Queen's Own Hussars officer's, Silver/gilt cap badge.

Queen's Own Hussars officer's cap badge (one of the long rear loop fixings is slightly bent.)

A very fine quality officer's cap badge of The Queen's Own Hussars, 1958 to 1993.

The galloping White Horse of Hanover is in bright silver plate, with superb detail to the mane and tail. Below is a separately made textured gilt scroll reading THE QUEEN'S OWN HUSSARS, pinned to the body of the badge. Two loops to the reverse. No maker's mark. This silver plate and gilt construction matches the officers' sealed pattern held by the Imperial War Museum. Very good condition.

The White Horse was granted to the 3rd Hussars by King George I in 1715, and the regiment kept it on their cap badge with a new title scroll.

The Queen's Own Hussars were formed at Tidworth in November 1958 by joining the 3rd The King's Own Hussars, raised in 1685, and the 7th Queen's Own Hussars, raised in Scotland in 1690. The 7th were the first British regiment to be called hussars, in 1807. Their battle honours ran from Dettingen in 1743 to El Alamein in 1942. The Queen Mother was Colonel-in-Chief throughout the regiment's life.

A well travelled regiment

1958 to 1960: Tidworth, England, with one squadron sent out to Aden.
1960: Munster, West Germany, as an armoured regiment.
1962: Detmold, West Germany.
1965: Catterick, Yorkshire, while A Squadron became the first Berlin Armoured Squadron, facing the Iron Curtain.
1967: Aden, keeping the fragile peace around Maalla and the waterfront alongside 45 Commando Royal Marines. The regiment won a Military Cross and six Mentions in Despatches.
1968 to 1969: independent squadrons in Singapore, Hong Kong, Cyprus and Maresfield, Sussex.
1970: Hohne, West Germany, with 7th Armoured Brigade, including two tours of Northern Ireland, one in armoured cars and one on foot.
1974: Bovington, Dorset.
1976: Detmold, West Germany, for seven years, with two more Northern Ireland tours.
1983: back to England.
1985: Hohne, West Germany, with 22nd Armoured Brigade, the same year the regiment marked 300 years since 1685.
1990: United Nations peacekeeping tour in Cyprus.
1993: final squadrons serving in Cyprus and as the Maze Prison guard force in Northern Ireland.

On 1 September 1993, at Fallingbostel in Germany, the regiment joined The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars to form The Queen's Royal Hussars, today the British Army's most senior armoured regiment.