10th Bengal Lancers

4th Horse (Hodson's Horse) is a part of the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army, which had its beginnings as an irregular cavalry regiment during the time of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Formation

The regiment was raised during the turbulent times of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. During the siege of Delhi, on 19 May 1857, an order was issued by the Commander-in-Chief, Major General George Anson to appoint Lieutenant (later Brevet Major) William Stephen Raikes Hodson as the Commandant of a corps of Irregular Horse, which he was directed to raise, while at Kurnaul.

Hodson sought assistance from Robert Montgomery, Judicial Commissioner of the Punjab. Montgomery asked two Sirdars to raise a rissalah (troop) each, and he raised one himself. The three rissalahs left for Delhi on 23 June 1857 under the command of Man Singh, who was Risaldar-Major of the 1st Regiment from 1866 to 1877. Mr Montgomery sent two more rissalahs on 9 July 1857. The troops were mainly from the Lahore and Amritsar districts of the Punjab.

History

;Indian Rebellion of 1857
The rissalahs sent to Delhi saw their first action on 14 and 18 July 1857 in the Delhi suburb of Sabzi Mandi. The regiment then fought against the rebels on 17 and 18 August at Khurkowdeh and Rohtak.

Following the siege of Delhi, on 20 September 1857, Hodson took 50 men from the regiment, rode to Humayun's Tomb, and captured the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. Hodson returned there the next day and captured the Mughal princes, Bahadur Shah Zafar's sons Mirza Mughal and Mirza Khizr Sultan, and grandson Mirza Abu Bakht. While escorting the princes, Hodson's force was threatened by a large hostile crowd. Rather than let the princes escape, Hodson shot them at the Khooni Darwaza, near the Delhi Gate.

A detachment from Hodson's Horse was sent out on 27 September 1857 to pursue rebels heading for Rohilkhand. The regiment also saw action against the rebels near Agra on 10 October 1857, in Cawnpore, at Alambagh on 12 November 1857, the Siege of Lucknow, against the Gwalior rebels under Tantia Tope, at Gangiri in Aligarh district on 7 December 1857, at the battle at Patiyali, and at Mainpuri. On 25 January 1858, Hodson with 200 of his men and three other British officers were part of a column commanded by Brigadier Adrian Hope against an army of 5,000 rebels encamped at Shamshabad. In the fierce battle, Lieutenant CTM McDowell was killed and Hodson and Lieutenant Charles Gough were badly wounded.

Lieutenant Hugh Henry Gough was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery at Alambagh on 12 November 1857 and at Jellalabad, Lucknow on 25 February 1858. A detachment of the regiment was sent with Colonel Hope Grant’s column from Kanpur to protect the road to Lucknow. They laid siege to a town called Mianganj and cleared the enemy, but lost an Indian officer, Naib-Risaldar Hukm Singh. On 25 February 1858, 374 men of Hodson's Horse were part of a cavalry force at Alambagh led by Colonel Campbell of the Queen's Bays. They were under the command of Lieutenant General Sir James Outram against Begum Hazrat Mahal, the Begum of Oudh (Awadh). This was one of the first occasions where the Hodson's Horse saw fierce action as a complete regiment.

While the regiment remained at Alamagh, Hodson went alone to Lucknow for a meeting with Sir Colin Campbell. Following lunch with him, he joined Brigadier-General Robert Napier who was inspecting a breach in the wall. They became separated and he went to look around the palace with a Captain Taylor. The enemy had been cleared from most parts of the city, but areas remained where rebels were hidden. The two men had a look inside one dark room. which turned out to contain rebels. One of them shot Hodson in the chest. He was conscious, but became weaker and died around 1.30 am that night. He was buried on the evening of 12 March 1858 in the grounds of La Martiniere School in Lucknow.

Following Hodson's death, command of the regiment was given to Henry Daly of the Guides Cavalry. Daly played a major role in reorganising the regiment: more troops were recruited, including Pathans, muster rolls were created, and accounts were organised. The regiment was reorganized into
three regiments: 1st and 2nd Regiment of Hodson's Horse on 26 August 1858, and 3rd Regiment on 9 September 1858. 3rd Regiment was disbanded on 5 January 1860.

On 13 June 1858, the regiment was involved in a fierce battle at Nawabganj under Hope Grant. The regiment lost 3 men and 24 were wounded.

The regiments of Hodson's Horse were involved in multiple smaller conflicts to suppress the mutiny – in Daudpur on 20 October 1858 against the Nasirabad brigade; at Dholpur on 27 October 1858; at Gonda on 25 November 1858 where they routed a large force led by the Rajah of Gonda; at Basantpur on 23 December 1858; at Jarwa Pass on 31 March 1859 and at Lalpur in May 1859.

