The regiment was formed from the amalgamation of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars and the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Hohne, West Germany on 24 October 1958. The regiment remained at Caen Barracks in Hohne as an armoured car regiment for 7 Armoured Brigade Group until June 1961 when it returned to the United Kingdom. In October 1961 it sailed on the TS "Oxfordshire" to Aden, reroling as an armoured reconnaissance regiment and after serving there against insurgents for almost a year, it was air-trooped to the newly independent nation of Malaysia. It was based in Ipoh, Malaysia from October 1962, and saw limited action against Indonesian insurgents, seeing service in Brunei and Sarawak on jungle operations during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. Soldiers from the regiment carried out searches for arms to prevent them falling into the hands of communist guerrillas; this included searching private houses.