The 7th Armoured Brigade was an armoured brigade formation of the British Army. The brigade is also known as the "Desert Rats", a nickname formerly held by the 7th Armoured Division, of which the brigade formed a part during the Second World War until late 1941.

The brigade was raised from garrison troops stationed in North Africa in 1938. It was initially known as the Light Armoured Brigade which was part of the Mobile Division in Egypt.

When the Mobile Division became 7th Armoured Division, the Light Armoured Brigade became the 7th Armoured Brigade in February 1940. The 7th Armoured Division had a red jerboa (a nocturnal rodent indigenous to North Africa) as its emblem and became known as "The Desert Rats". The 7th Armoured Brigade, meanwhile, had a green jerboa as its emblem. The 7th Brigade became known as the "Green Rats" or the "Jungle Rats" after it moved to Burma in 1942.

The Second World War broke out in September 1939, with both Britain and France declaring war on Germany after the German Army invaded Poland. Italy launched an invasion of Egypt, then a British Protectorate, shortly after entering the war on Germany's side in June 1940. The brigade fought in many of the major battles in North Africa, including Operation Crusader in November, fighting at Sidi Rezegh to try to relieve the Commonwealth forces in the port of Tobruk, besieged by Axis forces.

It moved to fight in the Burma campaign in early 1942 just as the Imperial Japanese Army were pushing the Allies back. The brigade took part in the fighting retreat to India, successfully completed in May just before the monsoons would have cut them off. The 7th Armoured Brigade returned to the Middle East in 1943, based in Iraq and later Egypt. With Axis forces defeated in North Africa, the brigade's time was a quiet one until it moved to the Italian Front in April 1944 where it remained for the duration of the Second World War; fighting as part of I Canadian Corps, itself part of the British Eighth Army. The brigade, now composed of the 2nd, 6th and 8th Royal Tank Regiments, fought in the final stages of the Battle of Monte Cassino and later the Gothic Line and in Operation Grapeshot, the final offensive in Italy.

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the 7th Armoured Brigade was disbanded and the 22nd Armoured Brigade was re-designated as the 7th Armoured Brigade, based in Germany as part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).

After the 7th Armoured Division was disbanded in 1958, the 7th Armoured Brigade adopted its insignia and nickname, perpetuating the history of the famed division. It was one of two "square brigades" assigned to 1st (UK) Armoured Division when this was formed in 1976. After being briefly converted to "Task Force Alpha" in the late 1970s, the brigade was reinstated in 1981, assigned to the 1st Armoured Division again and was based at Bournemouth Barracks in Soltau.

The 7th Armoured Brigade returned to the desert when it arrived in Saudi Arabia in October 1990 as part of Operation Granby, intended to protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It included the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars and 1st Battalion, The Staffordshire Regiment. The brigade, commanded by Brigadier Patrick Cordingley, later took part in the Coalition of the Gulf War ground campaign to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait on 24 February 1991 that began after a sustained air campaign. The Desert Rats, along with the rest of the 1st Armoured Division, carried out a left-hook manoeuvre that swung round the Iraqi Republican Guard. The brigade advanced deep into Iraqi territory, encountering some armour of the Republican Guard. The ground campaign formally ended on 28 February with the liberation of Kuwait achieved.