WW1 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) Regiment Cap Badge

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The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. In 1840, the regiment was named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, who later became the regiment’s Colonel. During the Napoleonic Wars battle honours were received for Salamanca, Peninsular and Waterloo. The regiment’s nickname, the Cherry Pickers, came from an incident during the Peninsular War, in which the 11th Light Dragoons (as the regiment was then named) were attacked while raiding an orchard at San Martin de Trebejo in Spain. When the regiment became the 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars in 1840, its new uniform by coincidence included “cherry” (i.e. crimson) coloured trousers, unique among British regiments and worn since in most orders of uniform except battledress and fatigues. This was not in memory of the orchard incident but reflected the crimson livery of Prince Albert’s house, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The 11th Hussars charged with the Light Brigade, which was commanded by their former Colonel, Lord Cardigan, at Balaklava during the Crimean War. During the Charge, Lieutenant Alexander Robert Dunn, saved the life of two fellow soldiers from the 11th Hussars, Sergeant Major Robert Bentley and Private Harvey Levett, for which Dunn was awarded the Victoria Cross. Dunn was the first Canadian-born recipient of the Victoria Cross. In the years before World War I, a post card, with a photograph of the 11th Hussars forming an escort through a town, was sent from Sergeant John Kelly, with an extract from the reverse reading “this is the Crown Prince of Germany your honourary Colonel he is in the uniform of the 11th Hussars you will see his ……Guard I further ….. I formed his escort marked 2 man….”.

In 1940, the 11th was located in Egypt when Italy declared war on Britain and France. It was part of the divisional troops of the 7th Armoured Division (known as the Desert Rats). Equipped with obsolete Rolls-Royce and Morris armoured cars, the unit immediately began to conduct various raids against Italian positions during the Western Desert Campaign. The Hussars captured Fort Capuzzo and, in an ambush east of Bardia, captured General Lastucci, the Engineer-in-Chief of the Italian Tenth Army. The 11th Hussars were part of the British covering force when the Italian invasion of Egypt was launched in September 1940. The regiment took part in the British counterattack called Operation Compass that was launched against the Italian forces in Egypt, and then Libya. It was part of an ad hoc combat unit called Combe Force that cut the retreating Tenth Army off near Beda Fomm. Lieutenant-Colonel John Combe was the commander and namesake of Combe Force. The Italians were unable to break through the defensive positions established by Combe Force and surrendered en-masse as the 6th Australian Division closed in on them from their rear. Prior to the Normandy campaign, the 11th Hussars were removed from the division and assigned as a corps-level unit in accordance with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s view that all armoured car regiments would be assigned to corps, not divisions. Later in the European campaign, the regiment reverted to the 7th Armoured Division.

Please see our other items for more original WW1, WW2 & post war British military badges for sale including other 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) Regiment cap badges.