4th Light Horse Regiment (Australia)

4th Light Horse Regiment
4th Light Horse Regiment hat badge
Active	1914–19 1921–44
Country	Australia
Branch	Australian Army
Type	Mounted Infantry
Size	Regiment
Part of	1st Division 4th Light Horse Brigade
Engagements	First World War North African Campaign Gallipoli campaign Western Front Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Battle honours	France and Flanders 1916–1918 Messines 1917 Ypres 1917 Broodseinde Passchendaele Lys Kemmel Marne 1918 Tardenois Gallipoli 1915–1916 ANZAC Defence at ANZAC Suvla Sari Bair Egypt 1915–1917 Palestine 1917–1918 Beersheba El Mughar Nebi Samwill Jerusalem Jordan (Es Salt) Megiddo
Insignia
Unit Colour Patch

The 4th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in August 1914, as the divisional cavalry regiment for the 1st Division. The regiment fought against the forces of the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Western front, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded twenty-one battle honours.

During the inter-war years, the regiment was re-raised as a part-time unit based in the Corangamite region of southern Victoria. It was later converted to a motor regiment during the Second World War but was disbanded in late 1944 without having been deployed overseas. In the post war period, the regiment was re-raised as an amalgamated unit, designated the 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse, which is currently part of the Australian Army Reserve.

On 11 August 1914, the 4th Light Horse Regiment was raised in Melbourne, as the divisional cavalry regiment of the 1st Division. Light horse regiments normally comprised twenty-five officers and 497 other ranks serving in three squadrons, each of six troops. Each troop was divided into eight sections, of four men each. In action one man of each section was nominated as a horse holder reducing the regiment's rifle strength by a quarter. The 4th Light Horse eventually raised five squadrons and later in the war, two of these squadrons were detached to accompany the Australian infantry divisions to France, while the other three remained to the Middle East, serving with the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division.