The Queen's Own Worcestershire Hussars were formed in 1794, as the Worcestershire Yeomanry, when King George III was on the throne, William Pitt the Younger was the prime minister of Great Britain, and across the English Channel, Britain was faced by a French nation that had recently guillotined its king and possessed a revolutionary army numbering half a million men.

A further Act of Parliament in 1798 permitted local associations to raise additional troops of volunteer cavalry, whose service was restricted to operations within their county.

[2][3][4][5][6] With the threat of a French invasion having receded after the signing of the Peace of Amiens in 1802, the King commended the Worcestershire Yeomanry for their 'honourable distinction in forming an essential part of the defence of the country against a foreign enemy in circumstances of extraordinary emergency'.

In 1818 the Worcestershire Yeomanry were called out to quell a disturbance in Pitchcroft, Worcester, where rioters were pulling down buildings that had been erected on common land, and the special constables had failed to intervene.

The Yeomanry were met with a shower of stones and were glad to retire to the yard of the Star and Garter inn, after which the rioters dispersed peaceably.

The Worcestershire magistrates decided to reform their regiment and it was accepted by the government on 29 April 1831, with the Earl of Plymouth as colonel and Lord Lyttelton as lt-col.

The adjutant was Capt William Emmott, who had enlisted as a Trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, had served with it in the Napoleonic Wars and at Waterloo, and has retire as the regiment's quartermaster.

[9][10][12] Of this service the Commanding Officer (CO) stated: Prevention is the cure we should look to; we do not wish to be called into activity to cause injury to our neighbours, especially circumstanced as we are, and locally known to many of them.

[13] In 1871 control of the yeomanry was taken from the lords lieutenant and they came under the Secretary of State for War; in the Worcestershires the Earl of Dudley and 12 other officers resigned their commissions as a result.

The Worcestershire, Derbyshire and Denbighshire Yeomanry were assigned to the Cavalry Brigade of VI Corps based at Crewe, alongside a Regular Army Royal Horse Artillery battery.

[2] The Worcestershire contingent formed the 16th Company of the 5th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry Cavalry under the command of Colonel Frederick Meyrick.

When they returned in 1903 the Countess presented the regiment with a sprig of pear blossom made by Fabergé, in gold, diamond, rock crystal, and jade, which the unit still bring out on dinner nights.

[2] War was declared in August 1914 and the Worcestershires formed part of the 1st South Midland Mounted Brigade commanded by Brigadier E.A.

Anzac troops, who occupied both Qatia and Oghradine four days later, testified to the ferocity of the battle and paid tribute to the valour and tenacity of the defenders.

This action, in defence of the beleaguered 60th London Division, who were pinned down by Turkish fire, succeeded forcing them to withdraw and resulted in the capture of the guns.

[2] It had become clear during the war that cavalry was obsolete and, in 1922, it was announced that the Worcestershires were to serve as two horsed batteries in the Royal Field Artillery (RFA): 397 at Worcester and 398 at King's Heath, Birmingham.

On 10 May 1940, the German Army's attack started and the BEF moved forwards across the Belgian frontier to take position on the River Dyle.

[2] Lord Gort, commanding the entire BEF, was aware of the possibility of a northward retreat to the coast and used the 48th Division to cover the 28 miles of the La Bassee Canal.

Large enemy losses were inflicted by the 210 Battery together with troops of the 211 in support of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment (of 144th Infantry Brigade) who were holding the town of Wormhoudt.

The Regiment now manned a series of Forward Observation Posts providing information for the Parachute and Commando Brigades against German mortar strongpoints.

[2] In March 1945, the plan for Operation Varsity was to drop two Airborne divisions (the British 6th and US 17th), including the Regiment, behind enemy lines north of Wesel, isolate the industrial Ruhr and disrupt the German rear defences.

[2] The Regiment retrained as infantry to act as a police force, controlling and searching traffic along the north to south roads into Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Their largest operation was to search Tel Aviv in three days, arresting men suspected of subversive activities and discovering hidden dumps of arms.

[40] After the regiment's reformation in the RA, it joined the 88th (Field) Army Group, Royal Artillery based in Shrewsbury, and attached to Western Command.

[43] Following its formation in 1794 the "Worcestershire Troop of Gentlemen and Yeomen" wore red jackets faced in dark blue and silver, with white or buff breeches.

When re-raised in 1831 the Worcestershire Yeomanry adopted a red and white Light Dragoon dress, complete with plumed shako and buff facings.

In 1871 a dark blue hussar uniform heavily embroidered in silver (for officers) or white (for other ranks) braiding, replaced the scarlet dragoon style (se photograph above).

Influenced by Boer War experience, a wide brimmed slouch hat with scarlet "page" band and plume was also worn.

This attempt at modernisation proved unpopular with serving yeomen and by 1908 the dark blue, silver or white full dress had been restored to the regiment.

While battle dress or other standard British Army uniforms were worn after 1938, features such as the by now historic blue and scarlet survived in items such as the field service caps of World War II (see lede illustration above).