HISTORY
The 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) from Southern New Brunswick, is Canada’s oldest armoured regiment and will celebrate its 175th year of continuous service to Canada and to New Brunswick on April 4th, 2023.
By a government order dated April 4th, 1848, eleven (11) troops of Southern New Brunswick cavalry, stretching from Sackville and Shediac to Hampton and settlements in between, were brought together to form the New Brunswick Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry. There was urgency! These troops were formed to defend New Brunswick from the effects of American expansionist ideology which grew in intensity after the American Revolutionary War and thrived after the War of 1812 and the US Civil War. The threat was always there. After 1848, the threat was to be met by the 8th Hussars.
From the earliest times the Regiment’s troops were citizen soldiers: landowners, farmers, teachers and business people from Loyalist and Acadian stock who lived along the Petitcodiac River, the Sussex and Kennebecasis Valleys and both Bellisle Bay and Washedamoak Lake. This demographic remains true in today’s 8th Hussars.
In 1872, the name was changed to the 8th Regiment of Cavalry which began the Regiment’s long association with the numeral eight (8). It was derived from New Brunswick’s designation as Canada’s 8th Military District.
But the Regiment’s roots go back long before 1848. In 1774, Colonel John Saunders, living in Princess Anne County in Virginia, raised a troop of cavalry, called “Saunders Horse”. Saunders fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War and his troops were never defeated. After the war, Saunders went to England and married Arianna Chalmers. He became a lawyer and was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick in 1790. The family set sail for Saint John.
Upon arrival in New Brunswick in 1790, and while a judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, Saunders rejoined his cavalry troops which had emigrated to New Brunswick in 1783 as loyalists and founded settlements stretching across Southern New Brunswick. It was from this loyalist stock that the eleven (11) troops of cavalry were merged on April 4th, 1848, to form what is now the 8th Hussars. As a footnote, John Saunders’s grandson, also named John Saunders subsequently became the Commanding Officer of the Regiment and hosted, for many years, the annual training camps on his landholdings in the Kennebecasis Valley below his home at Fox Hill a few kilometres west of Sussex.
Over time, the Regiment went through a number of name changes but since 1872 the designation “VIII” (8th) was always a part of it. Today the Regiment is known as the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s). Southern New Brunswickers who were 8th Hussars fought as members of other units in the Boer War and World War I.
World War II saw the 8th Hussars go to Europe as a full Regiment on February 11th, 1941. The 8th Hussars landed at Naples, Italy on December 17th, 1943, and fought extensively in the Italian Campaign (1943-1945) where the Regiment won eleven (11) battle honours and in Northwest Europe (1945) where it won three (3) more. Battle Honours are awarded to military units which distinguish themselves on the field of battle.
Since the beginning of WWII, the Regiment has lost 80 members in Italy, Northwest Europe and in other locations such as the Sinai and Cyprus, where Canadian Forces have served the cause of peace. Over 20% of the Regiment’s membership served in Afghanistan.
At home, 8th Hussars have been called out to help New Brunswickers during ice storms and on multiple occasions for the Saint John River Valley floods and more recently for service assisting people after hurricanes Dorian and Fiona wrecked havoc in Halifax and other areas. Its members have served southern New Brunswick and Canada continuously since 1783.
In June 1972, HRH The Princess Royal was appointed Colonel-in-Chief of the 8th Canadian Hussars. The 51st anniversary of her appointment as Colonel-in-Chief will occur in June 2023.
The 8th Hussars have served when called upon. They have always been there – and in 2023 it will be 175 years of continuous service to Canada and to New Brunswick. A remarkable feat!
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