Yeomanry ) the regiment was temporarily amalgamated with one squadron from the ( similarly depleted ) 8th King ' s Royal Irish Hussars to form the 4th / 8th Hussars . A portent of things to come perhaps as this partnership , along with their previous association with the 8th in the Charge of the Light Brigade made them both ideal candidates for the amalgamation which would follow in 1958 . The regiment fought with distinction in the Italian campaign during the allied advance into the Axis territories . The postwar period . At the end of World War II , the 4th Hussars served in the Malayan Campaign before deploying to Germany and amalgamating with the 8th Hussars at Hohne in 1958 . Winston Churchill . Sir Winston Churchill , ' the Greatest Hussar of them all ' , was commissioned as a Cornet into the 4th Hussars in January 1895 . He later became the Colonel - in - Chief of the Regiment from 1941 until amalgamation and was then Colonel - in - Chief of the Regiment of the new Queen ' s Royal Irish Hussars until his death in 1965 .