Name changes

The two regiments of the Hodson's horse went through various changes in their designation before amalgamating into a single unit.
;1st Regiment
*1857 Hodson's Horse
*1858 1st Regiment of Hodson's Horse
*1861 9th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry
*1886 9th Regiment of Bengal Lancers
*1901 9th Bengal Lancers (Hodson's Horse)
*1903 9th Hodson's Horse
*1921 Amalgamated with the 10th Hodson's Horse to form 9th/10th Hodson's Horse
*1922 4th Duke of Cambridge's Own Hodson's Horse
*1927 Hodson's Horse (4th Duke of Cambridge's Own)
*1947 Post-Partition (To India) - Hodson's Horse
*1966 4th Horse

;2nd Regiment
*1857 Hodson's Horse
*1858 2nd Regiment of Hodson's Horse
*1861 10th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry
*1864 10th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry (Lancers)
*1874 10th Regiment of Bengal Lancers
*1878 10th Bengal (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Lancers
*1901 10th (Duke of Cambridge's Own) Bengal Lancers (Hodson's Horse)
*1903 10th Duke of Cambridge's Own Lancers (Hodson's Horse)
*1921 Amalgamated with the 9th Hodson's Horse to form 9th/10th Hodson's Horse

Pre World War

The 9th Bengal Cavalry was stationed at Faizabad, when on 8 April 1862, they were sent to Bhutan with the three squadrons were sent to different places - one squadron with the headquarters went to Jalpaigori, the second to Barhampur, and the third to Raniganj. The regiment returned to Benares in April 1863. The regiment moved on to Cawnpore on 29 April 1863, then to Peshawar from January 1864 till November 1866. The regiment then spent four years at Mian Mir and in 1868, were part of a punitive expedition to the Black mountains in Hazara, but they saw no action. They spent another four years at Deoli, with a detachment at Jhansi, then moved to Meerut on 8 March 1878.

In 1871, the 10th Regiment of Bengal Cavalry fought in Abyssinia. A squadron of the 10th went to Malta with the 9th regiment in 1878 while the rest of the regiment went to Afghanistan. The 9th travelled from Meerut to Bombay by train in April 1878. They were brought up to strength with a squadron from the 10th Bengal Cavalry, making them around 550 men. From Bombay, they embarked for Malta via Aden and Suez. They disembarked at Malta on 6 June 1878 and pitched camp at San Antonio. The 9th/10th were brigaded with the 1st Bombay Cavalry. Whilst in Malta, the force was inspected by the Duke of Cambridge, who bestowed his title on the 10th Bengal Cavalry, which was represented by one squadron. The eventual destination of the forces stationed in Malta was Cyprus, which had been ceded to Britain by Turkey in exchange for their support against Russia. But a day or so before departure for Cyprus, the regiment was prevented from embarking with the rest of the army, because 48 men were poisoned. Three men died in agony and the rest were permanently disabled. As a result, the regiment stayed in Malta until October, when they sailed back to Bombay.

In February 1885, the 9th was ordered to convert to lancers and move off to join the British Army in Sudan. The regiment moved from Wazirabad to Kanpur, where they received lances and related equipment and reached Suakin in March 1885 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel AP Palmer. It saw action in Hashin, Tofrek, Tamai and T'Hakul. The regiment less one squadron left Sudan in June 1885 for Bombay, from where they travelled to Ambala. The 3rd squadron was required to stay in Suakin until 20 November 1885. The 9th stayed at Ambala until 1888, moved to Nowshera until 1891 – where it was part of the ''Buner Field Force'' to ensure the pacification of the Bunerwals. The regiment moved to Peshawar and took part in the durbar and review at Lahore for the Viceroy, Lord Elgin in November 1894. Following this, at Muridki, on the night of 20 December 1894, Daffadar Kartar Singh, bearing a grudge through loss of promotion, shot two officers, Risaldar Kesar Singh and the Commanding Officer, Colonel Ernle Money. He was overpowered, court martialled and publicly hanged on 31 January 1895. Two Sikh officers, who had encouraged the Daffadar were tried in a civil court and sentenced to life.

The 9th were part of the Chitral Relief Force in April 1895 and received the battle honour 'Chitral'. They moved to Rawalpindi in May 1895. Following the re-organisation of 1895, the regiment retained their name and came under Punjab Command. On 10 August 1897, the regiment was ordered to proceed by train from Rawalpindi to Peshawar and became part of the ‘Peshawar column’ of the Tirah Expeditionary Force. Many men and a large number of horses were sent for remount duties to South Africa and many British officers for active service for the Second Boer War. Hodson's Horse was the first Indian regiment to appear and win medals at the Royal Tournament in 1902. The 9th regiment took part in the Rawalpindi Parade on 8 December 1905 to honour the Prince and Princess of Wales.

World War I

On 31 August 1914, 9th Hodson's Horse, located at Ambala, got the orders to prepare to move as part of the 3rd (Ambala) Cavalry Brigade for war in France. Its convoy reached Marseille on 7 November, moved to Orléans

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases